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Bill Cowher confirms Woody Johnson snub kept him from taking Jets job
BY RICH CIMINI
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER
Wednesday, January 7th 2009, 10:11 AM
Puskar/AP
Bill Cowher made one thing clear Tuesday: He won't be coaching the Jets any time soon.
Bill Cowher, in his first extensive comments about his ill-fated flirtation with the Jets, said Tuesday morning there was a "very, very slim chance" that he would've accepted an offer to the coach the team, but the former Steelers coach confirmed that he wanted to meet with owner Woody Johnson to "get some kind of closure."
Cowher, appearing on WFAN's "Boomer and Carton Show," made like a politician, sidestepping a lot of questions. But he did make one definitive statement: There's no chance he will coach the Jets this season.
Asked if he'd take a meeting with Johnson if the owner called and apologized for not speaking with him last week, Cowher said, "No, not at this point. I've committed myself. I'm not going to coach next year."
As the Daily News reported last Saturday, Cowher withdrew from consideration - several hours after agreeing to speak with the Jets - because he was told Johnson was out of the country and wasn't immediately available. Cowher confirmed that he never spoke with Johnson or GM Mike Tannenbaum.
Johnson's people claim he was willing to speak with Cowher by phone, but we hear that Johnson never even got a message that Cowher wanted to talk to him. The owner, who missed interviews with Brian Schottenheimer, Bill Callahan and Steve Spagnuolo, returned from vacation Monday and will be involved in the remainder of the interviews.
Asked if there's anything Johnson could've said to change his mind about staying with CBS, Cowher said: "Those are hypotheticals. I can't answer that because I don't know. If I was going to close the door to coming back, I wouldn't have listened to anybody and I would've come out and said that.
There's a part of me that is going to listen, but I have an option right now (his CBS job) and I don't want to close the door on that. Realistically speaking, there's probably a very, very slim chance I would even come back this year ... I've tried to stay open-minded throughout the process and I've been willing to listen. I don't want to come across as someone who is smug."
He added, "The Jets never really contacted me until a lot of this flurry took place. When it did, I was respectful. I need to get some kind of closure to the situation, one way or the other because I didn't want it to linger."
Asked if he was scared away by Brett Favre, Cowher said, "No, are you kidding me?"http://tickets.nydailynews.com/NFL.aspx
BY RICH CIMINI
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER
Wednesday, January 7th 2009, 10:11 AM
Puskar/AP
Bill Cowher made one thing clear Tuesday: He won't be coaching the Jets any time soon.
Bill Cowher, in his first extensive comments about his ill-fated flirtation with the Jets, said Tuesday morning there was a "very, very slim chance" that he would've accepted an offer to the coach the team, but the former Steelers coach confirmed that he wanted to meet with owner Woody Johnson to "get some kind of closure."
Cowher, appearing on WFAN's "Boomer and Carton Show," made like a politician, sidestepping a lot of questions. But he did make one definitive statement: There's no chance he will coach the Jets this season.
Asked if he'd take a meeting with Johnson if the owner called and apologized for not speaking with him last week, Cowher said, "No, not at this point. I've committed myself. I'm not going to coach next year."
As the Daily News reported last Saturday, Cowher withdrew from consideration - several hours after agreeing to speak with the Jets - because he was told Johnson was out of the country and wasn't immediately available. Cowher confirmed that he never spoke with Johnson or GM Mike Tannenbaum.
Johnson's people claim he was willing to speak with Cowher by phone, but we hear that Johnson never even got a message that Cowher wanted to talk to him. The owner, who missed interviews with Brian Schottenheimer, Bill Callahan and Steve Spagnuolo, returned from vacation Monday and will be involved in the remainder of the interviews.
Asked if there's anything Johnson could've said to change his mind about staying with CBS, Cowher said: "Those are hypotheticals. I can't answer that because I don't know. If I was going to close the door to coming back, I wouldn't have listened to anybody and I would've come out and said that.
There's a part of me that is going to listen, but I have an option right now (his CBS job) and I don't want to close the door on that. Realistically speaking, there's probably a very, very slim chance I would even come back this year ... I've tried to stay open-minded throughout the process and I've been willing to listen. I don't want to come across as someone who is smug."
He added, "The Jets never really contacted me until a lot of this flurry took place. When it did, I was respectful. I need to get some kind of closure to the situation, one way or the other because I didn't want it to linger."
Asked if he was scared away by Brett Favre, Cowher said, "No, are you kidding me?"http://tickets.nydailynews.com/NFL.aspx
