I don't get it

Someone needs to educate me with regard to the firing of Wade Phillips. Every talking head I've heard in the last couple of weeks (including brilliant guys I love like Al Michaels and Tony Dungy) say that even though he should be fired, Jones really can't do it for one or more of the following reasons:

1) History tells us that replacing the coach midseason doesn't do a whole lot of good.
2) There's no one on the staff ready to take his place.
3) The Collective Bargaining Agreement means that Jones can't really bring in a big gun (Cowher, Gruden) because he might end up having to pay the guy millions to sit around during a lockout next season.

I don't get it.

Both 1) and 2) above assume that the team still thinks they can somehow succeed this year, and/or that whoever replaces Phillips right now has to come back next year. I understand that that's not a recipe for success, but look at it this way: THIS SEASON IS OVER!!! It doesn't matter if the team wins 0, 1, or 5 more games this year, they're done for. Bring in Daffy Duck to coach the remainder of the season if you want. It doesn't matter. At least you'd be making some kind of a statement about not putting up with a Marshmallow Coach. You don't have to bring in Gruden now. Wait until February. Just get Wade out of there.

Of course, as I've said before, Wade's not the real problem. Jerry is. The caveat to the "making a statement" argument in the above paragraph is that it's already too late for a statement really to be made. As soon as you put up with a coach who won't expect excellence out of his players, you've made the wrong kind of statement, and it can't be undone.

I had an elementary school teacher with a poster that hung from her desk that said, "An error doesn't become a mistake until you refuse to correct it." Wade Phillips has been a mistake for a couple of years now.