Jan. 14, 2026, 4:01 p.m. ET

The past week in the NFL has seen the end of not one but two iconic head coaching tenures.

In Baltimore, the Ravens fired long-time head coach John Harbaugh, largely due to recent playoff failures and an apparent disconnect with two-time MVP quarterback Lamar Jackson. Then, after the Houston Texans tore Aaron Rodgers to shreds in the AFC Wild Card Game, the legendary Mike Tomlin and the Pittsburgh Steelers mutually parted ways. Both Harbaugh and Tomlin coached nearly 20 years with their respective organizations. They each have a Super Bowl ring to their name. They each ensured that winning consistently, on some level, remained synonymous with Pittsburgh and Baltimore over the years.

With Harbaugh and Tomlin both finally unemployed, this makes Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra the longest-tenured coach in U.S. professional sports. You’d think this fact would make Spoelstra happy that he’s been able to remain gainfully employed by one of the NBA’s more notable teams so far this century. But it didn’t. To Spoelstra, it’s a glaring sign that coaches, as a profession, aren’t being afforded enough patience to construct long-lasting programs like he, Harbaugh, and Tomlin all built with requisite time.

That reality understandably saddens the Heat’s sideline leader:

These days, Spoelstra is widely recognized as the NBA’s premier coach. He’s now the coach of Team USA men’s basketball, has won two NBA championships, and is most responsible for giving the Heat a long-standing reputation of being disciplined and always competing hard, regardless of the talent they have available.

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But Spoelstra never reaches this hallowed point of respect without patience from the Heat front office. When he took the Heat over in 2008, they were coming off a 15-win season. It took at least two years and the 2010 free-agent additions of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh for the Heat to become an NBA Finals-contending powerhouse under Spoelstra. And even then, not many credited Spoelstra with the Heat’s status as a juggernaut in those days. It wasn’t until a few lean years in the mid-2010s, without James and Co., that people began to recognize Spoelstra’s coaching aptitude. When the Heat eventually made two Finals appearances in four seasons at the start of this decade, Spoelstra was stamped.

The hard-nosed Heat were made according to his vision and only his.

That’s why Spoelstra’s comments about people not being given “an opportunity to work through things” hit even harder. Arguably, no one understands that struggle better than he does. The Heat gave him leeway in some mediocre seasons, and their faith paid off. While there are obvious exceptions to this mindset, Spoelstra simply wishes more coaches everywhere in sports this side of the pond would be given a longer rope.

Uproot someone early, and it might have been just before everything finally clicked.