NFL Coaches – What’s the Measure of a Coach?

Sports

Dave Wannstedt
An interesting question came up as I thought about Dave Wannstedt quitting as head coach of the Miami Dolphins in the middle of the season and read the Page 2 article by Skip Bayless. When a team wins a Super Bowl, everyone is trying to hire the assistants, hoping to catch the magic. The question is “What makes a great coach?”. Is it a fiery dictator, like a Ditka or a Lombardi, or is it an architect of offenses or defenses, like a Walsh or a Belicheck? “That and a pair of testicles,” as The Dude would say.

I did a little research into the early background of some of the most successful coaches in the NFL, ranging over time (see list at bottom). They seem to have mixed backgrounds, although the more recent ones didn’t play that much, or not at all, in the NFL. There is more of a trend towards a strategist being much more important than in the old days where an old-school leader was important (in those days the teams’ personnel was much more stable). In those days it would also typically be a guy that had a lot of defensive background, e.g. Landry or Lombardi.

A related article also explores this trend:

FootballProject.com – The Golden Age of Coaching

Backgrounds of some of the great coaches:

  • Vince Lombardi: Played in college and in a semi-pro league, but not in the NFL. He coached a high school team for about 7 years and then became an assitant at Fordham (his college alma mater). He then took an assistant coaching West Point for five years before becoming an offensive assistant with the New York Giants in 1954.
  • Tom Landry: Played in college and in the NFL. Coached as a player-coach for a few years for the Giants and then became a full-time defensive assistant with the Giants in 1956 until becoming head coach of the Cowboys in 1960.
  • Chuck Noll: Played in college and in the NFL. Retired as a player at age 27 in 1959 to become an assistant for the San Diego chargers. After six years he became a defensive backfield coach for the Colts for three years. Then in 1969 he became head coach of the Pittsburgh to start a long tradition of winning there.
  • Don Shula: Played in college and in the NFL. Coached in college as an assistant for about 3 years, and then became defensive coordinator for the Detroit Lions in 1960. He did that for three years and then became head coach of the Baltimore Colts.
  • Bill Walsh: No record of his playing in college or in the NFL. He coached a high school team for several years and then served as an assistant coach with the Cincinatti Bengals and Sand Diego Chargers. He coached at Stanford University for two years before becoming coach of SanFrancisco to develop the “West Coast” offense.
  • Bill Parcells: Played in college but not in the NFL. Was an assistant college coach at several universities (including Texas Tech in 1975) and became head coach at Air Force in 1978. He became an assistant coach of the New England patriots in 1980 then became an asistant with the Giants the following year. In 1983 he became the head coach of the Giants.
  • Bill Belicheck: Played in high school and in college, but not in the NFL. Father was a coach at the Naval Academy. Started out as an assistant coach in the NFL right after college. Was a long-time defensive assistant and then defensive coordinator for the Giants during the tenure of Ray Perkins and Bill Parcells.

One thought on “NFL Coaches – What’s the Measure of a Coach?”

Commenter
john
November 15, 2004 at 9:10 am

Yeah, there are so many “illegitimate” factors that affect the NFL these days — it doesn’t seem like dedication and passion are two that come into play, at least in the same way Lombardi talked about it.