Jun 29th 2008 5:26PM by Michael David Smith (author feed)
Filed under: 49ers, Lions, NFL Coaching, Detroit, San FranciscoI think Steve Mariucci is a very good coach, one who deserves another chance at running an NFL team. He was successful with the 49ers, and although he was unsuccessful with the Lions, let’s face it: Vince Lombardi couldn’t win with the collection of stiffs Matt Millen has assembled in Detroit.

So I was glad to see that Mariucci hasn’t shut the door on returning to coaching, even though the possibility may be remote:
“The right situation may never present itself again,” Mariucci said, “because we’ve decided as a family not to move anymore. We are back in northern California in our home and we settled back in. I’ve moved my wife 18 times, and I don’t want to move again, nor does she. Our home base is going to be in the Bay Area. It’s that simple.
“For me to coach again, it either has to be on the West Coast or I would have to commute.”
I’m not even sure what “commute” would mean for an NFL coach. Coaches hardly see their families even when they live in the same city. So if Mariucci is serious about not uprooting his family and doesn’t want to be apart from them, his options are basically a return to Cal or the 49ers, or the Raiders, or Stanford. I hope one of those options presents itself.