While the NFL is heading towards its most exciting part of every season the playoffs, the league is also nearing its most darkest day: Black Monday. The day after the regular season ends, some teams that haven’t yet fired their head coach often pull the trigger.
Unfortunately, it’s an annual tradition once the season wraps up. Teams make these decisions from growing tired of a struggling product on the field. However, some firings have shocked the league. They had nothing to do with performance, but rather an interpersonal conflict that arose inside the facility.
Here are the biggest surprise Black Monday firings in league history.
Surprising Black Monday Firings Throughout NFL History
Brian Flores, Miami Dolphins (2021)
Brian Flores not only coached one 10-6 Dolphins team but even got Miami in the late playoff mix in the 2021 season — which saw the ‘Phins go from 1-7 to 9-8.
And “Flo” was still surprisingly fired after the turnaround.
The defensive mind and former Bill Belichick assistant first took over a rebuilding project. It appeared the Dolphins were way ahead of schedule by his second season when Miami won 10 games.
However, franchise quarterback Tua Tagovailoa revealed during the 2023 season with NBC that he felt Flores often put him in awkward leadership situations that he felt got him out of character.
MORE: 2025 Black Monday Tracker
Soon after, Flores’ relationship with Miami took a controversial turn.
Team owner Stephen Ross was revealed to have contacted Sean Payton about taking over the Dolphins when Flores was still the head coach. That led to Miami losing its 2023 first-round selection for tampering.
Flores later accused Ross of offering $100,000 for purposely tanking in games. He then later sued the Dolphins, New York Giants, and Denver Broncos for racial discrimination in their hiring practices.
The blitz-heavy coach has since resurfaced with the Minnesota Vikings as defensive coordinator.
Jim Harbaugh, San Francisco 49ers (2014)
Jim Harbaugh rose to rockstar-like fame in the Bay Area. Following his successful run at Stanford, he found immediate success for a San Francisco 49ers franchise starving for NFL dominance.
Despite two NFC title game appearances and a Super Bowl trip, Harbaugh still endured a nasty split from the Niners. He learned they were parting ways with him following Week 14 of the 2015 season.
Harbaugh ended up going 44-19-1, which made his dismissal at the time even more shocking. Yet, there were multiple reports of tensions between him and former general manager Trent Baalke.
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Harbaugh still managed to finish out the year before returning to his college alma mater: the University of Michigan. Now, Harbaugh has the Wolverines playing for their first national title since the 1997 season when they face the Washington Huskies on Monday.
Yet, Harbaugh and the NFL have re-emerged as a popular pairing for the upcoming 2024 head coaching hiring cycle. Harbaugh’s name has been linked to the Las Vegas Raiders and Los Angeles Chargers openings.
Jim Caldwell, Detroit Lions (2017)
For a team that’s gone through a litany of head coaches, Jim Caldwell’s firing was arguably the most perplexing in franchise history.
Caldwell took the Lions to two total playoff appearances. His worst season was 7-9 in 2015, yet he was fired after going 9-7 in 2017.
Then-Lions general manager Bob Quinn didn’t help matters for Detroit. He decided to replace Caldwell with his past New England Patriots colleague Matt Patricia, clearly going with the belief they could recreate the Patriot Way in Detroit. That imploded quickly as Patricia went 13-29 overall and was eventually fired during the 2020 season.
Detroit has since rebounded under Dan Campbell by winning the franchise’s first division title since 1993. The 68-year-old Caldwell, meanwhile, is currently serving as special advisor to the Carolina Panthers.
Andy Reid, Philadelphia Eagles (2012)
Yes, even Super Bowl winners have been fired from their jobs. Andy Reid, however, was canned before his run of titles with the Kansas City Chiefs.
Furthermore, Reid had turned the Eagles into a perennial playoff contender in his 13 seasons — which included one NFC title and five trips to the NFC Championship Game.
Still, Reid’s final Eagles team fell to 4-12, and Philadelphia decided not to renew his contract.
Since then, Philly has gone to two Super Bowls, including former head coach Doug Pederson taking the 2017 team to their first victory in the big game.
