Jim E. Mora

Early life

Born in Glendale, California, Mora became an Eagle Scout in 1950 and was presented the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award as an adult by the Boy Scouts of America. Mora was an all-league end at University High School in Los Angeles and played tight end at Occidental College, where he was a member of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity, and graduated in 1957. His college roommate was Jack Kemp, an all star quarterback with the Buffalo Bills, U.S congressman from New York for 18 years and presidential candidate in 1988. Another teammate was Ron Botchan, who went on to become a successful NFL game official.

Coaching career

Early jobs

Mora became an assistant coach at his alma mater in 1960. He moved up to head coach of Occidental in 1964 and led the team for three seasons, compiling an 18–9 record.

Mora received a master's degree in education in 1967 and left Occidental to serve as an assistant coach at Stanford under John Ralston for the 1967 season. He then spent five seasons at Colorado under Eddie Crowder coaching defensive ends, outside linebackers, and defensive backs, one at UCLA under Dick Vermeil, and three at Washington under Don James. He moved across town to the professional ranks in 1978 as the defensive line coach for the NFL's Seattle Seahawks under head coach Jack Patera. After four seasons, Mora moved to the New England Patriots in 1982 under head coach Ron Meyer.

USFL

The United States Football League came into existence 1983 and Mora became head coach of the Philadelphia Stars (who moved to Baltimore in 1985). During his tenure the team compiled a 48–13–1 (.782) record, appeared in all three USFL championship games and won two of them. Mora was named Coach of the Year in 1984 and is considered by many observers to be the best coach in the short history of the USFL. Six months after the Stars won the 1985 USFL title, Mora was named head coach of the NFL's New Orleans Saints. The USFL was later forced out of business after winning a token award of $3 in an antitrust suit against the NFL.

New Orleans Saints

Mora was hired by new Saints general manager Jim Finks to turn around what had long been reckoned as the most inept franchise in the NFL. The Saints had won only 90 games in their first nineteen seasons, never tallied a winning record, and only twice had reached .500, in 1979 (the only time they finished higher than 3rd in their division) and 1983. Mora spent his first off-season remaking the Saints roster. He convinced several players from the USFL, including some from his Stars, to come to New Orleans. The imports included linebackers Sam Mills and Vaughan Johnson, who went on to form the inside tandem of the legendary "Dome Patrol" linebacking corps with veteran Rickey Jackson and draftee Pat Swilling on the outside. Mora inherited quarterback Bobby Hebert and receiver Eric Martin from Phillips, and drafted running back Reuben Mayes and tackle Jim Dombrowski.

After a 7–9 record his first season, Mora led the Saints to a 12–3 record in 1987. In week 6 of the 1987 season the Saints lost a 24–22 game to the San Francisco 49ers, with Morten Andersen missing a last-second field goal. After the game Mora launched what became known as his "Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda" speech. In his postgame press conference, Mora angrily said the following:

"They're better than we are; we're not good enough. We shouldn't be thinking about beating these 49ers; we shouldn't be talking about it, 'cause the Saints ain't good enough. And you guys shouldn't write about us being a playoff team and all that bullstuff—that's malarkey. We ain't good enough to beat those guys and it was proven out there today. It's that simple. We're not good enough yet. We've got a long way to go; we've got a lot of work to do; we're close, and close don't mean shit. And you can put that on TV for me. I'm tired of coming close, and we're gonna work our asses off until we ain't close anymore, and it may take some time; we're gonna get it done; we aren't in there—we aren't good enough. They're better than us—black and white, simple, fact!

"Could've, would've, should've" is the difference in what I'm talking about! The good teams don't come in and say "Could've." They get it done! All right? It's that simple! I'm tired of saying "Could've, should've, would've." That's why we ain't good enough yet! 'Cause we're saying "Could've" and they ain't!

I'm pissed off right now. You bet your ass I am. I'm sick of coulda, woulda, shoulda, coming close, if only."

Indianapolis Colts

Mora served as a color analyst for NBC in 1997, and he replaced Lindy Infante as head coach of the Indianapolis Colts for 1998. The team struggled to a 3–13 mark in his first year with rookie Peyton Manning learning the ropes at quarterback but had an amazing turnaround to 13–3 in 1999, thanks in large part to the addition of rookie running back Edgerrin James. At the time, this turnaround was the "largest" in NFL history. The Colts lost their first playoff game in the AFC Divisional Playoffs (the team received a first-round bye to advance to the Divisional Playoffs) to the Tennessee Titans, which dropped Mora's all-time NFL postseason record to 0–5.

