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What a day for the Arizona Cardinals. Just 24 hours after Ken Whisenhunt was relieved of his duties as head coach, reports came out that the Cards were on the verge of hiring former Philadelphia Eagles head coach, Andy Reid. In fact, most reports assumed that the deal was '95%' done and that it would all be finalized by the end of the week.
Well, so much for that.
Cardinals VP of Communications Mark Dalton shot those rumors down with a very snarky tweet of his own.
I'm 99% sure that reports of a deal being 95% done are 100% incorrect #azcards
— MarkDalton (@CardsMarkD) January 2, 2013
Just because the team is denying that Reid is close to becoming the head coach, that does not hurt the chances of it happening. The rumor was likely floated by Reid's agent and other cohorts as a way for their side to gain leverage with other teams. If, say, the Chargers wanted to hire him and saw this report, they may have upped their offer at the last second.
Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports is also reporting that the team is going to interview Reid today.
Andy Reid will interview with the Cardinals tomorrow.
— Jason La Canfora (@JasonLaCanfora) January 2, 2013
Adam Schefter also backtracked on his initial report from his 'sources' with this tweet:
One source close to Andy Reid insisted deal w/ Cards not close. Another source said Cards search open and no leading candidate at this time
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 2, 2013
It really would have made no sense for the Cards to hire Reid so quickly, especially before an interview. He may be sought after by more than just Arizona, but no one is going to hire a coach without at least getting a feel for him in person. That is simply not how this business works.
So for now, we will just have to wait and see what comes out of the interview. The Horton audition was on Tuesday (which I am sure he knocked out of the park) and the Mike McCoy interview will come on Saturday.
Buckle up, Cardinals fans. I have a feeling this coaching search has only just begun.