Top 10 NFL Coaches

Left: The most important coach in NFL history.

Right: The greatest coach in NFL history.

Don't tell me that Bill Belichick, who was fired as head coach of the New England Patriots yesterday, is "the greatest coach in NFL history." He is not. Bill Belichick is a damn cheat. And without his biggest co-conspirator in cheating, Tom Brady, we saw the real Belichick, in Cleveland, 1991-95: 36-44. And in New England after Brady, 2020-23: 29-38.

And so, to everybody calling him the greatest coach in NFL history, I quote a great football coach, though not in American football, who never had to cheat, Brian Clough: "You lads are a bloody disgrace!

Top 10 Greatest NFL Coaches

10. Tom Landry. Dallas Cowboys, 1960-88. His greatest contribution may have come as defensive coordinator for the New York Giants, as he invented the 4-3 defense. As a head coach, he won 13 Division titles, reached 12 NFL or NFC Championship Games, and reached 5 Super Bowls, winning 2. Built not one but two great offenses, and not one but two great defenses. Won a Super Bowl against Shula's Dolphins.

I'd rank him higher, but the Cowboys did get a lot of breaks.

9. Weeb Ewbank. Baltimore Colts, 1954-62. New York Jets, 1963-73. A few coaches have won back-to-back NFL Championships, and he's one. But he's the only one to win titles in both the NFL and the AFL, and beat Shula's Dolphins in Super Bowl III.

8. Joe Gibbs. Washington Redskins, 1981-92, 2004-07. With Daniel Snyder as the team's owner the 2nd time around, he couldn't do much. With Jack Kent Cooke as the owner the 1st time around, he took the team to 4 Super Bowls in 9 seasons. Even more remarkable, and this is something no other coach in NFL history can claim, he won 3 Super Bowls, each with a different quarterback. Won a Super Bowl against Shula's Dolphins and an NFC Championship Game against Landry's Cowboys, and split 2 NFC Championship Games against Walsh's 49ers.

7. Bill Parcells. New York Giants, 1983-90. New England Patriots, 1993-96. New York Jets, 1997-99. Dallas Cowboys, 2003-06. Coaching in New York magnified his personality, and made him seem better than he was. But he turned 3 different franchises from horrible losers into winners.

He led the Giants to 2 Super Bowl wins, he got the Patriots into a Super Bowl and saved them from being moved -- at least out of Massachusetts to Connecticut, and possibly out of New England entirely -- and, in what has got to be his greatest achievement, he got the Jets to within a half of a Super Bowl. (Okay, Walt Michael and Rex Ryan also did that, and Ewbank took them all the way. Still.)

6. Don Shula. Baltimore Colts, 1963-69. Miami Dolphins, 1970-95. He won more games than any other NFL coaches, both if you count only the regular season and if you also count the postseason. He built 4 strong defenses: With the Detroit Lions as an assistant coach, in Baltimore, and in Miami in the early 1970s and again in the early 1980s.

He won 15 Division titles, and reached 7 NFL championship games, including 6 Super Bowls. His record in those games was 2-5, and they included a game he never should have lost, Super Bowl III, to Ewbank's Jets. Also lost one each to Landry's Cowboys, Gibbs' Redskins and Walsh's 49ers. But they also included Super Bowls VII and VIII, and VII finished the only undefeated NFL season since the NFL began having playoffs in 1932.

5. George Halas. Chicago Bears, 1920-29, 1933-42, 1946-55, 1958-67. Most NFL Championships, 8. Okay, he was owner for 8 and general manager for 8, but head coach for "only 6." But he never had to cheat. His 324 wins were the record until Shula. Also, unlike the guy at Number 1, an innovator, as he created the modern passing game.

Of course, his greatest innovations were not on the sideline, but in the boardroom, and not just because he founded the damn league.

4. Bill Walsh. San Francisco 49ers, 1979-88. Took a 2-14 team, and made them Super Bowl winners in 2 years. Built maybe the greatest offense in football history. Won 3 Super Bowls and had the team in place that would win 2 more.

Won a Super Bowl against Shula's Dolphins, an NFC Championship Game against Landry's Cowboys, and a Divisional Playoff against Parcells' Giants. Split 2 NFC Championship Games against Gibbs' Redskins.

3. Chuck Noll. Pittsburgh Steelers, 1969-91. Took the worst team in the NFL -- not just at the time, but historically -- and, in 4 seasons, built them into a team that would reach the Playoffs 8 straight years, winning 7 Division titles, reaching 4 Super Bowls, and winning them all, 2 of them against Landry's Cowboys. His offense was as good as any the NFL has ever seen. His defense was even better than that. Split 2 Playoff meetings with Shula's Dolphins.

