Coaching Carousel

NEW YORK CITY: Mike White joined the coaches' casualty club on Tuesday, with Wayne Fontes in the on-deck circle. White was let go by Oakland after a 7-9 season, the fifth NFL head coach to go in the last five days. Fontes got a Christmas reprieve, but almost surely will learn Thursday that his 81/2-year tenure in Detroit will come to an end, which will bring to eight the coaching changes in the NFL since the start of the 1996 season. White joins Rich Kotite of the Jets, Dan Reeves of the Giants, Rich Brooks of St. Louis and June Jones of Atlanta as coaches who have lost their jobs since last Friday. Add in Dave Shula, who was fired in October after going 1-6 with Cincinnati, and Jim Mora, who quit the same week in New Orleans, and seven coaches who started the season are now out. Bruce Coslet replaced Shula, went 7-2 and signed a new four-year deal, but the Saints are looking for a new coach after Rick Venturi, the professional interim coach, went 1-7.