# NFL All-Time 100: Head coaches

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-all-time-100-head-coaches/845627>\
**Category:** The Game Room\
**Created:** [December 30, 2019, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-all-time-100-head-coaches/845627 "2019-12-30T20:18:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![racepug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@racepug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racepug)\
**Post date:** [December 30, 2019, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-all-time-100-head-coaches/845627/1 "2019-12-30T20:18:25Z")

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{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?

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**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\
**Post date:** [December 31, 2019, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-all-time-100-head-coaches/845627/2 "2019-12-31T02:50:31Z")

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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

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**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\
**Post date:** [December 31, 2019, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-all-time-100-head-coaches/845627/3 "2019-12-31T03:33:42Z")

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> [@Sir\_T-Cups](#):
>
> 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?

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.

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**Author:** ![racepug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@racepug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racepug)\
**Post date:** [December 31, 2019, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-all-time-100-head-coaches/845627/4 "2019-12-31T05:18:51Z")

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In my opinion the Packers organization deserves “props” for being the only team that got TWO of its former head coaches on the list.

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**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\
**Post date:** [December 31, 2019, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-all-time-100-head-coaches/845627/5 "2019-12-31T06:24:24Z")

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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.

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**Author:** ![racepug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@racepug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racepug)\
**Post date:** [December 31, 2019, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-all-time-100-head-coaches/845627/6 "2019-12-31T06:48:08Z")

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I would’ve given Bill Parcells consideration. He’s always been one of my favorites (in particular in his time with _Los Gigantes_).

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**Author:** ![racepug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@racepug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racepug)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2020, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-all-time-100-head-coaches/845627/7 "2020-01-01T18:51:48Z")

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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.
