Bloody Monday (stylized in all caps) is a Japanese manga series written by Ryumon Ryo and illustrated by Megumi Koji. It was serialized in Kodansha's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Magazine from March 2007 to April 2009, with its chapters collected in 11 tankōbon volumes. A second series, Bloody Monday Season 2: Pandora no Hako, was serialized in the same magazine from October 2009 to April 2011, with its chapters collected in eight volumes. A third series, Bloody Monday Final Season, was serialized in the same magazine from June 2011 to March 2012, with its chapters collected in four volumes. A television drama adaptation was broadcast for two seasons in 2008 and 2010, respectively.
With Week 18 added to the NFL season in 2020, Black Monday got pushed back a few days, but its impact on coaches and general managers remains. What is the origin of the phrase, and who became a Black Monday casualty in 2023?
Black Monday commonly refers to the first Monday after the conclusion of the regular season. While some coaches and general managers are gearing up for playoff matchups, others have to pack up their offices after being fired.
While a Chicago Tribune story used the term when referencing a day in which multiple college coaches were fired in the late 1990s, 1998 is the year when Black Monday became a noteworthy phrase for the NFL. The Associated Press, New York Post and Houston Chronicle all used Black Monday in headlines on the same day after the season ended.
Kliff Kingsbury was the lone head coach to be fired on Black Monday in 2023. The Arizona Cardinals announced that they parted ways with Kinsgbury after four seasons and that general manager Steve Keim was stepping down from his position to focus on his health.
There were several coaches on the hot seat heading into Week 18 of the 2021 season, and two of them were on opposite sidelines at U.S. Bank Stadium. Matt Nagy of the Chicago Bears and Mike Zimmer of the Minnesota Vikings both wound up being fired on Monday, Jan. 10, 2022. Nagy had been with the Bears since 2018, while Zimmer had been at the helm for the Vikings since 2014.
Perhaps the biggest surprise when it came to head coaching moves following the 2021 regular season happened in Miami. The Dolphins fired Brian Flores on Black Monday after he spent three seasons in the role.
Vic Fangio was fired on a Sunday since his Denver Broncos concluded their 2021 regular season with a Saturday matchup in Kansas City. In New York, Joe Judge was gone after two seasons with the Giants, though the team waited an extra day before letting go of its head coach. David Culley lasted a few more days before the Texans fired him.
The presidents of the Big Three--the phrase had been coined beccause of football domination--in 1951 issued a statement known as the "Ivy Group Agreement." In this, it was agreed to abolish football clinics, spring practice, and post-season games; to set up a round-robin with schools in the Ivy League; and to reduce the length of the season.
The following season, Haughton had to revamp the offense completely, as the last remnants of the brute force plays were abolished, with rules prohibiting pushing and pulling of the runner. The wedge had disappeared long since; it had to. Public outcry over football deaths and injuries had reached such an extent that in 1906 President Roosevelt influenced the College to stop the game once again. Haughton's arrival signaled resumption.
The brightest era of Harvard football was beginning. The first football stadium had been built at Soldiers' Field in 1902--with funds donated by an alumnus--at a cost of $295,000. For three seasons, 1913-15, Harvard was recognized unquestionably as the best team in the country. Its stadium had a 55,000 seating capacity; and it was only long after Haughton had left that interest was to wane and 20,000 of these seats were to be removed.
Bloody Monday (ブラッディマンデイ Buraddi Mandei?) is a Japanese manga series written by Ryō Ryūmon and illustrated by Megumi Kouji. The series had been serialized in Weekly Shōnen Magazine by Kodansha from April 2007 to May 2009, with individual chapters collected into eleven tankōbon volume as of May 15, 2009[2], and a total of 96 chapters altogether. The manga has also been adapted into a drama series, which aired on October 11, 2008, starring Haruma Miura. The second season of the manga began in Weekly Shōnen Magazine number 46 released on October 14, 2009[3], and the second season of the drama adaption began airing on January 23, 2010[4].
