Factoid
You’ve got to hand it to the Steelers. Since the merger in 1970, they’ve had three coaches – Chuck Noll, Bill Cowher and Mike Tomlin – and all three have won Super Bowls. That’s a track record that entire league can only envy.
Prior to hiring Noll in 1969, the Steelers were historically the worst team in the league. They were pretty much the Detroit Lions of the previous 40 years, going 161-256-19, with no championships for any of their first 16 coaches.
Below see a chart I compiled, showing the number of coaches for each team in the Super Bowl era, with the number that also won Super Bowls. It illustrates just how fortunate the Steelers have been, relative to the scores of franchises that have cycled through a dozen-plus coaches in the same time frame, with little success.
Rather than go with the merger, I rolled it back to 1966 to include those initial Super Bowls. So say hello to Bill Austin. He’s the last Pittsburgh coach who didn’t win a Super Bowl – the guy who preceded Noll. He was their unsuccessful coach in the late ‘60s, when the Steelers were the doormat in the NFL’s “Century” Division, where they competed with the Cleveland Browns and St. Louis Cardinals. The New York Giants were in that division for two of its three years; for the 1968 season, they swapped spots with the New Orleans Saints (with the Giants moving into the “Capitol” Division with Dallas, Philadelphia and Washington for the first time).
So with Austin in there, Pittsburgh is sitting at 75 percent – three of its four coaches in the Super Bowl Era have won Super Bowls. That’s way better than any other franchise. The Cowboys, at 3 out 7, are sitting in second. The Ravens look like the only team with a realistic chance of getting over 50 percent (if John Harbaugh can win a Super Bowl, that would lift them to two out of three since that franchise relocated from Cleveland).
For the total number shown below, some coaches are double listed. If a coach ran a team, disappeared for a few years, then returned, he’s counted as two different guys. It’s happened a fair number of times, most notably with Joe Gibbs of Washington. So the total number below shows the number of coaching moves (head coaching changes) for each team.
SUPER BOWL WINNING COACHES, ALL-TIME
Teams with the best ratio of Super Bowl winning coaches. The number of winning coaches for each franchise is shown, as well as the total number of coaches for each team in the Super Bowl era.
SB No Pct
3 4 .750 Pittsburgh
3 7 .429 Dallas
1 3 .333 Baltimore
2 10 .200 Green Bay
2 10 .200 NY Giants
2 13 .154 Oakland
2 13 .154 San Francisco
1 8 .125 Miami
1 8 .125 Tampa Bay
2 17 .118 Indianapolis
1 9 .111 Chicago
1 10 .100 Denver
1 11 .091 Kansas City
1 13 .077 St. Louis
1 13 .077 Washington
1 14 .071 New England
1 14 .071 New Orleans
1 15 .067 NY Jets
0 2 .000 Houston
0 2 .000 Jacksonville
0 3 .000 Carolina
0 8 .000 Minnesota
0 8 .000 Seattle
0 9 .000 Cincinnati
0 11 .000 Philadelphia
0 11 .000 Tennessee
0 14 .000 Arizona
0 14 .000 Cleveland
0 15 .000 Buffalo
0 15 .000 Detroit
0 15 .000 San Diego
0 16 .000 Atlanta
—Ian Allan
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Posted by ZACH LEAVITT | Feb. 02 at 11:25 PM
Was McDaniels really so bad that he negated Shanahan's Super Bowl victories?
Posted by IAN ALLAN | Feb. 03 at 03:24 AM
Good point. I will update.