While the NFL is heading towards its most exciting part of every season the playoffs, the league is also nearing its most darkest day: Black Monday. The day after the regular season ends, some teams that haven’t yet fired their head coach often pull the trigger.
Unfortunately, it’s an annual tradition once the season wraps up. Teams make these decisions from growing tired of a struggling product on the field. However, some firings have shocked the league. They had nothing to do with performance, but rather an interpersonal conflict that arose inside the facility.
Here are the biggest surprise Black Monday firings in league history.
Surprising Black Monday Firings Throughout NFL History
Brian Flores, Miami Dolphins (2021)
Brian Flores not only coached one 10-6 Dolphins team but even got Miami in the late playoff mix in the 2021 season — which saw the ‘Phins go from 1-7 to 9-8.
And “Flo” was still surprisingly fired after the turnaround.
The defensive mind and former Bill Belichick assistant first took over a rebuilding project. It appeared the Dolphins were way ahead of schedule by his second season when Miami won 10 games.
However, franchise quarterback Tua Tagovailoa revealed during the 2023 season with NBC that he felt Flores often put him in awkward leadership situations that he felt got him out of character.
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Soon after, Flores’ relationship with Miami took a controversial turn.
Team owner Stephen Ross was revealed to have contacted Sean Payton about taking over the Dolphins when Flores was still the head coach. That led to Miami losing its 2023 first-round selection for tampering.
Flores later accused Ross of offering $100,000 for purposely tanking in games. He then later sued the Dolphins, New York Giants, and Denver Broncos for racial discrimination in their hiring practices.
The blitz-heavy coach has since resurfaced with the Minnesota Vikings as defensive coordinator.
Jim Harbaugh, San Francisco 49ers (2014)
Jim Harbaugh rose to rockstar-like fame in the Bay Area. Following his successful run at Stanford, he found immediate success for a San Francisco 49ers franchise starving for NFL dominance.
Despite two NFC title game appearances and a Super Bowl trip, Harbaugh still endured a nasty split from the Niners. He learned they were parting ways with him following Week 14 of the 2015 season.
Harbaugh ended up going 44-19-1, which made his dismissal at the time even more shocking. Yet, there were multiple reports of tensions between him and former general manager Trent Baalke.
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Harbaugh still managed to finish out the year before returning to his college alma mater: the University of Michigan. Now, Harbaugh has the Wolverines playing for their first national title since the 1997 season when they face the Washington Huskies on Monday.
Yet, Harbaugh and the NFL re-emerged as a popular pairing after he returned to the league in 2024 as the head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers.
Jim Caldwell, Detroit Lions (2017)
For a franchise that has cycled through head coaches, the dismissal of Jim Caldwell stands out as one of the most puzzling decisions in Detroit Lions history.
Caldwell led the Detroit Lions to two playoff appearances and never endured a truly disastrous season. His lowest point came in 2015 with a 7-9 finish, yet he was surprisingly fired after posting a 9-7 record in 2017.
That decision was made under then-general manager Bob Quinn, who opted to replace Caldwell with former New England Patriots assistant Matt Patricia in hopes of replicating the so-called Patriot Way. The experiment quickly unraveled, as Patricia went 13-29 overall and was dismissed during the 2020 season.
Detroit has since found renewed success under Dan Campbell, capturing the franchise’s first division title since 1993. Caldwell, now 68, remains active in the league and currently serves as a senior coaching advisor to the Carolina Panthers.
Andy Reid, Philadelphia Eagles (2012)
Yes, even Super Bowl–winning coaches have been let go. Andy Reid is a notable example, as he was dismissed before his legendary run with the Kansas City Chiefs.
Before his departure, Reid had built the Philadelphia Eagles into a consistent contender over 13 seasons, highlighted by one NFC title and five appearances in the NFC Championship Game. Despite that sustained success, his final season ended with a 4-12 record, leading Philadelphia to decline his contract rather than renew it.
Since then, the Eagles have reached three Super Bowls, won two of them, including their first championship under former head coach Doug Pederson with the 2017 team.
Speaking of Pederson…
Doug Pederson, Philadelphia Eagles (2020)
Pederson learned firsthand how quickly the NFL can turn into a results-driven league. Despite becoming the first coach to deliver a Super Bowl title to the Philadelphia Eagles, he was dismissed just three seasons later.
