First, Robert Griffin III's knee buckled and took the Washington Redskins' season down with it, then Peyton Manning took a knee and down went the Denver Broncos' season. Both Mike Shanahan and John Fox are being questioned for their coaching decisions, but these were more than typical playoff losses — both men lost out on a chance to make history.
If the Redskins had won the Super Bowl this year, Shanahan would have been the first man ever to hoist the trophy as head coach of two different teams. There is an asterisk there: Weeb Ewbank took home N.F.L. titles as coach of the Baltimore Colts and New York Jets, but his first go-round was in a far smaller league with only an N.F.L. championship game.
There are baseball managers (Tony La Russa, Sparky Anderson and Bucky Harris) and N.B.A. coaches (Phil Jackson, Pat Riley and Alex Hannum) who achieved this feat. Riley, of course, also lost with a third team, the Knicks. Hannum is notable because his two titles, in St. Louis and later Philadelphia, represented the only two years that a team bested Bill Russell during his Boston career. Also, he coached the Denver Nuggets to an A.B.A. title. Only Bill Sharman also won titles in both leagues; Sharman also lost in the N.B.A. finals with a third team.
The list of coaches who made it — win or lose — to the Super Bowl with more than one team, remains shorter than the similar list in the other sports. If Washington had reached the Super Bowl but lost, Shanahan would have joined just two men who won a Super Bowl and then returned to center stage with another team only to fall short. Bill Parcells won twice in New York before losing with New England, while Mike Holmgren won in Green Bay, then lost in Seattle.
If Denver had won the N.F.L. championship this year, Fox would have become just the third man to win a Super Bowl after reaching the game but losing with another team. Don Shula lost with Baltimore and then won with Miami, while Dick Vermeil lost with Philadelphia before winning in St. Louis. If Denver had made it but lost, Fox would have joined Dan Reeves for the dubious honor of coaching Super Bowl losers in two different cities.
That's it, just five men who have gone there and back again since 1967 — and six counting Ewbank and stretching the N.F.L.'s history back to 1933. In baseball, meanwhile, the 2012 World Series alone provided two examples. San Francisco's Bruce Bochy won his second title in three years, redeeming his 1998 Series loss at the helm of the Padres; Bochy's team bested Detroit, managed by Jim Leyland, who lost for the second time there but who has a ring from Florida with which to console himself. All told baseball has a dozen men to have reached the Fall Classic with two different teams and only Pat Moran completely predates the N.F.L. championship game. The N.B.A. finals, which doesn't date back as far as the N.F.L. championship, also has more members in this club, with seven.
"There's more stability in the N.F.L.," said Bill Cowher, who won a Super Bowl in Pittsburgh, the only team he ever coached. "Fewer coaches move around once they get in a place and win."
The managerial carousel definitely spins faster in the N.B.A. and in baseball. Many of the Super Bowl-winning coaches never had a shot at joining this list because they only coached in one spot — other than Shula, the only coaches to win from 1972-1980 were Tom Landry, Chuck Noll and John Madden.
Then Bill Walsh, who was a lifer in San Francisco, took home three of the next eight himself.
But there are always coaches who, like retired fighters, come back for more.
For 15 years, starting with Tom Flores in 1981, the list of champions included Joe Gibbs with the Redskins (who won three titles then showed you can't go home again a decade later); Flores with the Raiders (later failed in Seattle); Mike Ditka with the Bears (fell short with the Saints); Parcells (the one exception); George Seifert, who took over from Walsh (then couldn't replicate that success in Carolina); and Jimmy Johnson who dominated in Dallas (but not in Miami).
The other obvious thing this list reveals is that the N.F.L. has more dynasties than baseball. For a quarter of a century, beginning in 1972, the Super Bowl belonged almost exclusively to seven teams — only Ditka's Bears broke in among the multiple winners.
But Cowher points out that the coaches don't deserve all the credit for their titles. The heart of any championship team, he says, is a great quarterback. "It's the nature of the sport," said Cowher, who finally won with Ben Roethlisberger. Baseball and basketball are not so reliant on one person or one position. "An N.F.L. coach needs that special player. If you don't have the right quarterback you can get to the playoffs but you can't make that run."
Still, all the teams that fire head coaches each season aren't going to suddenly produce the next Joe Montana or Troy Aikman. So the question then becomes how much should a coach's resume count. Given the track record, it may not make sense to hire a former champion. Many, including Brian Billick, Tony Dungy, Jon Gruden and Cowher, are comfortably ensconced in less stressful TV jobs.
"Every year you do get tempted," Cowher said, "but I have a great job here."
And even if one could be pried free, he might not be the best option. Of the last 15 titles, 10 have been won by coaches who had been fired from a head coaching job where they had never reached the Super Bowl. At the top of that list are Bill Belichick, Tom Coughlin and Shanahan, who bombed with the Raiders before taking over in Denver. The others, like Mike Tomlin, Sean Payton and Mike McCarthy, worked their way up through the ranks.
This year promises more of the same, with Belichick and three coaches — John and Jim Harbaugh and Mike Smith — who are in their first head coaching job. Harbaugh is hoping to become the first ex-college coach since Jimmy Johnson and Barry Switzer to reach the Super Bowl. (Philadelphia stole a page from that playbook this week by hiring Chip Kelly, instead of an experienced N.F.L. coach.) With RGIII and Peyton Manning on their teams, it's possible, of course, that next year's Super Bowl will pit Shanahan against Fox, but history seems to say it's unlikely.
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