From 1920 to 2019, there have been 344 Head Coaches in the NFL (plus 3 first time Head Coaches in 2020). Of those, 111 (almost 33%) have been the Head Coach of two or more teams -or- have had multiple stints as Head Coach of the same team. We've all seen the list of Head Coaches with the most wins. (The networks show one just about every time the Patriots play.) Obviously, longevity plays a huge role in that list. I've often wondered what that list would look like if it went by Winning Percentage. So, I made one. (I did set a minimum of 6 years as a Head Coach to weed out the "one year wonders".) That said, here it is . . .
Also, if you coached the Bills in the 70's or the post-Levy to the McDermott tenure, does it really count as being a HC in the NFL? Really count?!
Don't have a clue why the embedded file showed 2 teams when the source file showed 4. Looks as if whatever gremlins were playing went away.
Counts the same as being a Head Coach for the Browns in this millennium. From 1950 to 1995, they were 374-266-10 (0.580) From 1996 to 2019, they were 101-234-1 (0.301)
There were a couple of things that surprised me while putting that spreadsheet together . . . I knew that George Halas logged a lot of years as Head Coach of the Chicago Bears. But I never realized he had four, separate and distinct 10 year stints as the Bears Head Coach that totaled 40 freaking years! No wonder they call him "Papa Bear"!!! Blanton Collier is most often remembered as the guy who replaced Paul Brown. I was shocked to discover that, in his eight years as the Browns' Head Coach, he compiled the 5th best regular season winning percentage (0.685) in the history of the NFL.
While doing some research for a project I'm working on, I came across this interesting tidbit. There’s a popular misconception that Paul Brown eventually became the majority owner of the Browns. When hired in 1946 by Mickey McBride, part of his compensation package was 5% ownership with options to increase his shares. By the time McBride sold the Browns to David Jones in 1953, Brown’s ownership shares had reached 15%. While under Jones’ ownership, Brown had re-written his own contract to; a.) name him as the franchise’s President ensuring he retained control of all football related decisions, b.) authorized him to represent the franchise at NFL ownership meetings and c.) give him a single vote within the ownership group that could veto any future sale of the franchise. The ironic thing about that last point was, had he wanted to, Paul Brown could have blocked the sale of the Cleveland Browns in 1961 to Art Modell – the man who fired him in 1962.
