If you thought the Jets firing Eric Mangini was a surprise, then you better be sitting for this one: The Denver Broncos fired two-time Super Bowl winner Mike Shanahan this afternoon.

Shanahan’s Broncos finished 8-8 this season, collapsing down the stretch with four straight defeats. In early December, the team held a four-game lead in the division. In what ended up being Shanahan’s final game, the Broncos lost 52-21 to the San Diego Chargers with the division title on the line.

There are some coaches who never felt vulnerable to firings because of their previous successes. Before he retired, Bill Cowher was one; Jeff Fisher in Tennessee feels like another. But Shanahan seemed to have the most job security of anyone. He won two Super Bowls in Denver, the first titles in the team’s history. He was the second-longest tenured coach in the league, spending 14 seasons with the Broncos and leading the team to seven playoff appearances. Yet, somehow, Herm Edwards still has a job?

Denver hasn’t made the playoffs in three years, but is that reason enough to fire the best coach in team history? Is there any replacement who will be an immediate improvement over Shanahan? It’s doubtful.

Shanahan’s firing means that there are only four current head coaches who have led their team to Super Bowl victories: Bill Belichick, Jon Gruden, Tony Dungy and Tom Coughlin.

Photo: Getty Images

After further cementing his reputation as a guy who can’t win under pressure, following a 44-6 blowout loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, Tony Romo collapsed while showering in the Dallas Cowboys locker room after the game. Brian Davis of the Dallas Morning News reported that Romo fell in the shower, causing a brief panic in the Cowboys locker room as medical personnel were summoned by worried teammates. A stretcher was brought in, but Romo walked into the trainer’s room under his own power.

Later, Romo said he was "a little banged up, I guess." It doesn’t appear that Romo’s health was ever in serious jeopardy, but his teammates were understandably frightened, nonetheless. Writes Davis:

As someone who was standing there watching this whole scene unfold, I can tell you the players were shocked. They didn’t know what to do. Deon Anderson went out running for emergency help, but Maurer and associate athletic trainer Britt Brown were all over it.

Adam Jones, of all people, was standing there yelling at me, another reporter and a TV camera man to get back.

Well, sure the players were shocked. They usually don’t see things fall to the ground unless they’ve first been dropped by Terrell Owens.

Thanks: PFT

Photo: Getty Images

The Pro Bowl will be moved to a week before the Super Bowl and will be played at the site of the game beginning in 2010, the Associated Press reported today. This move comes after years of speculation and is a clear attempt to reinvigorate a game that barely registers with hardcore NFL fans, let alone the general sporting public.

Moving the game to a week before the Super Bowl will make the Pro Bowl more relevant than before, but still not relevant enough to turn the game into a must-see event. Nobody really cares about the Pro Bowl and that’s unlikely to change unless they replace the players with cheerleaders.

Football isn’t a game that lends itself to disinterested play at half-speed. The players don’t seem to want to be there (as evidenced by the large number who decline invitations the game, claiming various injuries and obligations) and those who do go are justifiably concerned about getting injured in a meaningless exhibition. 

The most logical way to build interest in the Pro Bowl is to set-up a skills competition, a la the NBA and NHL (and, to a lesser degree, MLB). There’s not too many people who can tell you who won the NBA or MLB All-Star Games this year, but everyone remembers Dwight Howard’s Superman dunk and Josh Hamilton’s Ruthian display at the Home Run Derby.

If the NFL developed a ‘Pro Bowl Saturday’ that featured events like the return of the NFL’s fastest man race, a longest throw competition, an obstacle course, kicking challenges and anything else that would have some entertainment value, the Pro Bowl could become a meaningful event. Until then, it’s just a bunch of guys in ugly uniforms trying to run the clock out on their season.

Photo: Getty Images

Sorry ladies, The Golden Boy is officially off the market. TMZ and E! report that New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady proposed to his girlfriend, Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bündchen, aboard a private jet on Christmas Eve. Bündchen accepted. 

The couple was traveling from New Jersey to Boston when Brady reportedly popped the question. TMZ also notes that Bündchen’s parents were aboard the flight, along with four dozen white roses and bottles of champagne. No word on whether Bill Belichick had the proposal videotaped.

The defending NFL MVP became tabloid fodder while dating his previous girlfriend, actress Bridget Moynahan. The two split-up in late 2006, at which point Brady began dating Gisele. Soon after, it was revealed that Moynahan was pregnant with Brady’s child. It was all very "Days of Our Lives". 

No wedding date has been reported, but In Touch magazine suggested earlier this month that the couple was planning a small ceremony in March.

Photo: Getty Images

Sometimes an official, through no fault of his own, will get caught up in the
middle of a play and inadvertently make contact with a player. Sometimes an official just
feels like making a tackle. Sometimes an
official is concerned that a player has been programmed to kill the Queen of
England and is forced to take matters into his own hands.

Whatever happened yesterday, here are some terrific action shots of NFL umpire
Lieutenant Frank Drebin Garth DeFelice taking out Rams running back Kenneth
Darby yesterday. Getty Images photographer Dilip Vishwanat was johnny-on-the-spot
yesterday, and the world thanks for him for it.

And here’s
video of the incident at Black Sports Online.