[Page 9]IThe Germans in CzenstochowIt was already clear on the first day of the war, Friday, the 1st of September 1939, that the Germans would occupy Czenstochow. With shocking strength, they faced the Polish troops that were diverted deep into the country.The entire population was engulfed in a mood of panic and began to follow the retreat of the army, abandoning everything. The last trains and private autos that went in the direction of Warsaw, Kielce and other cities were full of people.Escaping still farther was the only thought of the people who were filled with fear of the arriving Germans.Friday night thousands of peasants and their families from the surrounding villages marched through the city on foot and in wagons with their cows and everything they could take with them.The highways and roads were so overflowing with wandering masses of people that the retreating Polish army had to make a great effort in order to break through a road for its further retreat.[Page 10]The German airplanes immediately appeared over the highways, descended, and shot the panicked, escaping people with machine guns. They abandoned their possessions, their cattle, in order to save their own lives. The dead fell and covered the roads of those escaping.When the last Polish army division left Czenstochow, the bridges were ripped out and the city was cut off for those who later wanted to leave.Sunday, the third day of the war, at ten in the morning, the first advance positions and patrols appeared in the city and went through the streets with tanks. There was beautiful, summery weather. The alarmed population began to look out through the windows with great caution and, seeing that it was quiet, slowly, and unsure, went out on the streets.Little by little the individual German military men approached the civilians, carried on conversations with them, even with the Jews.The same day, in the afternoon hours, large divisions of German troops appeared in the city. Many of them went into private homes to wash and drink a little water. The population immediately was aware that the city was under German occupation and there was a mood of depression.[Page 11]IIBloody MondayMonday, in the morning, on the fourth day of the war, the first German decree that all of the businesses should be opened immediately was published. The residents of the city began to move through the streets. Suddenly, the passersby drew back at seeing the way the German troops with pointed guns were leading a large group of people with hands raised in the air under heavy guard. Many of the people were half-dressed. This image made a distressing impression on everyone, because it became clear the terror was beginning.Two hours later, while in my residence, I heard shooting that grew stronger with each minute. Everyone was seized by fear. Suddenly, we heard a knock on our door and someone desperately calling out:Have mercy! Let us in!We immediately opened the door and several Jews entered our residence who told us that the Germans were chasing after people and shooting at those going by. It did not take long until the Germans broke into private residences and drove everyone out on the street.They did not omit our apartment. Knocking on the doors with rifle butts, they asked to be let in. When I opened the door, they entered the apartment and the order of a soldier was given:Hands up, everyone out!We were hurriedly driven out to the courtyard where [Page 12]our neighbors already were and we were led out to the street, being driven just as the people we had seen on the street in the morning.The streets were full of troops. There weapons were aimed in our direction and when our eyes met theirs, they laughed in our faces. When they recognized a Jew, they hit him over the head with a rifle butt.Marching through the streets, we met other groups that were also driven out of their homes.Immediately, they began to sort us men separately and women separately. The Germans counted 200 people from our group and, forcing us constantly to hold our hands up, quickly drove us to the city managing committee building. German military men with machine guns in their hands were already waiting for us near large trenches that had been dug and were supposed to serve as air raid shelters. One of them called out loudly:There they are, the dogs, all will soon be shot and they will be thrown in the trenches A fear engulfed us. Because of tiredness, we could no longer hold our hands in the air; they fell on our heads. We asked each other, barely moving our lips, are these our last minutes . Some of the people recited Psalms silently.Here, the following characteristic episode that happened during those frightening minutes on that spot must be remembered: a young Jewish man of about 31, standing with all of us in the line, shook terribly and, therefore,[Page 13]urine began to pour from his pants. This was noticed by one of the officers who stood near us. He moved closer to the young man and asked him:Why are you shaking, swine? Now you are afraid Why did you shoot our troops?Hearing such words, we all immediately understood