2. Paul Brown. Cleveland Browns, 1946-62. Cincinnati Bengals, 1968-90. Also, Ohio State, 1941-43. The 1st man ever to coach both an NCAA and an NFL Champion. Won the title in the All-American Football Conference in all 4 seasons of its existence. Won 3 NFL titles. Reached his league's title game 10 straight seasons.

The greatest offensive genius the sport has ever known. Worth noting that Ewbank, Shula, Noll and Walsh either played for him or were on his coaching staff.

1. Vince Lombardi. Green Bay Packers, 1959-67. Washington Redskins, 1969. In 1958, the Packers were 1-10-1. 1st year: Got them over .500. 2nd year; Division title. 3rd year: NFL Champions. 4th year: NFL Champions. 5th year: Missed Playoffs. 6th year: Missed Playoffs. 7th year: NFL Champions. 8th year: NFL and World Champions. 9th year; NFL and World Champions. To win those 8th and 9th year NFL Championships, had to beat Landry's Cowboys.

Took a year off, a year in which the Redskins were 5-9. 1st year: Got them over .500. Developed cancer and died before his 2nd year with Washington. In what would have been his 4th year, George Allen, a former Halas assistant, got them into the Super Bowl, and came closer than anyone expected to beating Shula's Dolphins.

Top that, Belichick, and do it without cheating. You can't. No one ever has.

Dwight Clark, 1957-2018

Dwight Clark, Bill Walsh and Joe Montana at Candlestick Park, 1982.

Walsh and Montana made Clark famous.

Clark made Walsh and Montana Super Bowl-bound.

A person should not have his or her life limited to the perception of one moment in it. But sometimes, one moment can make us remember your life forever.

Dwight Edward Clark was born on January 8, 1957 in Kinston, North Carolina, and grew up across the State in Charlotte. He was a quarterback in high school, but Clemson University tried to convert him into a defensive back. He was unhappy, and they moved him to wide receiver.

In 1978, with Steve Fuller as quarterback, he helped them go 11-1, beat Ohio State in the Gator Bowl (where his teammate Charlie Bauman was punched by Ohio State coach Woody Hayes, leading to his firing), and were ranked 6th in the final poll.

Clark caught only 33 passes in college, 11 in his senior year. But Bill Walsh, head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, saw something in him, and drafted him in the 10th round. (Today, the NFL Draft only has 7 rounds.)

The 49ers were terrible, going just 2-14 in Clark's 1st season, as they had the season before. But it was also Walsh's 1st season, and he was building one of the greatest teams of all time. Included in this was another rookie, Notre Dame quarterback Joe Montana.

The 49ers improved to 6-10 in 1980, but no one except Walsh saw the 1981 season coming. After dropping 2 of their 1st 3 -- losing away to Detroit by 7, beating Chicago at home, and losing away to Atlanta by 17 -- the Niners went on a tear, winning 12 of their last 13, the only loss by 3 at home to Cleveland, a pretty good team at the time, and taking their 1st NFC Western Division title in 9 years.

Included in that run was a 17-10 win over the Giants at Candlestick Park. They hosted the Giants again in the Divisional Playoff, and beat them 38-24. This set up their 3rd appearance in an NFC Championship Game. The 1st 2 had been in 1970 and 1971, both against the Dallas Cowboys, and they lost both. They had made the Playoffs again in 1972, and again lost to the Cowboys.

(The 49ers had also lost the 1949 All-America Football Conference Championship Game to the Cleveland Browns, and a 1-game Playoff for the 1957 NFL Western Division title to the Detroit Lions. Until 1981-82, those had been their only trips to the Playoffs, in any league.)

Now, they welcomed the Cowboys again to windswept Candlestick. The Niners had home-field advantage. The Cowboys had experience, with most of them having played in the previous season's NFC Championship Game, a loss to the Philadelphia Eagles; and some having played in Super Bowls XII (a win over the Denver Broncos) and XIII (a loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers).

The game was a seesaw affair. The 49ers led 7-0, then the Cowboys led 10-7 at the end of the 1st quarter, then the 49ers led 14-10, then the Cowboys led 17-14 at the half, then the 49ers led 21-17 at the end of the 3rd quarter. This included a touchdown pass from Montana to Clark.

The Cowboys kicked a field goal at the start of the 4th quarter, to make it 21-20 San Francisco, then added a touchdown to make it 27-21 Dallas. With 4:54 left in the game, the 49ers got the ball at their own 11-yard line. They had given up 6 turnovers, including 3 interceptions by Montana. This would have been cited as the reason they had lost -- if they had lost.

Montana went to work. Lenville Elliott dropped a pass, then ran for 6 yards. Montana threw a 6-yard pass to Freddie Solomon. First down. Elliott ran for 11 yards, for a 1st down, then another 7, then let another Montana pass slip through his hands. He was seemingly setting himself up to be the scapegoat, and he might have remained so, had the Cowboys not been caught offside on the next play, giving the 49ers a 1st down.

