Longtime Navy football head coach Ken Niumatalolo was fired on Sunday following his team's double overtime loss to Army. But what people might not know is that Niumatalolo was fired immediately after the loss in the Navy football locker room.

The Midshipmen head coach was sitting in the locker room when Navy athletic director Chet Gladchuk walked in and informed him of the news, according to Heather Dinich of ESPN.

“First of all, we just got kicked in the gut,” Niumatalolo said. “I was a little bit numb prior to him saying that, so most of it I couldn't comprehend. I'm just like, ‘Chet, why don't you take some time to relax.' He said, ‘Well, it's been building up.'”

Ken Niumatalolo said that he was already “kicked in the gut” after Navy football's loss to Army. It was, understandably, hard for him to comprehend what was being said to him.

Perhaps worst of all, Niumatalolo asked Gladchuk, with whom he has worked since 2008, if he would “take some time to relax.”

The Navy football athletic director then informed Ken Niumatalolo that “it's been building up.”

There's never an easy way for this process to play out, but this seems like the worst possible way it could have been handled, given the facts that Niumatalolo has been on the coaching staff since 2002- and that he's the winningest head coach in program history.

Gladchuk cited Navy football's failure to win the Commander in Chief's trophy, which went to Air Force this year, as well as Ken Niumatalolo's failure to lead the team to bowl eligibility as reasons for his dismissal.