The 2010 Bill Cowher Rumor Train (to the Chiefs, Natch) Begins Early

Rumors abounded quite frequently near the end of the 2008 NFL season as to where Bill Cowher might or might not coach next year. It turned out, he was just fine and dandy hanging out in the CBS booth, kicking it with Boomer Esiason and Dan Marino, even with the wonderful opportunity to coach Brett Favre dangling out there.

That's not entirely surprising though. What is surprising is that rumors about Cowher's potential employement for 2010 have already gotten a kickstart. From Adam Schefter, it appears that his buddy Boomer is already discussing on his WFAN radio show the possibility of Cowher as a replacement for Herm Edwards in Kansas City following 2009.

CBS analyst Boomer Esiason said on his WFAN-NY radio show this week that he wouldn't be surprised if Chiefs general manager Scott Pioli hired Bill Cowher to coach the team in 2010.

This is intriguing on any number of levels.

Indeed it is, indeed it is. That's because, primarily, Pioli has continued to dismiss the media's notion that Edwards is out the door, which is likely a function of the fact that no one really wants to coach Kansas City next year.

Either that or Pioli hasn't found a suitable candidate for the job (although Schefter points out that Josh McDaniels and Kirk Ferentz are both interesting candidates to the former Patriots' front office guy; too bad they're probably not available.)

By letting the situation in KC play out with Herm, Pioli can simply not re-sign Edwards and allow Cowher -- presuming he's still interested next year -- to slide in as head coach.

Boomer notes that the two men are apparently "close friends" as well, so there should continue to be mutual interest. The only potential hurdle for such a hook-up is Herm winning the AFC West, but, hey, that's why we play the game. Added bonus: 315 days of rumors!