Jim Haslett finally decided to retire after spending more than five decades playing and coaching football.
It was a successful journey as player and coach — highlighted by induction into the College Football Hall of Fame and being NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year (1979) and NFL Coach of the Year in 2000.
But when the Tennessee Titans didn’t retain Haslett after the 2021 season as inside linebackers coach, he decided he was done. At least, he thought so.
“I worked out every day, then watched TV and then there was nothing else to do,” said Haslett, 67. “It’s not what I thought it was going to be.”
About a month into retirement, he got a call from his friend, Randy Mueller. In 2000, with Haslett as coach and Mueller as general manager, they led the New Orleans Saints to the franchise’s first postseason win.
Mueller, director of player personnel for the Seattle Sea Dragons in the latest reboot of the XFL, asked Haslett if he was interested in coaching the team.
Haslett said yes and now leads Seattle into its season-opening game Sunday at the D.C. Defenders.
Like Haslett, the team’s two coordinators, June Jones on offense and Ron Zook on defense, are well known among football fans and also in their late 60s.
Why are they doing this instead of enjoying the easy life? Because they love football.
Ditto for Mueller, 61, who worked for the Seahawks for 17 seasons (1983-99) and ascended to vice president of football operations, which included general manager duties.
These four football lifers have come together to try and build a winner.
“There’s no egos or agenda with any of these guys, and that’s the reason I’m doing it,” Mueller said. “It’s fun to be around these guys. … We all sit around and say how much fun we’re having.”
Back in the saddle
Once Haslett decided to end retirement to coach the Sea Dragons, he needed to convince his wife, Beth.
What sealed the deal is that the team is based in Arlington, Texas, just outside Dallas.
Their son, Chase, is offensive quality control coach for the Dallas Cowboys. He and his wife just had their first child.
“She can go hang out with our grandson all the time,” Jim Haslett said. “That’s what sold her.”
Haslett grew up in Pittsburgh, then went to college at Division II Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where as a linebacker, defensive end and punter (1975-78), he became the greatest player in school history. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2001.
Haslett was drafted as a linebacker in the second round by Buffalo in 1979 and won the NFL’s top honor for defensive rookies. The next season Haslett was first-team All-AFC.
Haslett’s tenure with the Buffalo Bills ended after he broke his leg during the 1986 preseason, but not before being named to the All-Time Bills team in 1984.
Haslett began his coaching career in 1988 as an assistant coach at the University of Buffalo. The Sea Dragons are the 12th team he has worked for, with stints in the NFL, college, the World Football League of American Football and the United Football League.
“I just like coaching,” Haslett said. “I like being around football.”
The highlight was the 2000 season, the first year for him and Mueller with the Saints. The team went 10-6 and defeated the St. Louis Rams in the playoffs, a remarkable turnaround for a team that finished 3-13 the year before.
Haslett coached five more seasons with New Orleans and was the St. Louis Rams’ interim coach for 12 games in 2008. He spent 2009 as head coach of the Florida Tuskers of the UFL, his last job as head coach until his current gig.
“I like being around the players, I like being around the coaches, and obviously, I like winning,” Haslett said. “So we’ll do whatever we’ve got to do to try to win a game.”
That included hiring Jones and Zook.
Haslett had long admired Jones for his success with the pass-dominated run-and-shoot offense. Haslett gave Jones control of the offense and allowed Jones to hire three assistants who had worked with him for decades.
“He brings his whole staff so there’s not a lot of learning they have to do,” Haslett said. “They went out the first day of practice and ran the offense like it was midseason.”
Haslett first worked with Zook in 1997-98 when the two were assistants with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Zook was Haslett’s defensive coordinator at New Orleans in 2000 and 2001 before becoming head coach at Florida.
“He’s thorough, he knows what he’s doing and he understands (football),” Haslett said of Zook. “He’s got great energy that filters down to the players.”
Offensive guru
Haslett figured Jones would get a head coaching job in the XFL this season after leading the Houston Roughnecks — with Mueller as the director of pro personnel — to a 5-0 record in the XFL in 2020.
When that didn’t happen, the Sea Dragons hired him as offensive coordinator. Haslett has handed control of the offense to the 69-year-old Jones even though Haslett’s offensive style is more conservative.