where we stood in the world. Our thoughts were quickly interrupted when a Pole, who stood in our line, suddenly called to the officer in broken German:Verflukhter Yude [Cursed Jew], he is guilty, we are innocent However, the officer quickly calmed him:We will be finished soon with the Jews After holding us in a standing position under the burning sun the entire two hours time, not letting us move from the spot, ten military men came out of the building of the city managing committee and began to search every one of us. Whoever had a shaving knife with them, a pocket knife or other sharp things, had to jump immediately into the trenches that were surrounded by troops who constantly shot at the people in the trenches.If someone did not have something sharp with him, his fate hung with the military man who searched him: did he please the military man or not. Choosing people for death was done so quickly that rows of people awaiting death had already formed near the pits. The people watching the way the executions occurred, wrung their hands, tore their hair and flung themselves to the ground shouting and calling for help with their last strength.[Page 14]I stood in the middle of a group and waited to be searched. Some secret strength pushed me from the line; I went to a German, whose appearance seemed to me to be a little kinder. I unbuttoned my coat, took everything out that I had in my pockets, a lead pencil, a pen, a wallet, a handkerchief and giving everything to the German, I said to him:See, I have nothing more with me. However, I left my old parents, a wife and a child at home who cannot live without me.The German looked at me and told me to stand on the left, that is, among those who would be allowed to live. I breathed easier.Standing this way in the saved group, with my hands in the air and with my face to the pit, where the first Czenstochowers were martyred, I noticed how the Pole who had denounced the trembling Jew in our row, was being pushed into the pit and a German immediately shot him. In contrast, the shaking young man was placed in the saved group.The religious young man did not himself believe his luck and said:God took pity on me and punished the villain who denounced me Barely a third of the people, who were driven to the pits with us, survived.In the interim, new groups of people, whose faith was the same as our group's, were brought from various parts of the city.[Page 15]Who knows how long the executions would have been carried out, when an air alarm and shooting at the Polish airplanes that appeared over the city had not suddenly been heard. The Germans ordered everyone to lie on the ground. The German soldiers did the same thing, lying on the ground with their guns aimed in our direction. Then there was an order: If anyone moves from their spot or lifts their head they will immediately be shot.We tried to bury our heads in the earth. The shooting became stronger and stronger. The bullets literally flew over our bodies and we were sure that we would not emerge alive. Jews called, Shema Yisroel [the central prayer of Judaism stating that God is one] and recited Psalms. The Christians also called to their sacred ones for help. Everyone trembled with fear that the Germans would hear the prayers and be disturbed by them.When the shooting, which lasted a long time, finally ceased, we were ordered to stand up and were told to go in the direction of the stalls where the horses were. However, not everyone stood up. There were dead in our group.Tired, we fell upon the horse dirt in the stalls and fell asleep. The Germans locked the stalls.The mass execution that we attended was not the only one in the city. The Germans arranged similar executions in various parts of the city, including the courtyard of the Jewish craftworkers school at Garncarska 19. Similar hunts also took place in the churches, synagogues and in all public premises and places [Page 16]with similar executions involving Czenstochower residents.Entire houses were set on fire and burned with the inhabitants, who were not allowed to leave. If someone tried to jump out of a window of a burning house, he was immediately shot.The Germans set up machine guns across the entire city and, without warning, the soldiers shot at everyone who appeared on the streets.Thus the first bloody Monday passed in Czenstochow.IIIUnder the Nazi YokeThe Germans first came into our stall late at night. The old people were permitted to go home and the young, hungry, tired and thirsty were driven through the dead streets like horrible criminals under heavy military guard. No one was permitted to speak, but had to march silently until we arrived at the military barracks, Zowada. We were held for a long time on the shooting range, in order to throw a fear in us that we would be executed. Finally, we were taken to the cellars under the barracks.As we went down to the cellar, we felt ourselves being shoved down the stairs, pressed together in a mass, one on the other. It was pitch dark and we saw nothing. Coming[Unnumbered page]
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