Montana threw a 5-yard pass to Earl Cooper, the unintentional symbol of the team, as he wore Number 49. This brought the game to the 2-minute warning. Montana called a reverse, and handed off to Solomon, who ran for 14 yards and a 1st down. Montana threw to Clark for 10 yards, 1st down. Then he threw to Solomon for 13 yards and a 1st down at the Dallas 12. They called their 1st timeout. Montana looked to Solomon in the end zone, but it went incomplete. Elliott ran for 6 yards, bringing the ball to the Dallas 6.

San Francisco called its 2nd timeout, with 58 seconds on the clock. It was 3rd and 3. If the next play failed, there was still time to call timeout -- or to use the stoppage of the clock if it were an incomplete pass -- and get a 1st down and then a winning touchdown, but a field goal wouldn't be enough. It had to be a touchdown.

Walsh told Montana to run "Sprint Right Option," a play he adapted from one he learned as an assistant coach to Paul Brown on the Cincinnati Bengals, which Brown had run successfully with quarterback Otto Graham on the 1950s Browns. Earlier in the game, the play had resulted in a touchdown pass from Montana to Solomon. Walsh figured that would work again.

Maybe it would have, if Solomon hadn't slipped while running his route. There are so many things the loss could have been blamed on, if the 49ers had lost and blown their best chance to date of winning a title. To make matters worse, the Cowboys broke through the 49ers' offensive line. Ed "Too Tall" Jones, Larry Bethea and D.D. Lewis of the "Doomsday Defense" all came toward Montana.

It would later be said of Montana, "He sees the whole field." He knew he had the mobility to get out of this, and the awareness of where his receivers (now including his running backs) were so that he could get the ball to them. I like to compare him to another blond legend of a game called "football," the legendary Dutch forward for Arsenal, Dennis Bergkamp.

Clark's job on the play was to block, but with Solomon having slipped, there was no one to block for. Instead, he got into the end zone. Everson Walls saw this, and covered him. Montana thought he could get the ball to Clark. He executed a perfect pump-fake, and Jones, at 6-foot-9, was not too tall for this play: In this case, his height was a disadvantage, as he jumped to block and possibly intercept a pass that never came, and couldn't get back down in time to get back into position to chase Montana.

Montana jumped and threw. It looked like the ball would go over the end zone. But Clark, who later denied that it was a throwaway, that it was a backup plan for such a play that they had practiced, jumped and caught it in the corner. Touchdown.

"I don't know how I got up there," he said after the game. "Maybe it was God, or something."

Walter Iooss Jr. of Sports Illustrated, already considered perhaps the greatest photographer in sports history, got the picture that ended up on the cover and in everyone's memory. It's an iconic image, even though, due to his arm and his facemask, you can't see his face.

Ray Wersching kicked the all-important extra point, and it was San Francisco 28, Dallas 27. There were still 51 seconds left. But the Cowboys could only run 2 plays from scrimmage, and Lawrence Pillers caused a fumble while sacking Danny White well short of game-winning field-goal range. Jim Stuckey recovered it, and the 49ers were headed to their 1st NFL championship game of any name.

Candlestick Park stood for 54 years, hosting the baseball Giants for 40 seasons, the 49ers for 43 seasons, and the Beatles' last official concert in 1966. Unless you want to count holding firm during the 1989 World Series earthquake and saving 60,000 lives, and hosting the Bay Area's coming-together a week later, this was the much-maligned stadium's greatest moment. As Clark said, "It was dump, but it was our dump, so we could talk about about it, but we didn't want anybody else to talk bad about it."

As with Willie Mays in the 1954 World Series, when the baseball Giants were still in New York, before moving to San Francisco, Clark's grab became known as simply "The Catch."

The 49ers advanced to Super Bowl XVI, at the Pontiac Silverdome in the Detroit suburbs. By a weird twist, the opponent was Walsh's former employer, the Cincinnati Bengals, still owned but no longer coached by Paul Brown, who taught him "Sprint Right Option." Forrest Gregg, who won 5 NFL Championships with the Green Bay Packers and a 6th with the Cowboys, coached them. The 49ers won, 26-21. Clark was not much of a factor, not catching a single pass. But he had won a ring.

He had also earned his 1st Pro Bowl bid, and earned his 2nd the next season, leading the NFL in receptions. The 49ers returned to the NFC Championship Game in the 1983 season, but lost to the Washington Redskins. But they went 15-1 in 1984, and won Super Bowl XIX. In that game, Clark caught 6 passes for 77 yards, as the 49ers beat the Miami Dolphins 38-19.

Clark retired after the 1987 season, having been replaced as a receiving target by both Jerry Rice and John Taylor. He finished his career with 506 receptions for 6,750 yards and 48 touchdowns. Not enough, perhaps, to get into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but enough for the 49ers to retire his Number 87, their 1st honoree from their 1980s teams that won 4 Super Bowls before adding another in the 1994 season.

