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The best football coach of all time is...


y*so*blu

Is?  

138 members have voted

  1. 1. Is?

    • Paul Brown (defined modern football)
      15
    • Vince Lombardi (a game for madmen)
      8
    • Tom Landry (Men With Hats)
      0
    • Chuck Noll (gave Terry Bradshaw lifelong daddy issues)
      1
    • Don Coryell (Air Someone-or-Other)
      0
    • Joe Gibbs (3 championships w/3 different QBs)
      5
    • Bill Walsh (The Notorious W.C.O.)
      14
    • Bill Belichick (...is on to Cincinnati)
      91
    • Other
      3
    • Don Shula (R.I.P.)
      2


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15 hours ago, Nzd07 said:

Even as a Vikings fan, Belichick has to win one without Brady to be considered over Lombardi (hope he does :D)

Lombardi never won one without Starr. Walsh never won one without Montana. Shula never won one without Griese. 

Clearly, there are no coaches who are the best coach of all time. 

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On 4/26/2021 at 12:29 AM, AngusMcFife said:

Lombardi coached in an era where you couldn't just ride one great player to 11+ wins every season. All his units had to be tight and coherent, not driven by a superstar. The coaches had a much bigger impact on the game in that era, and were more responsible for wins and losses than today, which is QB-driven.   

I think that's the key point that younger fans miss. Any Given Sunday is long gone, due to the influence of the rules changes and therefore the quarterback position. Nowadays I look at the season win over/unders like 11.5 and wonder how in the heck that elite team is going to lose 5+ times if it has a dominant quarterback? The games are incredibly boring these days, due to total lack of contrast. Teams with lousy quarterbacks are brainstorming to throw it 35+ times, which merely lengthens the game and plays smack into the hands of the opponent with the superior quarterback. I always know that the score early in the game means nothing at all. The league caters to the premier quarterback screwing around for a half or three quarters before pulling it out against all the stiff opponents. 

I am old enough to remember the end of the Lombardi era. Those years were truly Any Given Sunday due to the surreal physicality, the anything goes rules, and the amazing stylistic contrast. Teams weren't in any position to play 3 or 4 playoff games because they were so worn out by the brutal regular season. 

Lombardi was winning huge via superior strategy and dislodging huge human beings out of the way. Those "in the alley" clips are awesome and so representative of that era. He wasn't dumping it over the head of overmatched linebackers time and again. Plus Lombardi never gets enough credit for the first two Super Bowls and how lopsided they were. The AFL was badly underrated in those years, as evidenced by the results of the following two years. The AFL didn't suddenly go from doormat to dominant between 1967 and 1968. They weren't facing Vince Lombardi anymore. Meanwhile check out those Chief and Raider rosters from 1966 and 1967. There were star players all over the place. 

Knoll and Shula deserve high marks as well, for similar reasons during a physical era in which quarterbacks were important but not everything. However, Shula has to be downgraded for everything related to the Marino era, when he disgracefully allowed that franchise to become nothing but a pantyhose passing team even though the rules hadn't shifted fully yet and cupcake teams were not rewarded. I absolutely loved that decade plus when the physical NFC teams exposed and humiliated the AFC passing softies. I still think the worst playoff coaching job of all time was Don Shula in the 1994 playoffs at San Diego. Miami controlled the game throughout yet somehow got out rushed 40 attempts to 8. I was charting the game in Las Vegas and going absolutely nuts, as a Dolphins fan. Are were ever going to run the ball? That loss didn't feel bad at all given Shula's incompetent decision making. I have no idea how fellow Miami fans complain about that game and Stoyanovich's late missed field goal. That was mere trivia compared to the brutal coaching. And Dan Marino was every bit the self-absorbed dunce who didn't know a darn thing about football strategy. He probably was annoyed at the 8 rushes.

I forgot to mention that one of Lombardi's titles was somewhat bogus, just like Belichick's first championship never happens minus the Tuck Rule absurdity. Don Chandler of the Packers clearly missed a late field goal in the first round playoff game against the Colts in 1965. The game should have ended with Green Bay eliminated, 10-7. Instead the referees under the goal post inexplicably ruled the kick was good. Even Chandler was stunned. He was throwing up his arms in despair at blowing the chip shot. Green Bay won in overtime then defeated the Browns handily for the title.

That was a big deal when I was a young kid. You don't hear much about it anymore. That situation caused the very low uprights to be raised beginning the following season. Then they have been raised several times subsequently as the kicking game became more sophisticated and powerful. 

Edited by Awsi Dooger
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5 hours ago, Mr Bad Example said:

Lombardi never won one without Starr. Walsh never won one without Montana. Shula never won one without Griese. 

