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Berube is gone; who's next?

An amazing - or at least unprecedented - thing happened in 2013 with the four major professional sports teams in Philadelphia. All of them reached a franchise crossroads in which it was necessary to hire a new head coach or manager.

Then there were three: Which coach or manager in Philadelphia will be the next one to leave town?
Then there were three: Which coach or manager in Philadelphia will be the next one to leave town?Read more

An amazing - or at least unprecedented - thing happened in 2013 with the four major professional sports teams in Philadelphia. All of them reached a franchise crossroads in which it was necessary to hire a new head coach or manager.

Since the Flyers arrived on the scene in 1967 to complete the foursome in Philadelphia, that had never happened before. Three of the four had made changes at the top in the same year 10 times, but it was never before a clean sweep.

Then came 2013, as the Eagles replaced Andy Reid with Chip Kelly, the Sixers shifted from Doug Collins to Brett Brown, and the Phillies and Flyers both made in-season changes. The Phils fired Charlie Manuel and promoted Ryne Sandberg. The Flyers dumped Peter Laviolette in favor of Craig Berube. Fresh starts all around!

Well, so much for one of those new beginnings. On Friday, Berube became the first of the class of 2013 to lose his job. He was fired by general manager Ron Hextall following a process that was about as smooth as a gravel road.

Smooth or not, Berube is gone before the others, which, given the Flyers' history, might have been the prediction in 2013. So, what would the handicappers say now? Which coach or manager in Philadelphia will be the next one to leave town? Here's what the odds board looks like.

Ryne Sandberg, 3-1

The obvious choice, but not necessarily the right one. Admittedly, Sandberg has done little to make it seem he will be the long-term manager of the Phillies, but he also hasn't had much to work with.

In his favor is that he is neither really likable nor dislikable, the by-product of having a personality so flat you can't find it with a Geiger counter. Whether that will eventually cost him the ear of the clubhouse could work against him, but it also won't be easy to tell when this roster quits.

Just as likely as a cosmetic firing is that the Phillies - who have had only five managers since 1992 - will let Sandberg become painted with all the losing before making a change when the team is ready to win again. If that's the case, judging by where the Phillies are at the moment, Sandberg could have a 20-year career as manager here.

Flyers' next hire, 5-1

Admit it, you laughed.

It is also probably accurate handicapping. The Flyers, whenever they choose the next victim, will have had 12 head coaches in the same time span the Phillies have had five managers. Among the four major professional teams in town, only the Sixers can rival the Flyers for volatility in the coaching department. Recently, however, as owner Ed Snider's impatience rises and his actuarial expectation falls, the franchise flips over every time the coaching incumbent has a downturn.

The practice creates a culture - there's that word again - in which the players are very well aware that if they don't like a coach, they can get rid of him. What would serve the Flyers far better is to hold the players accountable for not doing the jobs for which they are paid, regardless of whether the coach strokes their egos just the way they like it.

Hextall had the chance to send that new message, but he chose to recycle the old one.

Brett Brown, 15-1

The odds are this low only because it is just as likely Brown will walk away eventually as it is the 76ers will fire him. Even after two seasons in which the team won 19 and 18 games, Brown is more respected around the league than he was before taking this job.

Brown still wears the golden cape that comes from working in San Antonio for Gregg Popovich, but he added to his luster by keeping a team together and playing hard despite constant roster changes that almost exclusively diluted the talent on the team. The entire NBA knows how difficult that must have been.

Brown is halfway through a four-year contract, and I'm not sure he would take an extension if offered. I think he's waiting to see if Sam Hinkie's analytics can keep overweight Joel Embiid from breaking his foot, can keep Dario Saric from being merely a European wonder, can be correct about Nerlens Noel's upside, and can identify and acquire a true lead guard.

If Hinkie's plan disappears into thin air, so might Brown, and he would deserve to.

Chip Kelly, 20-1

At the moment, there is more likelihood that owner Jeffrey Lurie would use the wrong fork for the salad course than that he would fire Kelly, who doesn't just have all the power in the Eagles organization, he has all the power of all the people who gave him that power.

That said, this is an unpredictable dude, and the reason the odds are this low is, similar to Brown, it could be the coach who cuts the cord. If the odds were solely for being the first in town to get fired - as opposed to leaving of his own volition - then Kelly would be 1,000-1.

What would make Chip Kelly leave? Well, a few things. If he screws up the draft next week - taking fifth-rounders in the second round, grabbing all the available Oregon players, getting guys who don't pan out - and screws up the next one after that, Lurie might move to reclaim some of that power. If he did, Kelly would leave, just as he probably would have if Howie Roseman had been left in his path.

Other variables could lead Kelly to look elsewhere, maybe back to college, but he's not a guy who would be afraid of going to a new place or would care about what the people in the old place said about him.

That's the tote board at the moment. Place your bets. All those who had Craig Berube in the last pool - oh, my, that many? - please come to the windows.

@bobfordsports