Gettin' canned

Fact: The NFL is a business.

Fact: To be successful in this business one must win.

The 2008 NFL season is no different as three coaches were the first down the firing line a day after the regular season finale.

The Jet's Eric Mangini, the Lions Rod Marinelli and the Browns Romeo Crennel were the first three casualties of the 2008 season as all three were fired on Monday.

Although Marinelli and Crennel were no surprise to have been let go after the season ended, the firing of Mangini came, to most New Yorkers, as somewhat of a surprise.

Marinelli just finished an 0-16 season with the Detroit Lions, losing 23 of his last 24 games.

"You can't go 0-16 and expect to keep your job," Marinelli said at a news conference.

The Lions reached history on Sunday as their 31-21 loss to the Green Bay Packers made the Lions the first team since the 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers to go winless in a season, and the first team ever to go 0-16 since the conception of the 16-game schedule in 1978. They showed some hope in 2007 starting the first half of the season 6-2. but then finished the second half of the season 1-7 ending 2007 with a 7-9 record.

"They don't fire players, they fire coaches," Marinelli said.

Romeo Crennel did slightly better than Marinelli in 2008, finishing 4-12, however it's because of the team's lackluster performance that he was fired. Crennel had three years left on his current contract after recieving an extension in January as the Browns went 10-6 in '07, just missing the playoffs.

In his four season with the Browns, Crennel went 24-40 as his team didn't score an offensive touchdown in their last six losses and also poster their fifth 10+ loss season in the last six years.

Crennel isn't to blame for the disappointing season however. Quarterback Derek Anderson was lost for the year after an ACL injury and Brady Quinn was lost shortly after him, forcing Crennel to start Ken Dorsey and sign Bruce Gradkowski for their season finale at Pittsburgh in which the Browns lost 31-0, making Crennel the first full-time Browns head coach to not win agaisnt the Steelers, going 0-8 against them.

And then there's Eric Mangini.

The man who replaced Herman Edwards with New Yorks "Gang Green", Mangini was fired after failing to make the playoffs after starting the 2008 season 8-3.

Mangini started his Jets coaching career by turning the organization around in 2006 by finishing his first year with a 10-6 record, a year after the Jets struggled to reach 4-12.

In 2007 the Jets went back to a 4-12 record, but spent a record $140 million in the offseason to acquire veteran free agents like offensive linemen Alan Faneca and Damien Woody, along with trading for star defensive tackle Kris Jenkins.

And then there was that Favre trade.

However, Mangini couldn't not pull past rival New England this past season, especially a Patriots team without star quarterback Tom Brady, instead losing the AFC East to resurgent Miami.

In the NFL, the "N-F-L" means "Not For Long" if you can't win.

Thus is the case with these coaches.