The current Cincinnati Bengals running back coach was nearly a General Manager. That's what Hue Jackson told Jim Trotter with Sports Illustrated in an expose that details Hue's self-imposed crash from head coaching that began from scratch in 2012 as an assistant defensive backs coach for Cincinnati.
What happened, asked Trotter:
"Sometimes these things are about comfort hires," said one executive. "It's hard to hire a very confident individual that has stepped out of the box, so to speak, which Hue has on occasion. When head coaches are making that hire, they're going to be a little cautious because they feel he might threaten their position. You have some who don't hire someone who's more qualified and might take their job and hurt their credibility. The people who are successful in this business don't think that way, but you have some who do."
General Managers around the NFL, Trotter writes, marked his exit and possible final game as a head coach to the post-game press conference during the 2011 regular season finale that narrowly missed the postseason.
It remains something that he regrets.
"I will never make that mistake again in terms of the way that I spoke, but I wasn't how I was portrayed, like I was throwing everybody under the bus, that I wanted to be the general manager, that I wanted to be this or that," he said recently. "People would have had to have lived in my shoes that year, or since I was hired, to know what I was going through. If I could, I'd do it differently. My intentions were not to come off like I was the end-all or be-all, as some people have told me I did."
At one point during the story, Jackson claimed that former owner Al Davis offered Jackson the position of general manager, which he declined because of his love for coaching.
So there's that.