He doesn’t get any respect from his cardinals.
His players have little regard for St. Louis owner Bill Bidwill, and the team is disintegrating. COACH DON CORYELL AND ALL-PRO GUARD CONRAD DOBLER ARE OUT. Terry Metcalf may be the next defector.
A new ceiling has been installed over the hallway leading to the St. Louis Cardinals’ coaches’ offices at Busch Memorial Stadium. A leak caused the old ceiling to fall on December 10. That day, St. Louis lost more than just its roof. The Cardinals were causing leaks all over the place. Following a 26-20 loss to Washington that destroyed his team’s postseason aspirations, St. Louis Coach Don Coryell launched a verbal attack on local fans and Cardinals management. “I’m not staying in a place where I’m unwanted,” Coryell shouted. “I’d like to get fired. Let me get a high school job.”
Last Friday, two months to the day after Coryell’s outburst, the Cardinals addressed one of its leaks by declaring that Coryell would no longer be the coach as a result of a “mutual agreement” between Coryell and team owner Bill Bidwill. Unfortunately, Bidwill’s patchwork was less neat than the craftsmanship on the ceiling. The Cardinals, who had been one of the NFL’s most successful and entertaining teams under Coryell, have been in upheaval for the past two months, and the once-dazzling Cardiac Cards are now known as the Chaotic Cards.
Coryell, for example, had claimed that Bidwill’s tightfistedness in salary concerns had left him with a large number of dissatisfied players. In fact, 12 Cardinals, including infamous fumbler Terry Metcalf, have defied Bidwill’s austerity by becoming free agents. Everyone is actively shopping their services to other teams. Wide receiver Ike Harris, a potential free agent, was sent down the river to New Orleans, along with unhappy All-Pro guard Conrad Dobler, who wanted to be traded after Bidwill refused to renegotiate his contract.In exchange for Harris and Dobler, St. Louis received Bob Pollard, a defensive end known as Captain Crunch (when known at all), and guard Terry Stieve. Coryell, the coach at the time, learned about the transaction via a local newspaper. The transaction appears to be so lopsided in favor of New Orleans that it has destroyed the Cardinals’ remaining credibility.
Coryell had repeatedly chastised the Cardinals for not giving him a say in collegiate draft picks. “Coaches should have a say in who they will coach,” Coryell said, “because if a team doesn’t win, it’s the coach who gets fired.” In 1977, the Cardinals, who were explosive on offense but weak on defense, used their first two draft picks on quarterback Steve Pisarkiewicz and running back George Franklin. Pisarkiewicz and Franklin didn’t play a single down last season. Franklin injured his knee during training camp, so Pisarkiewicz sat on the bench behind regular quarterback Jim Hart and backup Bill Donckers, prompting one St. Louis reporter to remark, “Pisarkiewicz was the first redshirt in NFL history.”
By itself, the draft is a worrying reflection of the inadequacy of St. Louis’ personnel department. Over the last five years, fewer than half of the Cardinals’ top five draft picks have remained with the team, and only two of their eight first-round picks from the 1970s—tight end J. V. Cain and defensive tackle Mike Dawson—are starters.
Coryell and Bidwill were not speaking terms at the time Bidwill announced his “mutual agreement”. On January 10, their long-running rivalry turned into a quiet war. The coach and owner were set to meet that day to resolve Coryell’s situation, and the press had been notified. Coryell, on the other hand, stood up to Bidwill by flying to Los Angeles in search of the Rams’ then-vacant head coaching position. Coryell contacted Bidwill from the St. Louis airport and informed him of his itinerary. “I didn’t wish him bon voyage,” Bidwill says. The enraged Bidwill then denied Coryell permission to visit San Diego, where he had discovered him coaching on the campus of San Diego State and where bumper stickers read: CORYELL FOR THE CHARGERS.
Bidwill later dashed Coryell’s aspirations for the Rams position by saying that he would not release Coryell from the final three years of his St. Louis contract unless the Rams provided the Cardinals the No. 1 draft pick. This threat irritated Coryell. “The Rams have a spot for a No. 1, and he’s faster than me,” he said.
As the words flowed, Bidwill had the Cardinal offices’ locks altered to keep Coryell out and the assistant coaches from dispersing to other teams with Cardinal game plans. Of course, they could obtain the college draft lists.
Strangely, these same Cardinals had every right to be dreaming of the Super Bowl on November 20 after defeating Philadelphia 21-16 for their sixth consecutive victory. Their record was 7-3, they had defeated Dallas, and they appeared to have clinched the NFC’s wild-card playoff spot. But then St. Louis lost 55-14 to Miami on Thanksgiving Day and 27-7 to the New York Giants ten days later, making the game against the Redskins on December 10 a “must win” if the Cardinals wanted to make the playoffs for the third time in four years.
Coryell’s wife Aliisa, who had never been pleased with the family’s transfer from hot-weather San Diego to the unpredictable climes of St. Louis, exited the stadium at halftime, claiming she could no longer handle the supporters’ hateful comments about her husband. Coryell’s 16-year-old daughter Mindy attempted to strike a fan who made disparaging remarks about her father. After losing to Washington, Coryell stewed for several hours before calling a local reporter and blowing up.
