After being fired midseason by the Indianapolis Colts, Frank Reich became the first head coach to get a new job in the following hiring cycle.
The Carolina Panthers officially agreed to name Reich the franchise’s next head coach on Thursday. And yet, Reich, who was replaced by Jeff Saturday, who had no professional coaching experience when he was hired, was congratulated on Twitter by a franchise that fired him just over two months ago.
“Congratulations to this good man!” the Colts wrote in a tweet.
A bit of a puzzling reaction, to say the least.
The NFL world took the Colts to task for a tweet that was not only bizarre but seemingly in bad taste. Here are some of those reactions:
Reich wasn’t blameless for the Colts’ shortcomings, but the timing of his firing certainly made him seem like he was a scapegoat for their lack of success in recent years. Reich was unable to recreate the same success that he had in a season with reclamation projects like Carson Wentz and Matt Ryan, as he did with one season of Philip Rivers.
The Colts, who started the season 3-5-1 under Reich, finished out the year 1-7 under Saturday, securing the No. 4 overall pick in April’s draft.