What is NFL Black Monday?

The end of the 2023 NFL season is right around the corner, which means it's time for change to ripple throughout the league. Rosters will shuffle and front offices executives will bounce around the league as owners bring change to their organizations. The first order of business each year, though, is Black Monday.

What is NFL Black Monday?

"Black Monday" is the nickname given to the first Monday after the NFL regular season comes to an end. It's called that because it is the day most teams fire their head coaches, if they intend to do so. Usually a coach's fate is sealed weeks or months before the end of the year, so there's never a point in delaying the inevitable. If an owner wants to fire a coach, he does so at the soonest possible opportunity-- the first day after the end of the season, which is always a Monday.

Is there any connection to Black Friday? No. Black Friday is called that because it's the day all the stores go from in the red to in the black. Maybe the NFL community has taken to calling it Black Monday after the 1987 stock market crash. Bad things happened on that Black Monday so now bad things happen to NFL coaches on Black Monday every January. According to NBC, the term was first thrown around by news organizations in 1998, but there is no rhyme or reason as to why.

Who will fall victim to Black Monday this year?

NFL Black Monday Candidates

Bill Belichick of the New England Patriots, surprisingly, nears the top of the possible Black Monday firings list entering Week 18. Reports have already emerged saying he will be meeting with owner Robert Kraft on Monday, and at this point there are far more reasons to fire the old curmudgeonly coach than to keep him. On the other hand there are six reasons to keep him and they are memorialized by the banners hanging around Gillette Stadium. Kraft has quite the decision to make, and Belichick would almost certainly become the most high-profile coach to receive his walking papers on Black Monday.

Other coaches who may be on their way out include Ron Rivera of the Washington Commanders, Matt Eberflus of the Chicago Bears, and Arthur Smith of the Atlanta Falcons. All have gone through stretches of frustrating underperformance over the course of the season and all three started the year with reasonable expectations to take something resembling a leap. Eberflus' Bears have gotten better as the season has gone on, but the Falcons and Commanders have gotten worse. Nothing is concrete, but Rivera is almost certain to be gone. The other two are legitimate questions.

However, most of the Black Monday damage has already been done. Frank Reich, Josh McDaniels, and Brandon Staley were all fired midseason by their respective teams. At the midway point of the season it looked like they had cemented their spots as Black Monday casualties but things got so bad the ownership couldn't wait.

So there you have it. Everything you need to know about Black Monday and what might come with it.