He really fired himself before Leon Hess and the New York Jets could do the honors. He entered the final week of the 1996 season as the head coach who put forth one of the worst two-year stretches in NFL history, knowing full well he was riding off into the dead of the night’s darkness. (After all, sunsets are for heroes, champions, and the Peyton Manning-greeting-Papa John and John Elway‘s-last-hurrah-type situations.)
Rich Kotite waved his left hand at Giants Stadium Dec. 22, 1996, only to be rarely seen in the public eye again.