Clearly, there are no coaches who are the best coach of all time. 

Yes, but Brady winning a title at 43 in his first year in a new organization will always be a black mark. Starr was a good QB but you never hear him in any GOAT convos. If Bill drafts a QB and wins a title with him, or wins with a Jimmy G or even Cam (unlikely) there is no black mark on his resume.

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2 minutes ago, Nzd07 said:

Yes, but Brady winning a title at 43 in his first year in a new organization will always be a black mark. Starr was a good QB but you never hear him in any GOAT convos. If Bill drafts a QB and wins a title with him, or wins with a Jimmy G or even Cam (unlikely) there is no black mark on his resume.

What do you think people thought of Starr in the 60’s lol? It was basically him and Unitas

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Bill Belichick is undoubtedly the best coach ever, IMO.  The reason is that he has not only had more success than anyone else, he also did it in an era of parity, which is MUCH harder to do than it was back in the days before the salary cap.  Before the salary cap, you could keep a good team together and keep winning until those players started retiring.  In Belichick's era, you have to reload your roster far more often, and that makes the job a lot harder.

As far as I'm concerned, Belichick and his Patriots have been far and away the most impressive dynasty in the history of the game.

Edited by Uncle Buck
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  • 2 months later...

Not trying to say he was the GOAT but John Madden was probably the best "players coach" of all time how he was able to hold all those personalities focused on the Raider teams of the seventies was more than impressive let alone his win loss record was magnificent. If he didn't have the health issues forcing his retirement he very well may be the GOAT.

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  • 1 month later...

Bill Walsh will have a greater impact on the game than any coach, and from his tree there will be more superbowls than from Belichick's. 

Everyone from Belichick's coaching tree fails, and relatively quickly, once he leaves the nfl his impact will quickly be forgotten.

Bill Walshs coaches produce coachs.

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There’s certainly a case to be made for Paul Brown. His tree is most impressive by far. Here’s a partial list of coaches that either played or coached for him:

Blanton Collier 

Weeb Eubank

Bud Grant

Don Shula

Bill Walsh

Chuck Noll

Not to mention Brown’s innovations in coaching and equipment.

The “Football Life” documentary on Brown is one of my favorite documentaries on any topic. However, I have to give the nod to Bill Belichick. On Brown’s day, coaches had autocratic control over their players and the coach ruled with an iron hand. Today there’s a salary cap and the coach has to manage personalities as well. Yes, Belichick had the greatest QB of all time, but besides Rob Gronkowski, there were ZERO future Hall of Famers on that offense to assist Brady in 20 years - and Gronkowski only participated in the 2014 and 2018 Super Bowl Championships. The other four were won without Gronkowski.

As crazy as this sounds, but I think Belichick did more with less even though he had Tom Brady. 

 

 

 

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On 4/29/2021 at 5:07 PM, Nzd07 said:

Yes, but Brady winning a title at 43 in his first year in a new organization will always be a black mark. Starr was a good QB but you never hear him in any GOAT convos. If Bill drafts a QB and wins a title with him, or wins with a Jimmy G or even Cam (unlikely) there is no black mark on his resume.

Black mark on Bill the GM maybe for letting Brady go. Not on him as a coach though.

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On 8/15/2021 at 9:18 PM, Kiwibrown said:

Bill Walsh will have a greater impact on the game than any coach, and from his tree there will be more superbowls than from Belichick's. 

Everyone from Belichick's coaching tree fails, and relatively quickly, once he leaves the nfl his impact will quickly be forgotten.

Bill Walshs coaches produce coachs.

Yeah i guess this could be a multi facet question. Belichick’s legacy won’t live on through others like other coaches, but that also plays into his auro of greatness IMO. 

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Im going to go with the guy who has 1 city with a entire team named after him and completely different city with their stadium named after him.

In 45 years of coaching Paul Brown was 338-127-15 (72.0%). He won 7 league championships (4 in the AAFC and 3 in the NFL), 1 NCAA championship (1942 Ohio State), 4 high school national championships, and 7 state championships (6 in Ohio, 1 in Maryland).

The man literally has rings at a high school level, college level, AAFC level and NFL level.

I say all of that to simply say this: Paul Brown is far and away the greatest coach of all time--and has a higher all time win% than Bill Belichick.

***Was the first coach to use game film to scout opponents, time the 40 yard dash in scouting, hire a staff of assistant coaches and script the games first 10 plays AND invented the 1) Facemask 2) Draw Play 3) Practice Squads 4) Helmet Microphones 5) Playbooks

 

Edited by AkronsWitness
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