Mike Munchak could have kept his job as coach of the Tennessee Titans if he was willing to acquiesce to management's requests to fire his assistant coaches. Munchak had no intentions of coaching under someone else's plan.
"I can't fire someone when I don't believe they should be fired. Firing someone is awful. Too many people were going to be affected,'' Munchak told The Tennessean's Jim Wyatt on Sunday. " ... For me to maintain a job and a lot of guys lose jobs on a plan I didn't think was right, I couldn't do that.
"I'll make tough decisions, but not if they're not right."
Replacing at least a handful of assistants would have retained Munchak's job -- with a contract extension, Wyatt reported. Those coaches included offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains, defensive coordinator Jerry Gray, offensive line coach Bruce Matthews and linebackers coach Chet Parlavecchio.
Munchak pointed out that he's made coaching changes before, but only wanted to make the changes he believed made sense for the team. It went beyond a disagreement of who would keep his job, according to the coach.
"It's not like 'Munch isn't here anymore because he wouldn't fire two guys.' In my eyes, that's not what we disagreed on," Munchak said. "There was more to it than that. Obviously they made it easy. They fired all of us so they could start over."
Munchak was employed with the organization since the Houston Oilers drafted the Hall of Fame lineman in 1982. He spent three seasons as the Titans' coach, ending with a 22-26 record.
Munchak knows it could be his final opportunity in the NFL.
"I wanted to be here," he said. "I have been here for over 30 years. These jobs are hard to come by. I know the chance of me being a head coach again in the NFL aren't that great. Most guys get one shot at it. But I wanted to do it with the right people, and do it the right way."
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