HASLETT TO COACH IN UFL, TOO

Our effort to identify, in haphazard, speculative fashion, the other three folks who’ll be among the first four head coaches in the UFL failed to include a name that should have been obvious, and that gives the UFL an added boost of initial credibility. Per an NFL source (we need to be clear on that because the “league” in this case is the UFL), former Saints head coach and Rams interim coach Jim Haslett will spend the 2009 season coaching a UFL team. Haslett was a finalist for the Rams’ head-coaching position after leading the team through the final 12 games of the 2008 season. He then was linked to a couple of vacant defensive coordinator jobs, but ultimately was not hired at the NFL level. Finally, to the folks who might be wondering why we’re covering the UFL more closely than we ever covered the Arena League, consider these realities: (1) no former NFL head coaches ever became head coaches of AFL teams; (2) the no-defense AFL is more like basketball in pads than football; (3) come 2011, the UFL might be the only pro football league south of Canada that any of us will be covering. UPDATE: Haslett, we’re told, will be coaching the Orlando franchise.