OT: Golden Age of NFL Head Coaches?

[Swaggs]

I was just thinking how interesting it was to have Joe Gibbs back in coaching, and then considered that Dennis Green and Tom Coughlin have returned to the NFL. With these guys returning, I am wondering if the current crop of NFL coaches are the greatest of all time...and if not the greatest, at least the most experienced per coach of all time.

I say greatest, because other than Bill Walsh, George Seifert, Jimmy Johnson, and (ugh!) Barry Switzer, all Super Bowl winning coaches since 1987 are active head coaches (many with new teams). If we could just find jobs for Marv Levy and Dan Reeves, most of the Super Bowl losers would still be employed, as well.

I'm not sure what my point is, but it just makes the NFL fun for me to see that most of the coaches I grew up with are now back in the NFL. If only Levy, Reeves, Ditka, and Glanville would come back...

[corbes]

Originally posted by Swaggs
I was just thinking how interesting it was to have Joe Gibbs back in coaching, and then considered that Dennis Green and Tom Coughlin have returned to the NFL. With these guys returning, I am wondering if the current crop of NFL coaches are the greatest of all time...and if not the greatest, at least the most experienced per coach of all time.

I say greatest, because other than Bill Walsh, George Seifert, Jimmy Johnson, and (ugh!) Barry Switzer, all Super Bowl winning coaches since 1987 are active head coaches (many with new teams). If we could just find jobs for Marv Levy and Dan Reeves, most of the Super Bowl losers would still be employed, as well.

I'm not sure what my point is, but it just makes the NFL fun for me to see that most of the coaches I grew up with are now back in the NFL. If only Levy, Reeves, Ditka, and Glanville would come back...

Well, just having Denny Green back is golden age enough for me.

Go to hell, Dook, by the way. (By extension, go to hell, Durham, as well.)

[Peregrine]

Hey, Durham is fine, it's just the Duke part that's bad in it!

[corbes]

Originally posted by Peregrine
Hey, Durham is fine, it's just the Duke part that's bad in it!

it's Dook, not "Duke", and don't you forget it!

[corbes]

dola-

Go to hell, State.

[Draft Dodger]

Originally posted by Swaggs
I'm not sure what my point is, but it just makes the NFL fun for me to see that most of the coaches I grew up with are now back in the NFL. If only Levy, Reeves, Ditka, and Glanville would come back...

OK, I'm with you on just about all of this until you got to the Glanville part. Yikes, what a joke. BTW, PTI was referring to Bum Phillips today, but I never got to see what the deal was on it - he can't be wanting to come back, can he?

Certainly does seem to be a good time for coaches...but consider this.

in 1975, the following men coached in the NFL
Tom Landry
Don Shula
John Madden
Chuck Noll
Hank Stram
George Allen
Paul Brown
Don Coryell
Bud Grant
Chuck Knox

Hard to top that list, IMO.

[Franklinnoble]

Originally posted by Draft Dodger
OK, I'm with you on just about all of this until you got to the Glanville part. Yikes, what a joke. BTW, PTI was referring to Bum Phillips today, but I never got to see what the deal was on it - he can't be wanting to come back, can he?

Certainly does seem to be a good time for coaches...but consider this.

in 1975, the following men coached in the NFL
Tom Landry
Don Shula
John Madden
Chuck Noll
Hank Stram
George Allen
Paul Brown
Don Coryell
Bud Grant
Chuck Knox

Hard to top that list, IMO.

Agreed.

[pskov]

Yeah but looking back at 1975 you can also evaluate what success they had after that date also. We can only speculate what ths group could achieve. Obviously they are going to win a few more bowls between them.

[ISiddiqui]

PTI was referring to Bum Phillips today, but I never got to see what the deal was on it - he can't be wanting to come back, can he?

Kornheiser wanted Bum to come back because of his hat. Wilbon suggested Bum give the hat to someone else... he just wanted to see the hat on the sidelines.

[Leonidas]

Originally posted by Draft Dodger
OK, I'm with you on just about all of this until you got to the Glanville part. Yikes, what a joke. BTW, PTI was referring to Bum Phillips today, but I never got to see what the deal was on it - he can't be wanting to come back, can he?

Certainly does seem to be a good time for coaches...but consider this.

in 1975, the following men coached in the NFL
Tom Landry
Don Shula
John Madden
Chuck Noll
Hank Stram
George Allen
Paul Brown
Don Coryell
Bud Grant
Chuck Knox

Hard to top that list, IMO.

You could also shoot to 82 when you had Landry, Shula, Noll, Coryell, Knox, Levy, Parcells, Walsh, Flores, Vermeil, and Gibbs.