"The Catch" was a hinge moment in NFL history. Before it, the Cowboys had been one of the League's dominant teams, reaching 11 NFL or NFC Championship Games in 16 years, including 5 Super Bowls, winning 2; while the 49ers had made the Playoffs only 5 times in the previous 35 years. Over the next 14 seasons, the 49ers would go 5-0 in Super Bowls, while the Cowboys would struggle for several years. The rivalry would be renewed in the 1990s, as they faced each other in 3 straight NFC title games, the Cowboys winning in 1992 and '93 and the 49ers in '94.

Everson Walls, meanwhile, spent several years trying to live down his ineffectiveness in preventing "The Catch." But in the 1990 season, he helped the Giants reach Super Bowl XXV, and win it, finally getting a ring.

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After retiring as a player, Clark was hired in the 49ers' front office. He was awarded rings from their victories in Super Bowls XXIII, XXIV and XXIX. In 1999, when the Browns began their restoration, former 49ers executive Carmen Policy was running them, and hired Clark to be general manager. Things didn't go well there, and Clark resigned after 3 seasons, becoming a postgame analyst on SportsNet Bay Area's 49ers coverage.

He married and divorced Ashley Stone, having daughter Casey and sons Riley and Mac. Casey married Peter Harrold, who played for the Los Angeles Kings and the New Jersey Devils.

In 2011, Clark married Kelly Radzikowski, and lived in Santa Cruz, which is considerably closer to the 49ers' new home, Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, than it is to the site of Candlestick or to downtown San Francisco. Clark may have anticipated having a longtime job as a 49ers studio analyst, and thus living somewhere convenient to work.

If so, he was tragically mistaken. On March 19, 2017, he annouced that he had been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, known by its initials ALS, but best known for the earlier sports legend who suffered from it: Lou Gehrig's disease. It's awful: It kills neurons that control voluntary muscles, resulting in the muscles stiffening, twitching and shrinking. Eventually, victims lose the ability to speak, swallow, and finally breathe.

Gehrig died just 2 years after being diagnosed. Physicist Stephen Hawking died earlier this year, over 50 years after being diagnosed, and after 30 years of being almost completely immobile. So its "progress" varies.

Other sports figures known to have had it: Football layers Kevin Turner, Orlando Thomas, and Canadian star Tony Proudfoot; Yankee Hall of Fame pitcher Jim "Catfish" Hunter, 1949-51 Heavyweight Champion Ezzard Charles, and soccer legends Don Revie and Jimmy "Jinky" Johnstone.

From outside sports: Chinese dictator Mao Zedong, Vice President Henry Wallace, Blues singer Huddy "Lead Belly" Ledbetter, actor and singer Dennis Day, songwriter Bob Haymes, jazz musician Charles Mingus, actor David Niven, General Maxwell Taylor, former Senator Jacob Javits of New York, former Governor Sidney P. Osborn of Arizona, former Governor Paul Cellucci of Massachusetts, playwright Sam Shepard, Toto bassist Mike Porcaro, British comedian Ronnie Corbett, actor Lane Smith, soap opera star Michael Zaslow, and professor Morrie Schwartz, immortalized by his former student, Detroit sports columnist Mitch Albom, in his book Tuesdays with Morrie.

More to the point, 3 players from the 49ers' 1964 team developed ALS: Running back Gary Lewis, dead in 1986 at 44; linebacker Matt Hazeltine, dead a month after Lewis, at 53; and quarterback Bob Waters, dead in 1989 at 50. Some people speculated that something to do with Candlestick caused it, but that now appears to have been a dead end. After all, until Clark, no other 49er had been diagnosed.

But enough players now have that a link has been suggested between ALS and the the brain condition chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), which can only be definitively diagnosed after death. Players who've developed ALS have usually had repeated concussions, which has also been a cause of CTE.

Clark had 3 concussions while playing. "I've been asked if playing football caused this," he said. "I don't know for sure. But I certainly suspect it did. And I encourage the National Football League Players Association and the NFL to continue working together in their efforts to make the game of football safer, especially as it related to head trauma.

Dwight and Kelly Clark moved to rural Whitfish, Montana, where he died on June 4, 2018, at the age of 61.

Some of us only knew Dwight Clark for a moment. But because of that moment, we will remember him forever.

UPDATE: Clark was buried at Candy Bar Ranch in Kalispell, Montana.

Do Mediocre Players Make the Best Coaches? NFL Edition

I just got a look at the NFL Playoff game between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Houston Texans. At this writing, it's the 3rd quarter, and the Texans lead, 17-10.

