It’s amazing to me that certain teams wait until today — the official end of the NFL regular season — to start firing coaches. What good reason was there to let Romeo Crennel hang around in Cleveland? Or Rod Marinelli in Detroit? Sure, Mike Singletary — after leading the 49ers to respectability only a few short weeks after dropping his drawers in front of the team — proves the exception to the rule, but for the most part it seems odd to let coaches hang around.

Of course, all of that is for naught now that Marinelli, Crennel and Eric Mangini of the Jets have been canned. Briefly, why:

• Marinelli — The Lions went 0-16, which is, um, not “good.” He might not have completely deserved to get fired (the totality of blame lies on Matt Millen) but a full house cleaning is what’s best for a franchise in this kind of despair. See: Dolphins, Miami or Falcons, Atlanta.
• Crennel — The Browns became the Seattle Mariners of the NFL, falling back to Urf in the most speedy of fashions. Crennel stuck with Derek Anderson too long, Braylon Edwards can’t catch the ball, but mostly, he’s a very, very bad game manager. That’s not a trait you want in your head coach.
• Mangini — An inexplicable love for Brett Favre by Woody Johnson. Sure, he’s a grizzled, Wrangler-ensconced gunslinger. We get that.  And sure, Mangini spent the last month coaching with two hands around his neck, but it’s just ridiculous to fire him while taking Favre’s side.

So, yeah. Things got off with a bang today — it’s only noon and three guys already lost their jobs, obv — and I kind of have to wonder why the mess we’re not talking about Lovie Smith in the same “coaches who could get canned” breath.

Lovie took this team to a Super Bowl just a few years ago, and I understand that such a feat gives anyone a little cushion. But to say the Bears underperformed this year would be a gross misrepresentation of their expectations. Sure, they are/were an average team. Not a world champion by any means. But had certain things (kick the football against the Vikings on 4th and 1, just beat the Texans) been handled better, the Bears are in the playoffs and people are talking about what a fantastic job Smith did with such a potentially underachieving squad this year.

Of course, maybe I’m being too hard on Smith — after all, the Bears simply turned out to be exactly who we thought they were: average at best.