{in no particular order}:
Paul Brown
Vince Lombardi
George “Papa Bear” Halas
Tom Landry
Bill Belichick
Joe Gibbs
Chuck Noll
Earl “Curly” Lambeau
Don Shula
Bill Walsh
Thoughts? Comments?
Way too many older coaches on this list. I understand how they set up a lot of what the league is today, but no love for the more modern innovators like Buddy Ryan?
Hell, you could probably talk me into Cowher or even Jimmy Johnson who had to coach for more modern players and schemes
He may have been a brilliant defensive coach, but as a head coach (and that’s the category), Ryan had a .500 record, and was 0-3 in the playoffs.
Out of the 10 coaches, only 2 (Halas and Lambeau) are from purely before the Super Bowl Era. Even if you include Brown and Lombardi as being “older,” that still gives six out of the ten who primarily coached in the Super Bowl era.
That said, if we exclude Gibbs’ unsuccessful return to the Redskins in the early 2000s, there’s only one coach on the list (Belichick, obviously) who has coached in the past 24 years, and that’s a bit of a hole.
In my opinion the Packers organization deserves “props” for being the only team that got TWO of its former head coaches on the list.
Obvious omissions in chronological order:
Weeb Ewbank
Dick Vermeil
Dan Reeves
Bill Parcells
Mike Holmgren
John Fox
In addition to Don Shula, already included in the OP, these are the only head coaches to bring two different teams to the Superbowl. (Or NFL Championship in the case of Weeb Ewbank.)
Speaking of Ewbank, he is the only head coach in NFL history to win championships with multiple teams with at least one of the wins in the Superbowl era.
I would’ve given Bill Parcells consideration. He’s always been one of my favorites (in particular in his time with Los Gigantes).
I stand corrected: the two former Green Bay head coaches who were honored each also coached that team from Washington, D.C. later in their career. So, technically, it’s that team from Washington, D.C. that has the most head coaches on the list.