James E. Mora

[Halas Hall]

Curious what people think of the Hall of the Very Good candidacy of Jim Mora Sr. Obviously the big knock against him is his 0-6 playoff record in the National Football League, but he did win two titles in the USFL and (quickly) turned around a Saints team that had only reached .500 in two seasons. He ended up winning 93 games with the Saints and went .500 in the regular season with the Indianapolis Colts.

I tend to think he is a solid candidate.

Thank you,
Nick

[Bryan]

I would put Mora in solely based on his postgame interviews. His resume is somewhat comparable to George Allen's...he turned around two franchises that were in bad shape and got them into the postseason in short order, but couldn't really make any noise in the postseason (like Allen's Rams and Redskins teams). The rebuilding jobs by Mora are overlooked IMO, because people forget how terrible those Saints and Colts teams were prior to Mora's arrival.

His time in the USFL is impressive to me, because the Stars were the model franchise despite not having a big payroll or any marquee players. Other teams would sign current NFL players and big-name college guys, but the Stars were built from within for the most part. Mora won two titles with Chuck Fusina as his QB, which is the USFL equivalent to Chuck Noll making consecutive postseasons with Cliff Stoudt and Mark Malone.

[nicefellow31]

His time in the USFL is impressive to me, because the Stars were the model franchise despite not having a big payroll or any marquee players. Other teams would sign current NFL players and big-name college guys, but the Stars were built from within for the most part. Mora won two titles with Chuck Fusina as his QB, which is the USFL equivalent to Chuck Noll making consecutive postseasons with Cliff Stoudt and Mark Malone.

That last line made me chuckle. Much-Maligned Mark Malone was an expression back then. Also Malone's play calling made a fan do this:
https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os ... story.html