This was the 44th season for the Bengals, and only the 10th time they've made the Playoffs. This was the 10th season for the Texans, and the 1st time they've made it, having also won their first AFC South Division Championship. The last time a Houston team made the NFL Playoffs was the 1993 Houston Oilers, now the Tennessee Titans, 18 seasons ago.

The Bengals are coached by Marvin Lewis, who never played in the NFL. The Texans are coached by Gary Kubiak, best known as John Elway's backup on the Denver Bronco teams that won 3 AFC titles but no Super Bowls.

Like a lot of athletes who were good enough to make it to the major league level of their sport, but not good enough to excel at it, they put their love and knowledge of the game to work in coaching. Kubiak became a respecting quarterbacking coach and offensive coordinator before getting the Texans head job.

Lewis, undrafted out of Idaho State, returned to his alma mater as an assistant coach, and worked his way into the pros, becoming the defensive coordinator that built the Baltimore Ravens defense that led them to the 2000 NFL Championship and Super Bowl XXXV -- holding the Giants to 7 points, and those on a kickoff return, making them the only team with no "offensive points" in a Super Bowl. (Of course, by definition, all points are scored by the offense, even if you pick up a fumble or intercept a pass, at that moment, even if you're a 300-pound defensive end, your side becomes the offense.)

While it's not the lowest point total ever in a Super Bowl -- in SB VI, in 1972, the Dallas Cowboys held the Miami Dolphins to a field goal -- it is the lowest point total in an NFL championship game, under any name, since the Cleveland Browns shut out the Baltimore Colts in 1964.

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What about the other teams in the NFL Playoffs?

Giants: Tom Coughlin won Super Bowl XLII, and got the Jacksonville Jaguars to the AFC Championship Game in only the franchise's 2nd season. But while he set Syracuse University's pass-reception record on a team that had Larry Csonka and Floyd Little in its backfield, he went undrafted by the NFL. He coached at Syracuse, and made his name as Boston College's quarterbacks coach, turning a 5-foot-9-and-3/4 kid named Doug Flutie into a Heisman Trophy winner. He coached with Philadelphia and Green Bay before joining Bill Parcells' Giant staff, then became BC's head man before coaching the Jags and the Giants.

New England Patriots: Bill Belichick has won 3 Super Bowls -- perhaps by cheating -- but as a player, went right from college to working for a pro coach, Ted Marchibroda of the Baltimore Colts, and began his coaching rise that way, including coaching on Parcells' staff, along with Coughlin and some other names that became head coaches. I don't know what Coughlin learned from watching Belichick, but Belichick's been a head man in 4 Super Bowls, all of them close, and Coughlin's Giants are the only one to beat him.

Pittsburgh Steelers: Mike Tomlin, like Coughlin, set receiving records at his school, William & Mary, but went undrafted. He coached under Tony Dungy and Jon Gruden with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and when Bill Cowher left the Steelers they hired Tomlin, who has now led them to 2 AFC titles and a Super Bowl win.

New Orleans Saints: Sean Payton was one of the 1987 strikebreakers, playing 3 games for Chicago's "Spare Bears." Like Fox, he was on Jim Fassel's staff for the 2000 NFC Champion Giants, and led the Saints to their first Super Bowl appearance and win.

Green Bay Packers: Mike McCarthy went to Baker University, an NAIA school in Kansas -- there's the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly known as Division I-A), there's the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA), there's NCAA Division II, there's NCAA Division III... and then there's the NAIA. But McCarthy made his way to the nearby Kansas City Chiefs, where he was on a staff that got them to the 1993-94 AFC Championship Game, the closest the franchise has gotten to the Super Bowl since 1969-70. Maybe some of the Chiefs' veteran quarterback, Joe Montana, rubbed off on him. He became a well-regarded quarterbacks coach and then offensive coordinator before getting the Pack head job, and in the past 2 seasons has led them to a Super Bowl win and a 15-1 season which makes them the favorites to do it again.

Denver Broncos: Jon Fox played at San Diego State, where he was a teammate of Herman "You play to win the game!" Edwards, but went undrafted. Prior to his current job, his jobs including defensive coordinator for the Giants under Jim Fassel and the head job with the Carolina Panthers, whom he led to the 2003 NFC Championship before losing Super Bowl XXXVIII to Belichick's Pats.

Atlanta Falcons: Mike Smith was the defensive MVP at East Tennessee State University, but 1 year in Canada was the limit of his pro playing experience. Like Marvin Lewis, he was on Brian Billick's Ravens staff before being hired in Atlanta. He has taken a franchise that was a horror show after the Michael Vick fiasco and turned it into a very respectable unit again.

