Where is Terrell Davis?

At the beginning of last week, amidst the obvious firings of NFL coaches after the regular season's conclusion, many were shocked to hear that Denver Broncos head coach Mike Shanahan would be joining the group of dismissed coaches.

Shanahan, who falls under the Bill Walsh coaching tree, won back to back Super Bowls in 1997 and 1998 and kept the Broncos fairly relevant for an extended period of time including four playoff appearances...three of which ended in the Wild Card Round.

But this Shanahan situation is something very similar to what we've seen already in the past few months. Shanahan has created a level of expectancy in Denver and throughout the state of Colorado. The Broncos are revered as one of the most competitive teams in the NFL. He has a really nice young quarterback, or so it seems and his years of putting anyone in the backfield and them running for 1,000 yards seems like a time period that's gone.

So there are plenty of folks who are confused and upset about this firing. But for it's explanation, look no further than 180 miles due east of where I'm sitting right now. Shanahan's firing is exactly like that of Phil Fulmer's firing at Tennessee. It comes down to what are you doing for me lately. It comes down to building a program/franchise to a level where mediocrity is simply unacceptable. It comes down to the fact that championships can only buy you so much time.

I'm not going to put it up here, but understand that the Vols and the Broncos have had a lot in common. A lot of, not living up to expectations. So, like in any other job, you have to identify the issue and fix it. In this case, I believe that the records are not in Shanahan's favor, just as they weren't in the favor of Fulmer. Not to mention, this year Denver completely flopped.

You can only build these things up for so long before nothing can be done to save yourself. And exactly what happened to Fulmer is what's happened to Shanahan. Maybe he'll go back to the 49ers as the OC. That would be nice.