Does a head coach need a Super Bowl win to be considered great? There are 20 head coaches in NFL history with at least 50 wins over the .500 mark in the regular season and the postseason. Only three — George Halas, Curly Lambeau, and Steve Owen — did not ply their trade in the Super Bowl era (Okay, Halas retired as a head coach after the 1967 season, but we’ll give him a pass here). Of the 17 remaining coaches on that list, five — Paul Brown, Andy Reid, Marty Schottenheimer, George Allen, and Bud Grant — never won a Super Bowl. Brown and Grant are in the Hall of Fame. Marv Levy, who finished his career 31 games over .500 and lost four Super Bowls as Grant did, is also in Canton.
Eight coaches have won at least 200 games in NFL history. This is of course easier to do in the modern era as the season went from 12 to 14 games in 1960 and from 14 to 16 in 1978, but it’s a remarkable achievement nonetheless. Two of those coaches are active — Bill Belichick, who has won six super bowls as a head coach, and Andy Reid, who hasn’t won one, and lost his only opportunity to date to Belichick in Super Bowl XXXIX at the end of the 2004 season.
Now, Reid gets his second chance with his second NFL team as the Chiefs prepare to face the 49ers in Super Bowl LIV. If Reid loses, and if he never wins a Super Bowl in his coaching career, does that wipe out (to date) 207 wins, a .618 winning percentage, 79 wins over .500, and a well-deserved reputation as one of the finest offensive minds of his generation? Or will we simply continue to make jokes about his clock-management skills?
The latter is more likely than the former, and no matter how long Reid continues to succeed, he’ll have to face that down if he’s unable to bring a Lombardi Trophy home. He is one of 15 head coaches who, by record and achievement, can be considered truly great, but without the ultimate prize.
15. Jim E. Mora
Regular-season record: 125-106-0
Postseason record: 0-6
New Orleans Saints, 1986-1996
Indianapolis Colts, 1998-2001
Known primarily for his soundbites, Mora was the first head coach to take the Saints to the playoffs, which he did in 1987 with the famed “Dome Patrol” defense, and Bobby Hebert completing 55.8% of his passes. The Saints went to the postseason four times in six seasons through 1992, losing in the wild-card round each time. He resigned halfway through the 1996 season after declaring that his team “couldn’t do diddly … poo offensively,” spent 1997 as a color analyst for NBC and returned to coaching with the Colts in 1998, just in time to tutor a rookie quarterback named Peyton Manning. Indianapolis went 3-13 that season, but experienced one of the most remarkable turnarounds in NFL history with a 13-3 mark in 1999. But the Colts lost to the Titans in the divisional round that season and lost to the Dolphins in the wild-card round the next year after a 10-6 regular-season mark — and that was Mora’s last shot at a Super Bowl.
The most brutal postscript: On Dec. 30, 2000, the same day the Colts lost to Miami and ended Mora’s chances to advance in the playoffs for the final time, the Saints won their first playoff game in franchise history, 31-28, over the Rams.