“I just say, ‘run, pound them out, and play good defense,’ but it’s not going to be that way,” Haslett said. “That’s what this league is all about — put the ball up in the air and be exciting.”
Jones is known for exciting offense. A native of Portland, he played quarterback at Portland State for legendary coach Mouse Davis, considered the godfather of the run-and-shoot offense.
Jones played with the Atlanta Falcons (1977-81), then with the Toronto Argonauts (1982) of the Canadian Football League before becoming quarterbacks coach at Hawaii in 1983.
Jones has been a head coach in the NFL, Division I, the Canadian Football League and the XFL, always staying true to his run-and-shoot roots.
His Houston team seemed like the class of the XFL in 2020 as the Roughnecks were 5-0 when the league stopped playing in midseason because of the pandemic.
Three members of that staff are now with the Sea Dragons: offensive line coach Dennis McKnight, running backs coach Wes Suan and quarterbacks coach Dan Morrison.
“I think it’s an advantage because most of the other (XFL) staffs are still feeling each other out,” Jones said. “We kind of know what we want to do and we know how to coach it.”
It’s a job Jones continues to enjoy after all these years. What about it fires him up?
“What we do offensively,” Jones said. “What gets me going is throwing the ball. Jim said he wants to throw the ball, and he’s going to allow me to do it. And I enjoy it.”
Back with friends
Unlike Haslett, Zook, 68, has never retired.
Zook, head coach at Florida (2002-04) and Illinois (2005-11), has no plans to.
But Zook, who spent three seasons on the staff at Maryland (2019-21), had grown tired of the college recruiting process.
So when presented the opportunity to reunite with Haslett and Mueller, he took it. The Sea Dragons are the 15th team he has worked for, covering college, the NFL, the Alliance of American Football and now the XFL.
“I think one thing you find out when you coach a long time is what the game means to you,” said Zook, Big Ten Coach of the Year in 2007 after leading Illinois to the Rose Bowl. “It’s fun coming to work with people you know and people you’ve worked with before. They are good people who know how to do this business — not that other people don’t — but it makes you feel comfortable and your philosophies are very similar. It’s fun to do.”
Zook played college football at Miami of Ohio and got his first coaching job as an assistant at Murray State. He entered the national spotlight when he left as New Orleans’ defensive coordinator to replace Steve Spurrier at Florida in 2002.
He will work in much more anonymity with the Sea Dragons, and perhaps have more fun.
“Our job is to help (the players) get to the NFL. That’s where they want to go and we’re going do everything in our power to help them get there,” Zook said. “There is not a lot of motivation you have to do with these guys. They motivate themselves.”
Building from scratch
Mueller grew up in St. Maries, Idaho, then played quarterback for Linfield University (McMinnville, Oregon), where he led his team to the NAIA Division II national title in 1982.
He joined the Seahawks the next year as a personnel assistant. In 1995, Mueller was named vice president of football operations, in charge of player acquisition, scouting and managing the salary cap.
Mike Holmgren was hired as coach and GM of the Seahawks in 1999, and after working with Holmgren for a season, Mueller became GM with New Orleans, where he teamed with Haslett and was named NFL executive of the year in 2000.
Mueller also served as GM of the Miami Dolphins (2005-07) and spent a decade as an executive with San Diego Chargers (2008-18). But he has no desire to return to the NFL after helping start franchises in the Alliance of American Football and in the XFL with Houston in 2020 and now Seattle.
“What I’ve done for a living is build teams, and to be able to do it from scratch has always been something I wanted to do,” said Mueller, in charge of player acquisition. “We were able to build these teams from scratch. It’s been an awesome experience to do it with guys that I’ve known and been with forever.
“We don’t have to do anything at this point; we’re doing it for the love of the game. To enjoy being around each other like we do is rare in our business. It’s very cool.”
And the finished product?
The question is: How good is this team run by seasoned veterans?
Jones thinks the offense is more talented than the 2020 Houston XFL team he coached.
Mueller said he doesn’t know much about the competition but he likes his 50-player roster.
“Now it’s a matter of them coming together to kind of see what we have,” Mueller said. “I’m like everybody else in that I will be curious to see.”
Haslett said it will be fun to watch.
“Well, if you like to see the ball in the air, it’s going to be in the air,” he said. “We’re going to hopefully score a lot of points. I think it will be fun. It’s going to look like NFL caliber football.”