After the championship run, Pederson led Philadelphia to consecutive 9-7 finishes, but his final season ended with a 4-11-1 record. That downturn proved enough for owner Jeffrey Lurie to move in a different direction.
Ultimately, the Eagles parted ways with the only head coach to win a Super Bowl in franchise history, closing Pederson’s five-year run in Philadelphia.
Lovie Smith, Chicago Bears (2012)
Well before Lovie Smith was let go during later stops with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Houston Texans, his most confusing dismissal came during his first head coaching opportunity in the NFL.
Although his final season with the Chicago Bears unraveled after a 7-1 start and ended at 10-6, Smith was still fired despite finishing four games over .500 and compiling a strong 81-63 overall record.
Chicago has struggled to replicate that level of success since moving on. Marc Trestman, John Fox, Matt Nagy, and Matt Eberflus have combined for just 71 wins following Smith’s departure, with Nagy being the only one of the group to reach the playoffs more than once.
During his tenure, Lovie Smith delivered four double-digit win seasons in Chicago. Since then, the Bears have managed just one season with double-digit victories.
Mike Shanahan, Denver Broncos (2008)
Much like Pederson in Philadelphia, Mike Shanahan delivered the first Super Bowl championships in franchise history for the Denver Broncos.
Given that success, it would have been reasonable to expect Shanahan to exit on his own terms. Instead, Denver missed the playoffs in each of the final three seasons of his tenure, and he was dismissed after an 8-8 finish in 2008, despite the team having finished below .500 the previous year.
The immediate aftermath brought little stability. Josh McDaniels was hired next and failed to make it through a second full season. John Fox later guided Denver back to the Super Bowl in 2013, but tension with then-general manager John Elway reportedly led to his departure. Fox was replaced by Elway’s former teammate, Gary Kubiak, who went on to win Super Bowl 50.
Since that championship run in the 2015 season, the Broncos have not returned to the playoffs.
Honorable Mentions
While these firings didn’t occur on Black Monday, this next group of dismissals sent shockwaves across the league when it did occur.
Mike Mularkey, Tennessee Titans (2018)
Mike Mularkey had produced his first playoff team in Nashville for the 2017 season. That Titans team went 9-7 and won their opening-round playoff game in Kansas City.
Mularkey, however, received the pink slip following Tennessee’s 35-14 loss to the eventual AFC champion New England Patriots.
Reports at the time were that Mularkey had no intentions of making any coaching staff changes. That comment became a source of much chagrin to owner Amy Adams Strunk and GM Jon Robinson. Mularkey eventually wasn’t welcomed back after the NE loss.
John Fox, Denver Broncos (2014)
As mentioned, Fox had reportedly been experiencing tensions with Elway — which included trying to find a suitable replacement for Peyton Manning.
Fox’s firing, though, came after Denver went 12-4 during the regular season. They would lose to the eventual Super Bowl champion, the Baltimore Ravens, in Denver’s opening-round playoff game.
Fox then went to the Bears but never produced a single winning season there. He was fired following his third straight fourth-place finish in 2017 (he went 5-11 that year).
Marty Schottenheimer, San Diego Chargers (2007)
When a head coach leads his team to a 14-2 regular-season mark, the immediate thoughts are the following: Coach of the Year candidacy or a hefty new contract as a reward.
Marty Schottenheimer, though, received none of those — he was fired after the Chargers’ playoff loss to the Patriots in the Divisional Round of the playoffs. The Chargers began to witness a “dysfunctional situation” between Schottenheimer and GM A.J. Smith, culminating in the shocking removal.
Jimmy Johnson, Dallas Cowboys (1994)
Of course, who can forget the most infamous of post-championship firings?
Jimmy Johnson managed to restore championship order to Dallas alongside owner Jerry Jones. Yet, the two never saw eye-to-eye on everything — and a highly publicized power struggle ensued.
Johnson was eventually fired after Dallas repeated as Super Bowl champions. Nevertheless, three decades later, the two men celebrated the monumental moment of watching Johnson’s name go up on the Cowboys’ Ring of Honor at AT&T Stadium.