San Francisco 49ers: Jim Harbaugh is almost an exception to what I'm suggesting is a rule. The son of Jack Harbaugh, an assistant coach to Bo Schembechler at the University of Michigan, he became Michigan's quarterback, got the Bears into the Playoffs a couple of times, and got the Indianapolis Colts to the 1995 AFC Championship Game. He was a member of the Oakland Raiders staff that won the 2002 AFC Championship, then was named head coach at the University of San Diego and Stanford University before being named Niners head man earlier this year. He seems to have singlehandedly turned Alex Smith from one of the biggest first-pick-in-the-draft busts ever into a Playoff quarterback.

Baltimore Ravens: Jim's older brother John Harbaugh never played in the NFL, having been a defensive back at Miami University of Ohio. The brothers' father, Jack Harbaugh, was an assistant to University of Michigan coach Bo Schembechler, who had played at Miami and recommended John to the school. He spent 10 years on Andy Reid's Philadelphia Eagles staff before getting the Ravens job.

Detroit Lions: Jim Schwartz played at Georgetown University, the Washington, D.C.-based school far better known for its basketball team. He was a Titans assistant under Jeff Fisher and helped them win the 1999 AFC Title and make more Playoff appearances in the 2000s. After the Lions bottomed out with their 2008 0-16 season, he was brought in, and has made them a Playoff team in just 3 years. Considering that this is his first head job, and what he had to work with at the start, this may be the most amazing NFL coaching job in a long time.

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"Okay, Mike," I can hear you say, "this theory of yours makes sense for the moment. But is it historically true?"

Let's see. First, let's start counting from 1933 onward. Why? Two reasons: First, it was the 1st season in which there was an official NFL Championship Game; second, we're now getting out of the era of player-coaches, men who were playing and coaching at the same time.

1933 Chicago Bears: George Halas. Good player, not a great one. In the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a coach and owner, much more than as a player.

1934 New York Giants: Steve Owen. Good player, not a great one. In the Hall of Fame as a coach, not a player.

1935 Detroit Lions: George "Potsy" Clark. I can't find much information about his playing career, which suggests he was, at best, ordinary.

1936 Green Bay Packers: Earl "Curly" Lambeau. Good player, not a great one. In the Hall of Fame as a coach, not a player.

1937 Washington Redskins: Ray Flaherty. An exceptional player, helping the Giants win the 1927 NFL Championship (in the pre-title game era). His Number 1 is, by some sources, the 1st uniform number to be retired by any team in any sport. In the Hall as a player.

1938 Giants: Owen.

1939 Packers: Lambeau.

1940 Bears: Halas.

1941 Bears: Halas.

1942 Redskins: Flaherty.

1943 Bears: Heartley "Hunk" Anderson, a former Notre Dame star, and Luke Johnsos (not "Johnson") were co-head coaches while Halas was a Navy officer during World War II. Although Anderson was a very good collegiate player, neither had starred in the NFL.

1944 Packers: Lambeau.

1945 Cleveland Rams: Adam Walsh. Not to be confused with the boy of the same name, whose kidnapping and murder inspired his father John Walsh to start the TV show America's Most Wanted, this Adam Walsh was one of the linemen known as the "Seven Mules," blocking for the "Four Horsemen," that helped Notre Dame win the 1924 National Championship. But he never played in the pros -- although by the standards of the time he would have been considered an excellent prospect. Despite winning the title, the Rams did not draw well in Cleveland, and became the only team in North American major league sports history to win a "world championship" and then move for the next season, to Los Angeles.

1946 Bears: Halas.

1947 Chicago Cardinals: Jimmy Conzelman was one of the NFL's 1st stars, and was player-coach of the 1928 NFL Champions, the Providence Steam Roller. (Officially, the name had no S on the end -- why, I don't know. But most people just called them the Steam Rollers, anyway, and some surviving artifacts of the team such as banners and game programs have the S on the end. The franchise went bust in 1933 due to the Depression.) Conzelman is in the Hall of Fame, mainly as a player.

1948 Philadelphia Eagles: Earle "Greasy" Neale was a very good baseball player, the starting right fielder for the 1919 Cincinnati Reds. He played both Major League Baseball and pro football with Jim Thorpe (albeit in the pre-NFL era). As a football player, he wasn't as good as he was at baseball.

1949 Eagles: Neale.

1950 Cleveland Browns: Paul Brown was one of the greatest minds the game of football has ever produced, but he never played in the pros.

1951 Los Angeles Rams: Joe Stydahar played on Halas' 1940 "Monsters of the Midway" and is legitimately in the Hall as a player.

1952 Detroit Lions: Raymond "Buddy" Parker played on the Lions' 1935 title team, but wasn't a great player.

1953 Lions: Parker.

1954 Browns: Brown.

1955 Browns: Brown.

1956 Giants: Jim Lee Howell played 10 years for the Giants and was a member of their 1938 title team, but was not particularly noteworthy as a player. As a head coach, he's remembered less for leading the Giants to this title than for his assistants: Offensive coordinator Vince Lombardi and defensive coordinator Tom Landry.

