'Tis the season to be jolly and, if you are an NFL head coach whose resume is conspicuously shy of victories, to be a bit jumpy as well.

You never know, after all, when the owner is going to sidle up and deliver an envelope in which the annual Christmas bonus has been replaced with a notice of termination. When the usual red and green trappings turn into a pink slip. When it suddenly becomes a "Terry Brennan Christmas."

	Jim Fassel has a 51-41-1 regular season record in five-plus season as the Giants head coach.

Terry Brennan, you say? Yeah, he's a former Notre Dame head coach and legend has it that, on Christmas Eve '58, he was relieved of his duties when a South Bend cleric stealthily slipped an official letter of dismissal under his hotel room door. Seems the 6-4 record that season, and overall 32-18 mark in five years, just wasn't up to Fighting Irish standards.

Since the regular season doesn't conclude until Dec. 30 this year, and most league owners have determined that in-season dismissals are worthless, there don't figure to be any Terry Brennan Christmas stories for 2002. Truth be told, with the number of head coaches whose teams' performances have allowed them to get off the hot seat, there likely won't be as much turnover this offseason as there has been in recent years.

But that doesn't mean The Grinch isn't about to stick around for a little post-holiday misery.

If you are Marty Mornhinweg, for instance, you might choose to decline any letter that comes delivered registered mail and bearing a Detroit Lions return address. Dick LeBeau of the Cincinnati Bengals should feign illness if he is summoned to the office of owner Mike Brown the week after the '02 season ends. The Dallas Cowboys' Dave Campo ought to consider a long cruise, on an ocean liner where the ship-to-shore radio is on the fritz, and where a cell phone can't pick up a signal from the mainland.

Beware the phone call, Tom Coughlin, from Jacksonville Jaguars owner Wayne Weaver in which he suggests a last-minute luncheon. The entrée could be your head on a platter. If Seattle owner Paul Allen hints that he's got a hot stock tip, coach Mike Holmgren should forget the Walrus looks and get bearish instead.

All five head coaches appear to be on the endangered species list but, given the roller coaster nature of a wacky 2002 campaign, anything is possible and they could all escape the unemployment line.

But that's neither likely nor realistic. There will be, as there is every year, an attrition meter among the NFL's head coaches. The only question is how high that number goes, although the suspicion is you might not need both hands in the coming offseason to keep track of the body count.

"With three weeks left in any season, you can usually sit back and mentally inventory the (head coaches) who will be gone, but it's not so cut-and-dried this year," said one owner who is still uncertain about the direction he will go with his current head coach. "Just like this season, things are in flux, and you tend to revisit your emotions almost on a weekly basis. The last month is going to determine the fates of a few guys, I would think, some positively and others negatively. That's my take on things, just from talking with some of my peers, a few of them in the same circumstance I am."

Since 1980, league teams have averaged 5.3 head coaching changes, and the number of openings since 1990 have averaged nearly six. That excludes the expansion Houston Texans, in their first season of existence in '02, but does include the Carolina Panthers and Jacksonville Jaguars. The 31 current head coaches, not counting Dom Capers of Texas, are averaging just 3.4 seasons of tenure with their present franchises.

Fourteen head coaches are in either their first or second season with the team by which they are currently employed. On the flip side, just seven coaches have more than five seasons of seniority with the current franchises.

No doubt about it, the profession defines job insecurity, and that trend has been exacerbated as owners demand quicker gratification. In recent years, if a coach and his staff haven't percolated faster than instant coffee, they could be expeditiously shown the door. Patience has hardly been a virtue practiced by owners whose egos require a Vince Lombardi Trophy on the living room mantel and a gaudy championship ring to flash around at the country club.

Washington owner Dan Snyder has had stewardship of his franchise for just four seasons but, counting the interim tenure of Terry Robiskie for just three games in 2000, has employed four different head coaches in that span. The old adage that a coach is hired to be fired certainly holds true for the Skins.

But the firing-and-hiring season leaguewide could well be abbreviated this winter because a number of head coaches have earned reprieves.

Dan Reeves of Atlanta, for instance, had claimed just 16 wins in the three seasons since taking the Falcons to the Super Bowl in 1998. Reeves clearly appeared in jeopardy at the season's outset. Three and a half months later, he is a leading candidate for coach of the year honors.

At one point early this season, Tennessee owner Bud Adams suggested his team was being out-coached, hardly a rousing endorsement of Jeff Fisher and his staff. But the Titans are poised to win a division championship and Fisher is going nowhere, except to another playoff berth, having turned in a superior job in resurrecting his club.

Dick Jauron in Chicago could preside over one of the greatest slippages in NFL history -- his 13-3 team of 2001 could finish 3-13 this year -- but he is going to get a grace period, general manager Jerry Angelo confirmed last week, because of some factors beyond his control. The Bears have played every game on the road because of construction at Solider Field. The team has endured a maddening spate of injuries, largely on the defensive side, and the quarterback situation was unsettled.

"Dick deserves to coach this team (in 2003)," Angelo said. "This was a tough hand he was dealt this year."

Until last Sunday's late-game collapse, Dallas owner Jerry Jones seemed to harbor similar sentiments toward Campo, but the loss to San Francisco did not help the head coach's security. Jones has a genuine affinity for Campo, however, and seems to be looking for excuses to retain him. The fate of the Dallas coach, along with that of New York Giants boss Jim Fassel, likely is tied to how well their teams perform over the final three weekends.

"It's a weird year in that regard," said one AFC head coach whose security is not in question. "Like I wouldn't have given you two cents for Reeves' chances of getting past this year, but now the owner can't fire him, and the guy is riding pretty high. He got himself out of trouble doing a great job and having a hot player. A few other guys, from what I hear, are still in the kind of limbo (Reeves) has escaped. But at least they have a chance to keep their jobs with strong finishes.

"It's just that kind of season. It's hard to get a grip on anything, you know? And I guess that includes the axe."

Len Pasquarelli is a senior writer for ESPN.com.