The question of the day is whether the San Diego Chargers should wait until the end of the season to fire Head Coach Norv Turner. I'd like to try and take emotion out of this decision and see if it would make sense to have him play out the season.
The first and most obvious reason for not firing Norv when the team is 4-7, or even 4-8, is that he's made the playoffs from 4-8 once before. Is it likely to happen again? Of course not but, if there's anyone suited to turn around a floundering team and have them win their last 4-5 games to capture the AFC West Division crown, it would appear that man is Turner.
A second reason for waiting for the end of the season might be just the opposite. If the team is as bad as it has appeared to be this season, the front office may be cheering with each loss and dreaming about their top 10 draft pick. Remember that this is the same front office that let Mike Riley stay after a 1-15 season that then netted them Drew Brees, LaDainian Tomlinson and Tim Dwight. They also then let Riley lose 9 straight games to end his final season as Head Coach, turning that 5-11 record into Quentin Jammer, Toniu Fonoti, Reche Caldwell and Ben Leber.
The only reason for firing Norv mid-season is if there's someone else on staff that you'd like a good look at as Head Coach, like Rich Bisaccia. If the Chargers have already decided that they need a fresh start, firing everyone and bringing in an outside guy that can build his own staff the way that he sees fit, then all they would be doing is handing more responsibility to someone who hasn't done much with what he's had thusfar this season.
Also, there's another reason they might not hand the reigns over to someone like Bisaccia. Interim Head Coaches don't often get demoted back to their former position. If you promote Bisaccia, NFL protocol dictates that in 2012 he'll either be the HC or he'll be gone. With a guy that hasn't yet been with the team a full year, that's a tough pill to swallow.