Speaking of Pederson…
Doug Pederson, Philadelphia Eagles (2020)
Pederson discovered how the league can become a “what have you done for me lately” type of atmosphere. Even after becoming the first head coach to lead Philly to its first Super Bowl win, he would eventually be fired three seasons later.
Following the Super Bowl, Pederson produced back-to-back 9-7 seasons. His last Eagles team succumbed to a 4-11-1 mark. That campaign was enough for owner Jeffrey Lurie to make a change.
But in the end, the Eagles were parting ways with their only Super Bowl-winning head coach, who ended up lasting five seasons in the City of Brotherly Love.
Lovie Smith, Chicago Bears (2012)
Long before Lovie Smith was fired at his next two stops with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Houston Texans, he had his most bewildering firing at his first NFL head coaching gig.
Granted, his final Bears team unraveled by finishing 10-6 overall after a 7-1 start. Still, Smith was fired after finishing four games above .500 and posting a solid 81-63 overall record.
Chicago hasn’t found much success post-Smith. Marc Trestman, John Fox, Matt Nagy, and now Matt Eberflus have combined to win just 71 games after Smith’s firing. Of the four, only Nagy has produced two playoff teams.
Smith also produced four double-digit winning teams in the Windy City, while Chicago has only had one double-digit winning record since.
Mike Shanahan, Denver Broncos (2008)
Much like Pederson’s situation, Mike Shanahan brought this franchise their first Super Bowl championships.
One would think a head coach would leave on his own terms by creating the first championship run in organization history. The Broncos, though, missed the playoffs in the final three seasons of the Shanahan era. Still, Shanahan was dismissed following an 8-8 mark in 2008, even though the previous Broncos team was sub-.500 at the end of the year.
Denver didn’t attain much success right after Shanahan. Josh McDaniels was hired and didn’t last his second season. John Fox got Denver back to the Super Bowl in 2013 but had his reported clashes with then-general manager John Elway. Fox was eventually replaced by Elway’s former teammate Gary Kubiak and won Super Bowl 50.
The Broncos haven’t returned to the playoffs since that 2015 season run.
Honorable Mentions
While these firings didn’t occur on Black Monday, this next group of dismissals sent shockwaves across the league when it did occur.
Mike Mularkey, Tennessee Titans (2018)
Mike Mularkey had produced his first playoff team in Nashville for the 2017 season. That Titans team went 9-7 and won their opening-round playoff game in Kansas City.
Mularkey, however, received the pink slip following Tennessee’s disaster 35-14 loss to the eventual AFC champion New England Patriots.
Reports at the time were that Mularkey had no intentions of making any coaching staff changes. That comment became much to the chagrin of owner Amy Adams Strunk and GM Jon Robinson. Mularkey eventually wasn’t welcomed back after the NE loss.
John Fox, Denver Broncos (2014)
As mentioned, Fox had his reported tensions with Elway — which included trying to find a suitable replacement for Peyton Manning.
Fox’s firing, though, came after Denver went 12-4 during the regular season. They would lose to the eventual Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens in Denver’s opening-round playoff game.
Fox then went to the Bears but never produced a single winning season there. He was fired following his third straight fourth-place finish in 2017 (he went 5-11 that year).
Marty Schottenheimer, San Diego Chargers (2007)
When a head coach leads his team to a 14-2 regular-season mark, the immediate thoughts are the following: Coach of the Year candidacy or a hefty new contract as a reward.
Marty Schottenheimer, though, received none of those — he was fired after the Chargers’ playoff loss to the Patriots in the Divisional Round of the playoffs. The Chargers began to witness a “dysfunctional situation” between Schottenheimer and GM A.J. Smith, culminating in the shocking removal.
Jimmy Johnson, Dallas Cowboys (1994)
Of course, who can forget the most infamous of post-championship firings?
Jimmy Johnson managed to restore championship order to Dallas alongside owner Jerry Jones. Yet, the two never saw eye-to-eye on everything — and a highly publicized power struggle ensued.
Johnson was eventually fired after Dallas repeated as Super Bowl champions. Nevertheless, three decades later, the two men celebrated the monumental moment of watching Johnson’s name go up on the Cowboys’ Ring of Honor at AT&T Stadium.