Don’t Get Too Excited

For the first time ever, a Black head coach has led his team to the Super Bowl Championship. To many, the accomplishment has historical significance. To those in the know, and notwithstanding the historical significance of having Black coaches on both sides of Super Bowl XLI, real progress will not have occurred in my opinion until coaches are compared to Coach Dungy like they are to, say Bill Belichick of the Patriots, and assistants on Dungy’s staff are considered for head coaching positions in the NFL and Division-1 college football.

Dungy, has taken 10 of his 12 teams to the playoffs, and has a career regular season record of 119 – 70, for a 62% winning percentage. He has directed the Colts to a 60-20 regular season record, five playoff appearances, four AFC South titles, two AFC Championship games and 1 Super Bowl Championship the past 6 seasons. Dungy recently became the 20th coach since entering the league in 1970 to win 100 career games, and is only the 6th coach to win 100+ regular season games in his first 10 years as a head coach. Of the 20 coaches with 100+ wins, only 5 reached 100 career wins faster than Dungy’s pace of 163 games. Among active NFL coaches with 50+ regular season victories, Dungy’s percentage ranks only behind Coach Joe Gibbs. Between 1995 and 2006, Dungy earned eight consecutive playoff appearances, ranking only behind legendary Tom Landry with the most consecutive playoff appearances by NFL coaches since 1970.

Bill Belichick has a career winning percentage of 59% (150-101) and was until 2006 the winningest head coach in the NFL over the last 5 seasons. In his first seven seasons in New England, Belichick won three Super Bowl championships, three conference titles, five divisional crowns and 13 playoff victories. Belichick’s accomplishments have placed him among the NFL’s elite coaches, and seven former assistant coaches on Belicheck’s staffs in Cleveland or New England have been promoted to head coach at the NFL or collegiate level. Three current NFL head coaches worked on Belichick staffs: Nick Saban (no NFL experience), Romeo Crennel (no head coaching experience), and Eric Mangini (no head coaching experience at any level). Additionally, four college head coaches were hired as assistants by Belichick: Charlie Weis, Kirk Ferentz, Pat Hill and Al Groh.

Based on his 2006 achievements, Dungy is now the winningest head coach in the NFL over the last 5 seasons. Notwithstanding the same, not a single one of his assistants over the years has moved on to a NFL or college level head coaching position. Jim Caldwell, who just completed his third season as assistant head coach/quarterbacks coach with the Colts after serving the prior three seasons as the Colts quarterbacks coach, would seem to be the most likely candidate. Caldwell has more than 20 years of collegiate experience, spending 1993-2000 as head coach at Wake Forest. In 1999, Caldwell led Wake Forest to its first winning season and bowl game since 1992. Wake Forest ranked among the nation's Top 25 teams in passing offense on four different occasions during Caldwell’s tenure, including 10th in the NCAA in 1995.

While we can celebrate Super Bowl XLI as a community, we should reserve the real celebration until real change occurs in the NFL, i.e. the assistants of Dungy or Lovie Smith are promoted to head coaching positions. We can celebrate more when a Black head coach with a losing record (Belichick’s Browns and Jets teams) is hired despite his past failure(s) as a head coach.

If you have questions or require additional information, please contact Everett L. Glenn, Esq. at eglenn@espsportslawpro.com or call 562.619.8460.