The year was 1989. The Jets, 8-7-1 in 1988, got off to a 1-4 start. Their next three games were at New Orleans and at Buffalo, then a home game versus defending Super Bowl champion San Francisco at home. These three teams had a combined record of 32-16 in '88, and were a combined 8-7 at that point in '89, mainly because the Saints were 1-4 — prompting WFAN's John Cloughessy (who died last year at the age of 75) to quip that the Jets were "staring down the barrel of 1-7" — and sure enough, Cloghessy was right: the Jets lost all three of the games by a combined score of 86-27, also neglecting to cover the spread in any of the games.
With a final record of 4-12, the Jets fired head coach Joe Walton (nee Joseph Tataseo of Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania — the same town that gave us Joe Namath), who spent the next two years as Pittsburgh's offensive coordinator before moving on to Robert Morris (bet you didn't even know they had a football team) in 1994, where he was head coach for 20 years. He died in 2021 in Englewood, Florida (would you retire in western Pennsylvania if you didn't have to?) at the age of 85.
Fast-forward 37 years — and the Chargers could be staring down the barrel of 0-9.
After losing their first two games, both at home — a hole that only one team (the 2003 Eagles) has ever managed to dig themselves out of and make the playoffs in a non-strike year — and following that up with a loss at Buffalo on Sunday, the Chargers can put themselves beyond the known lines of NFL history with losses at reigning Super Bowl champion Seattle this week, and then another one at home against Denver the following week. If they lose both of these games, they will be 0-5 — and no team has ever made the playoffs after starting 0-5, which is one of the arguments in favor of adding an 18th game to the regular-season schedule.
But wait — it only gets worse: the Denver game is followed by a trip to Kansas City, a bye, a road game against the Rams, the Texans at home, and a Monday nighter at Baltimore.
There's your "barrel."
And we have already seen how much shelf life the Harbaugh name carries: last year, John Harbaugh has one off year at Baltimore — and was promptly shown the door by Ravens owner Stephen Bisciotti. The older Harbaugh — and yes, John is one year older than Jim — was snapped up by the Giants just two weeks later. Not only that, but John Harbaugh has a ring — from Super Bowl XLVII, in which he defeated his brother — while Jim Harbaugh does not.
Given all the facts, if the Chargers do start 0-9 — or even 0-5 — then that will be all for Jim Harbaugh in Tinseltown.
Who knows? Maybe he will wind up in Miami — where Mike Halfley has all the makings of becoming the 21st century version of Les Steckel.
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