It was October of '94, and the Redskins trailed the Colts 17-3 at halftime. Norv Turner paced the royal blue carpet of the RCA Dome lockerroom as he addressed his team.

"I guess I forgot to tell you guys one thing," Turner said to us in his familiar strained stammer. "I forgot to tell you to fight."

I recall thinking at the time, Was he supposed to? Is that really the coach's job? To get grown men to fight? I didn't think so then, and I don't now. But to me it's clear why Norv forgot that valuable piece of information that day -- and why he finally lost his job this week.

The man was just too busy.

Turner was totally consumed by details -- game plans, practice schedules, press conferences and speaking engagements. While some coaches, like Bill Parcells, are skilled at that stuff, I don't think Norv was. Maybe he was too busy being a coach to actually do some coaching. The other day, I asked former Redskins coach Joe Gibbs about Turner. He puckered his lips as if he'd just taken a bite out of a lemon, and vigorously shook his head. "See, Norv went from coaching just the offense to being responsible for all 53 guys."

Gibbs has a point. As the Cowboys' offensive coordinator, Turner had to reach only his players. The smaller group allowed him to communicate in his naturally sincere, soft-spoken manner. It's sort of like cooking for guests at a small intimate dinner party, as opposed to feeding the masses at some cafeteria. In Dallas, Turner's dinner table had select company -- Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin. But in Washington, Turner's guest list included everyone, and many players went hungry.

When the Redskins cut me in the summer of '95, I didn't wait around for the standard send-off speech: You're a good player, but we're going another direction, blah, blah, blah. I decided to just pack my stuff and leave. As I walked through the lobby at Redskin Park on my way out, Norv caught me. "You weren't coming in to speak to me?" he asked.

"No," I replied. "I knew you were pretty busy."