Legendary former NFL offensive lineman Joe Thomas has ripped into the Indianapolis Colts for hiring their former player and current ESPN analyst Jeff Saturday as their head coach.
The Colts fired Frank Reich after an extremely difficult season for the Colts, who have a 3-5-1 record whilst having one of the worst offenses in the NFL after making quarterback changes for the fifth consecutive season.
Reich was ultimately let go after four-and-a-half seasons as head coach, leaving with a 40-33 record, but with the team on a rapidly decline and looking in need of a rebuild of their roster for future success.
Many had assumed Reich would remain in charge until the end of the season, with a decision being made at the close of play, but Colts owner Jim Irsay decided to pull the plug on Reich and make a move immediately, controversially hiring Saturday, who has only ever coached a local high school team before, and has no NFL or college football coaching experience.
It was a baffling move, which Irsay made even more questionable when he admitted he was on the phone to Saturday during last weekend's game, in a loss to the New England Patriots, before stating that Saturday would be fit for the job 'because he has no experience'.
Former Cleveland Brown superstar Joe Thomas stated that when he heard the news, he thought it was a joke.
Speaking on Good Morning Football, he said: "When you hire your drinking buddy to be the head coach of an NFL football team, it is one of the most disrespectful things I’ve ever seen in my entire life to the commitment, the lifestyle and the experience that it takes to be an NFL coach, any coach, much less the head coach of the Indianapolis football Colts.
"You have got to be kidding me that this is something that Jim Irsay and Jeff Saturday, who’s not blameless for accepting the job, could have talked and decided that this was the best thing for the Indianapolis Colts at this juncture of the season."
He added: "If you didn’t already insult every person that’s worked their entire life to be a head coach in the NFL, then to go up there and say, ‘I like that he’s got no experience because all y’all NFL coaches are scared because you use logic and analytics to make decisions’.
"When I saw this, I thought it was a joke. I thought maybe I had a little Google Translate and all of a sudden, I’m in the wrong calendar and it’s April 1st or something going on."