1957 Lions: George Wilson played for Halas' 1940 Bears, like Stydahar; unlike Stydahar, he was an unremarkable player. But he did lead the Lions to what, for the moment, remains their last title, after Parker quit in a huff in the preceding off-season. Wilson was also the first head coach of the Dolphins. He should not be confused with George "Wildcat" Wilson who in the 1920s starred at the University of Washington and then played under Conzelman on the 1928 Champion Steam Roller. Oddly, I know a pair of brothers named George and Merle Wilson -- but Merle is the Dolphin fan, while that George likes the Redskins.

1958 Baltimore Colts: Wilbur "Weeb" Ewbank is the only man to be head coach of both an NFL Champion and an AFL Champion, the 1968-69 Jets. But he never played pro ball.

1959 Colts: Ewbank.

1960 Philadelphia Eagles: Lawrence "Buck" Shaw was a teammate of Hunk Anderson on Knute Rockne's 1920 Notre Dame team that won the National Championship, but he never played pro ball.

1961 Packers: Vince Lombardi was a member of the "Seven Blocks of Granite" team that made Fordham University a formidable side in the late 1930s, but he never played in the pros.

1962 Packers: Lombardi.

1963 Bears: Halas.

1964 Browns: Blanton Collier is the most recent man to lead a Northern Ohio-based team to a World Championship, but he never played pro ball.

1965 Packers: Lombardi.

1966 Packers: Lombardi.

1967 Packers: Lombardi.

1968 New York Jets: Ewbank.

1969 Kansas City Chiefs: Hank Stram was an exceptional all-around athlete in high school, but World War II interrupted his college days and he went right into coaching in peacetime.

1970 Baltimore Colts: Don McCafferty played only 1 season of pro ball.

1971 Dallas Cowboys: Tom Landry was a very good player, a 2-way star for the University of Texas in the late 1940s, with Bobby Layne of the 1950s Lions as his quarterback. When the NFL went 2-platoon in the early '50s, he was the first player to make his mark as purely a defensive back. He became one of the great defensive minds in the game's history, building the unit that became the 1st one to lead fans to chant "De-FENSE!" as the Giants won the 1956 NFL Championship. He became the Cowboys' first head coach in 1960 and was their only one until 1988. He's in the Hall as a coach, but could have been elected as a player.

1972 Miami Dolphins: Don Shula was a good defensive back for the Colts, but not a great one.

1973 Dolphins: Shula.

1974 Pittsburgh Steelers: Chuck Noll was a very good 2-way lineman for Paul Brown's Cleveland Browns, but not a great one.

1975 Steelers: Noll.

1976 Oakland Raiders: John Madden was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles in 1959, but wrecked his knee in training camp and never played a pro down. But that worked out wonderfully for him because Eagle quarterback Norm Van Brocklin was studying game film in the locker room and called him over, and taught Madden how to analyze game film. Madden couldn't play on the Eagles' 1960 NFL Champions, but he became an assistant in the AFL with the San Diego Chargers and then the Raiders, and was one of the few coaches in the era before the 16-game schedule to win 100 regular-season games in 10 years.

1977 Cowboys: Landry.

1978 Steelers: Noll.

1979 Steelers: Noll.

1980 Oakland Raiders: Tom Flores was the 1st-ever starting quarterback for the Raiders, but was an ordinary player, unlike later Raider signal-callers Daryle Lamonica, George Blanda, Ken Stabler, Jim Plunkett, Jay Schroeder and Rich Gannon.

1981 San Francisco 49ers: Although Bill Walsh he played football and boxed at San Jose State University, and served as a worthy assistant to Paul Brown with the original Cincinnati Bengals, he never played a down in the pros.

1982 Washington Redskins: Joe Gibbs went right into coaching after graduating from San Diego State, and never played a down in the pros.

1983 Los Angeles Raiders: Flores.

1984 49ers: Walsh.

1985 Chicago Bears: Mike Ditka is in the Hall as a player, and justifiably so, as he was the 1st offensive end to be a modern tight end, and helped Halas win his last title with the 1963 Bears and Landry his 1st with the 1971 Cowboys.

1986 Giants: Bill Parcells was drafted by the Detroit Lions but cut before the season started, and never played in the NFL.

1987 Redskins: Gibbs.

1988 49ers: Walsh.

1989 49ers: George Seifert never played in the pros.

1990 Giants: Parcells.

1991 Redskins: Gibbs.

1992 Cowboys: Jimmy Johnson played for the University of Arkansas' 1964 team that won a split National Championship, but never played in the pros. He made his name coaching at Oklahoma State and the University of Miami (the one in Florida, not the one in Ohio). His college teammate, Jerry Jones, bought the Cowboys, fired Landry, and hired Johnson, enabling him to become the 1st man to be head coach of both a college National Champion and a Super Bowl winner. But Jones drove Johnson nuts (not a long drive), Johnson quit, and Jones hired legendary University of Oklahoma coach Barry Switzer, who preceded them both as an Arkansas player, and then became the 2nd such coach.