The Colts finished 10–6 in 2000 and made the playoffs once again, but the team lost a wild-card round playoff game to the Miami Dolphins by a score of 23–17 in overtime. This defeat dropped Mora's overall postseason record to 0–6. Ironically, just hours after Mora lost what would be the sixth and final playoff game of his career, his former team, the New Orleans Saints, won their first-ever playoff game.

On November 25, 2001, after a lackluster five turnover plagued loss to the San Francisco 49ers that dropped the Colts to 4–6, Mora made his famous "playoffs?" tirade. Of the Colts' performance, Mora told the media not to "blame that game on the defense.” Mora cited the five turnovers the Colts' offense made (one of which resulted in a touchdown and three others that set up field position for touchdown-scoring drives) as a cause of the loss, saying that a team that turns the ball over five times in one game is unlikely to beat a high school or college team, "much less an NFL team.”

Later in the press conference, in response to Tim Bragg, a reporter for WRTV, who asked a question about the Colts' chances for making the playoffs, Mora said in a high-pitched, incredulous tone:

"Playoffs? Don't talk about—playoffs?! You kidding me? Playoffs?! I just hope we can win a game! Another game!"

Hampered by a defense that allowed the most points in the league (30.4 per game), Indianapolis only won two more games that year. Some sources believed that Mora could have saved his job if he had fired one (or more) of his coordinators (especially defensive coordinator Vic Fangio), but he refused to do so. Mora was fired after the season and replaced with ex-Buccaneers coach Tony Dungy. Dungy, who served as head coach of the Colts from 2002–2008, made the playoffs in all of his seven seasons with Indianapolis. Along the way, he would lead the team to five straight division titles (2003–07) and a Super Bowl victory (2006).

Coaching philosophy

Mora favored a conservative approach to the game, relying on a strong running game and solid defensive play. Perhaps more than any other teams, the Saints teams of the late 1980s embodied his coaching style. Those teams were led by the "Dome Patrol" linebacking corps. This unit, consisting of Rickey Jackson, Sam Mills, Vaughan Johnson, and Pat Swilling, became known as one of the best four-man linebacking corps in NFL history. Those same Saints teams also had a strong running game, mostly led by Rueben Mayes and Dalton Hilliard, as well as a conservative but efficient passing game led by quarterback Bobby Hebert and wide receiver Eric Martin. During his time as the Colts' head coach, Mora was able to benefit from having an explosive, more potent offense, featuring quarterback Peyton Manning, running back Edgerrin James, and wide receiver Marvin Harrison. Manning, James, and Harrison have all earned induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

In Mora's 11 seasons with the Saints, he won 55.6% of his games for a team that had never recorded a winning record prior to his arrival. And during his four seasons with the Colts, he built a then-struggling team into a respectable playoff contender. Despite his overall solid regular season record coaching both the Saints and Colts (125–106), the biggest criticism of Mora has been his teams' inability to win any playoff games in six appearances. His critics, both among fans and media reporters, often blamed his lack of success in the postseason to his conservative approach.

Critics continued to argue that this conservative approach prevented his teams from closing out big games against good teams, like the Marty Ball approach Marty Schottenheimer used during his coaching career. The most frequent complaint was that his teams' offenses would no longer be aggressive late in these football games. They accused him of trying to run out the clock and not make mistakes and over-relying on his defense to hold the lead (instead of trying to build on the lead and score more points). Critics argued that this aspect of his conservative strategy backfired on him. They point to the fact that his teams had second half leads in four of his six playoff games, but they won none of them. In three of those games, Mora's teams had leads in the fourth quarter.

Another factor that worked against Mora during his coaching career with the Saints was how his team played in the NFC West with the San Francisco 49ers during their dynasty era and earlier in his tenure a strong LA Rams outfit. Twice his Saints team recorded twelve wins without winning the division. Another time, his Saints went 10–6 and still missed the playoffs.

Head coaching record

Life after coaching

In 2003, Mora became an on-air analyst for NFL Total Access, the primary analysis show on the newly launched NFL Network.

Mora was a sports radio commentator for Fox Sports Radio's GameTime Saturday and GameTime Sunday with Dan Moriarty. On Thanksgiving Thursday, November 23, 2006, Mora made some critical comments about the Atlanta Falcons' quarterback Michael Vick which became controversial because the Falcons were coached at the time by Mora's son, Jim L. Mora. Craig Shemon of Fox Sports Radio called Vick a "coach killer" and Mora quickly agreed with that assessment, saying that Vick was not a good passer and expressing concern for his son's prospects of keeping his head coaching job while the popular Vick was the team's quarterback (The younger Mora was indeed fired a month later).