Hip hip hooray! Jim Zorn is a head coach again.
The former Redskins boss, who was fired in January 2010 and replaced by Mike Shanahan after going 12-20 over two seasons in Washington, was introduced Monday by XFL Commissioner and CEO Oliver Luck as head coach and general manager of the relaunched league’s Seattle franchise. The job is a homecoming of sorts for Zorn, who spent the first nine years of his NFL career as a quarterback with the Seahawks and later served as a Seattle assistant coach,
“I want to thank Oliver for introducing me,” Zorn, 65, said at Monday’s news conference. “One of the reasons that I’ve accepted the position here is because he said that he had a son named Andrew Luck and we have the first shot at him."
Jokes aside, Zorn made a better first impression than he did at his introductory news conference with the Redskins in February 2008, when he referred to the franchise’s colors as “maroon and black.” There was no danger of Zorn making a similar mistake Monday; names, logos, color schemes and uniforms for the XFL’s eight teams have yet to be announced. The league, which is owned by WWE CEO Vince McMahon, is scheduled to begin play in the spring of 2020. D.C.'s franchise introduced former Howard quarterback Pep Hamilton as its coach and GM last week.
“I’m thrilled to be heading back to the sidelines, and I thank Vince McMahon and Oliver Luck for this opportunity,” Zorn said in a statement. “It’s not often that on the professional level a head coach also gets to choose his players, so this situation is truly unique. I’m looking forward to working with my coaches and staff to field a competitive, top-flight team for the amazing and loud football fans of the Pacific Northwest.”
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The Redskins hired Zorn to replace three-time Super Bowl champion Joe Gibbs after Gibbs retired for a second time after the 2007 season. Washington originally seemed poised to hire former Giants coach Jim Fassel, but the front office reversed course after many fans expressed outrage with the pending move.
In 2015, Fassel said that Redskins GM Vinny Cerrato convinced owner Daniel Snyder to hire Zorn instead, and that Zorn, who had spent the previous seven years introducing quirky drills as the Seahawks’ quarterbacks coach, was “no more ready for that job than the Man in the Moon.”
The Redskins started 6-2 in Zorn’s first season, during which Zorn’s “hip hip hooray!” chant became the team’s rallying cry. Washington finished 8-8, and Redskins running back Clinton Portis said last year that the chant actually divided the locker room.
Washington slumped to 4-12 in Zorn’s second and final season with the Redskins, including a 45-12 loss to the Giants on “Monday Night Football” in December that featured one of the lasting legacies of his tenure — the failed “Swinging Gate” play.
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Zorn served as quarterbacks coach for the Ravens in 2010 and the Chiefs in 2011 and 2012. In 2015, he coached the West team in the East-West Shrine Bowl, a college all-star exhibition.
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