1993 Cowboys: Johnson.

1994 49ers: Seifert.

1995 Cowboys: Barry Switzer played at Arkansas, but went right into the U.S. Army and then into coaching after his discharge.

1996 Packers: Mike Holmgren has been called the best high school quarterback the City of San Francisco has ever produced -- hard to imagine, considering how fat he was by the time he became an NFL head coach -- and was a backup on the 1967 University of Southern California team that won a National Championship, thanks to another San Franciscan, O.J. Simpson. Holmgren was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals, but washed out with both them and the Jets before the season began, and never played in the pros.

1997 Denver Broncos: Mike Shanahan was a quarterback at Eastern Illinois University, but a freak injury in practice ruptured a kidney, nearly killing him and ending his chances at a pro career. He was 2-0 in Super Bowls with the Broncos, the 2nd win coming at the expense of the Atlanta Falcons, coached by Dan Reeves -- who had a good pro career with Landry's Cowboys, first as a running back (SB VI) and then as an assistant coach (SB XII -- same with Ditka), but was 0-3 in Super Bowls as Bronco head man.

1998 Broncos: Shanahan.

1999 St. Louis Rams: Dick Vermeil was a backup quarterback at San Jose State, and never had a chance to play pro ball. But he's been named a Coach of the Year in high school, junior college, Division I-A (leading UCLA to win a Pacific Eight title and a Rose Bowl) and the NFL, getting the Eagles to their first Championship Game appearance in 20 years (losing Super Bowl XV) and getting the Rams to their first World Championship in 49 years (winning Super Bowl XXXIV).

2000 Baltimore Ravens: Brian Billick was drafted by the 49ers but was cut by them and the Cowboys and never played pro ball.

2001 New England Patriots: Belichick, as I said, never played pro ball.

2002 Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Jon Gruden was a backup quarterback at Ohio's University of Dayton and never had much of a chance to play in the NFL.

2003 Patriots: Belichick.

2004 Patriots: Belichick.

2005 Steelers: Bill Cowher ends a 20-year run of Super Bowl-winning coaches who never played so much as a single down in the NFL. A linebacker, he wasn't a great player, but he did help the Browns' "Kardiac Kids" dethrone their arch-rivals, the Steelers, as AFC Central Division Champions in 1980.

2006 Indianapolis Colts: Tony Dungy was a defensive back who didn't play long in the NFL, but did get a ring with the 1978 Steelers. He then became a boy-wonder coach, serving under Noll on the Steelers, Marty Schottenheimer on the Chiefs and Dennis Green on the Minnesota Vikings before getting the Bucs' job. Fired right before they could take the last step, he was quickly hired by the Colts, and led them to their 1st title since moving from Baltimore.

2007 Giants: Coughlin, as I said, never played pro ball.

2008 Steelers: Tomlin, as I said, never played pro ball.

2009 Saints: Payton, as I said, was a strikebreaker, but otherwise never played pro ball.

2010 Packers: McCarthy, as I said, never played pro ball.

2011 To Be Determined.

*

So, counting multiple winners multiple times, counting the 1943 Anderson/Johnsos entry as one player, and counting coaches who didn't play pro ball at all as "mediocre players":

Great players: 7
Good players: 20
Mediocre players: 50

Being charitable, the only "great players" to have become title-winning NFL coaches in the last 60 years are Tom Landry and his former player and assistant Mike Ditka. Being more specific, the only Hall of Fame player to have become a title-winning NFL coach in the last 60 years is Ditka.

Consider some of the Hall of Fame players who have become NFL head coaches from 1951 onward: Sammy Baugh, Tom Fears, Norm Van Brocklin, Otto Graham, Joe Schmidt, Bart Starr, Mike Singletary.

But since Stydahar coached the '51 Rams to the title, the only other HOF players to be head coaches of teams that even got into the NFL Championship Game (1952-65) or the Super Bowl (1966 season through 2010) is Forrest Gregg, who played on Lombardi's 5 Packer titles and Landry's 1st Cowboy title. (So did Herb Adderley, who's never been an NFL head coach. He and Gregg are the only NFL players to have played on 6 title-winning teams.)

I'm not the only person to think about this idea. It's long been suggested that great players, when they become coaches, get frustrated with players under them who aren't as good as they were, and even more so with players who are good but don't put up the kind of effort the coach once did.

I'll look at the other major sports in subsequent entries.

Oh, and it's a final from Reliant Stadium in Houston: Texans 31, Bengals 10. This is the 1st time since December 29, 1991 -- 19 years and 9 days -- since a Houston team has won an NFL Playoff game. That time? At the Astrodome, the Oilers won 17-10 over... the Jets.