© Bob Donnan | 2018 Oct 7
Ol' Ricky's Tales - Norv Turner
Ol’ Ricky has covered 10 Washington coaches, but Norv Turner was his longest relationship of nearly seven years. Ol’ Ricky was a beat writer then, which meant spending every day over half the year together.
Sometimes it got a little testy, but overall, it was time well spent.
Turner arrived in 1994 not long after the Cowboys won their second straight Super Bowl. A crowd of reporters met him at the door of the Ashburn facility. He was never stopping, but we always yell something anyway not to look like sheep.
Somebody yelled, “How was your flight?” We really razzed that TV reporter for such a dumb question. I mean, we get one chance maybe for an answer and that wasn’t the one we wanted answered. But whatever.
Many fans didn’t want Turner. They seriously talked of him being a Cowboys spy. That he signed seven former Cowboys players that season made critics even more sure Norv was secretly sent by Dallas to destroy Washington. A double-secret coach? That takes some paranoia.
It didn’t help that Turner mentioned Troy Aikman a lot. In 1994, the rivalry was still red hot. No Washington fan wanted to hear anything nice about Troy Aikman, much less that he sent Turner's youngest boy a birthday cake that I happened to see one day. (Didn’t get a slice, though.)
Turner quickly stopped talking about the Cowboys and started cursing a blue streak in practices. Now, we were just a couple seasons from Joe Gibbs, whom I can’t remember ever cursing loudly at practice. Maybe he did in the privacy of his office, I don’t know, but never publicly.
Today, cursing is so prevalent nobody would notice, but that soon after Gibbs it was shocking when Norv yelled the f-word. I mean, the training camp crowd would hush. Turner's wife quickly got him to stop in public. In private, Norv was a contender if there was a Super Bowl of cursing. Maybe that’s where I picked up such bad language.
Who did Turner curse at most? Heath Shuler. Whew, the rookie quarterback sure tested Turner's patience. I mean, Norv did go from a hall-of-famer to one of the team’s biggest draft busts ever. That would have tested anyone. Michael Westbrook was a frequent target, too.
Turner wasn’t a very good head coach at first much like most coordinators making the jump. But, over the seven years he did get much better. By the end, Turner knew what he was doing and now had to listen to a rookie owner’s thoughts. Turner called him Mr. Snyder despite being 12 years older than the owner because the latter signed his checks. I get it. It’s why I say, “Yes, Mr. Russell, may I carry your bags?”
So let me fast forward to Turner's exit. The team just lost a winnable game to fall to 7-6 in 2000 with three games remaining. But, it was obvious Turner might get fired the next day so I needed to do some quick footwork after the game.
I decided to play good cop-bad cop using my young partner Jody. He would ask Turner point-blank in the postgame presser if the latter expected to be fired the next day. I knew this would make Norv (and any coach) madder than hell with a denial. Jody, to his credit, didn’t blink. He’s now a partner in a big L.A. consulting company and I couldn’t be prouder of him. If I had a son, it would be Jody.
But I was setting up Norv by being the good guy. He gave me hell in the locker room about Jody’s question not knowing I was behind it. I said I’d take care of it and then got Norv to tell me he did expect to be fired the next day. We talked via phone until after midnight when I updated my story from the press box (eight hours after the game) after Norv told me Snyder said to be there early and the coach wasn’t planning to come until 9 or so. He wanted to anger Snyder.
Sure enough, Norv arrived around 9 and minutes later was fired. He gave a farewell presser, which is more than most coaches.
I haven’t talked to Norv in a few years, but if we cross paths again I’m sure it will be cordial. His son is now the Washington’s offensive coordinator. That 12-year-old ball boy is suddenly a 38-year-old man who looks a lot like his dad. The pandemic has kept me from meeting Scott Turner, but one day we’ll swap stories of his dad.
Tomorrow: Ol’ Ricky remembers some nicknames. Lots of stories in my book and these are the types of tales I’ll tell on my “Pizza and Pigskins Tours” later this summer.
Rick Snider is an award-winning sports writer who has covered Washington sports since 1978. He first wrote about the Washington football team in 1983 before becoming a beat writer in 1993. Snider currently writes for several national and international publications and is a Washington tour guide. Follow Rick on Twitter at @Snide_Remarks.
