Partings

And so the calendar turns over again, and here we are in 2018. It's a time when we resolve to be better human beings, at least until January runs out. It's a time when the National Football League puts a cork in another season, and coaches get called into the office to be told their services will no longer be needed.

A new year. An old theme.

Goodbye, then, to Chuck Pagano, who's been a dead man walking since the Indianapolis Colts brought in Chris Ballard as their new general manager last spring. Some stuff happened in the interim, most of it bad, not all of it Pagano's fault. He's not the one, after all, who broke Andrew Luck. He is the one who presided over a 4-12 season only made worse by beating the Texans on Sunday, a nice auld lang syne moment that nonetheless cost the Colts a spot on draft day.

Jim Caldwell had the Suck For Luck season. Pagano had ... a nice auld lang syne moment against the Texans.

And speaking of Jim Caldwell ...

The Lions greeted 2018 by pink-slipping him, too, a somewhat more curious move. For whatever faults he has, Caldwell did manage to squeeze three winning seasons out of his allotted four, including 9-7 this year. He also got them to the playoffs twice in four years, losing in their first game both times.

This doesn't sound like a lot until you realize it's the Lions, one of the NFL's chronic losers. Caldwell's four-year record of 36-28 represents the highest regular-season winning percentage (.563) for any Lions coach in the Super Bowl era. Until Caldwell came along, the Kitties had seen the postseason just once in the new millennium, and they'd put up just two winning seasons in that same span.

And if they lost both playoff games under Caldwell ... well, that was simply a matter of playing to type for a franchise that hasn't won a playoff game in 26 years.

Lions management clearly thinks that's not acceptable anymore, a good thing for everyone but Caldwell. Mediocrity apparently will not suffice anymore. It has, after all, been 60 years since the Lions last won an NFL title. Bobby Layne 'n' them was a long time ago.

And so, out Caldwell goes. Out Pagano goes. It's New Year's Day, after all, when everyone resolves to do better.

Even if you're the Lions.

Update: Bears have turned the page, too.