One of the greatest coaches in NFL history- Don Shula turns 83 today. Don Shula played in the NFL for seven seasons in the 1950’s as a defensive back.  He was hired as a head coach by the Baltimore Colts in 1963 at the young age of 33. In his first year the Colts went 8-6. He would coach the Colts for seven seasons and his team would have a record of  71-23-4. The game he will always be remembered for Super Bowl III when his heavily favoured Colts were upset by Joe Willie Namath and the New York Jets 16-7.

After the 1969 season Shula signed to coach the Miami Dolphins. Because of a tampering charge the Dolphins had to give the Colts a first round pick for signing Shula. It was worth it. In his second season with the Dolphins they went to the Super Bowl and were beaten by Dallas. The next two seasons they won the Super Bowl. The 1972 Dolphins went 17-0 the only undefeated team in NFL history. There is a difference between being the only undefeated team in NFL history and being the best team in NFL history. The Dolphins of 1972 were an outstanding team but I’ve seen a lot better teams since. They won all their games-can’t take that away from them though.

The champion Dolphin teams were known for running the ball on offense. They had an outstanding offensive line and three running backs- Larry Csonka who was a tough up the middle runner, Eugene “Mercury” Morris who had great outside speed and Jim Kiick who was an all around back. They also had one of the great receivers to throw to when they needed to pass in Paul Warfield. They had two very good quarterbacks- Bob Griese who missed most of the 1972 season and his back up-one of the great back up quarterbacks in NFL history- Earl Morrall.

After their second Super Bowl victory in the 1973 season, Shula would continue to field fine Dolphin teams but would only go to one more Super Bowl with Dan Marino in 1985. They would lose that Super Bowl to the San Francisco 49ers. The future looked bright. It was Marino’s second season. You figured for sure he’d take the Dolphins back but it never happened. The Dolphins could never build a great team around Marino. In the last 22 seasons as a coach Shula just had one Super Bowl appearance as a head coach.

Don Shula retired after the 1995 season. His all time record as a head coach is 328-156-6. His victory total is the most ever for a head coach. His 33 seasons in a row of being a head coach in the NFL is also a record. He coached the most games of any NFL head coach with 526. He is also tied for the most Super Bowl losses as a head coach-4 tied with Bud Grant, Dan Reeves and Marv Levy for that.

He had two sons that also got into coaching. Mike Shula was the head coach at Alabama before Nick Saban replaced him. David Shula was the head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals. David Shula may have been the son of the great Don Shula but he gets my vote as the worst NFL head coach of the last 45 years. He was awful. After the Bengals fired him he wisely left the family business of being an NFL head coach and joined the family steakhouse business.

Back to Don Shula. There was a time that many thought he was the greatest coach in the history of the game. I think the last 22 years of his career ruined that, especially the years when he had one of the great quarterbacks in the history of the game and could only muster one Super Bowl appearance out of that. One of the great coaches the game has ever know-no doubt. The greatest? No way. The greatest was Vincent Thomas Lombardi.

Shula did have the mark of what great coaches do- he never had truely awful teams. He always coached them up.