It took 21 years and plenty of agonizing losses, but Andy Reid finally has his Super Bowl. The longtime NFL coach had done just about everything you could in the profession until now: his 207 regular season wins is seventh all-time, and he’ll likely finish inside the top-five upon his retirement. He’s won a Coach of the Year honor, has just three losing seasons compared to 14 with double-digit wins.
Then, of course, there were all the close calls. Four losses in NFC Championship Games, plus the Super Bowl, with Philly. The AFC title game loss last year with Kansas City. But despite trailing by double-figures in all three playoff games, he guided the Chiefs to their first Super Bowl in 50 years. Now that Reid has his ring, who takes the title as the greatest NFL coaches ever without a championship?
5) Dan Reeves:
In 23 years as a coach, Reeves made it to four Super Bowls, including three with a young John Elway. All of those trips with Denver ended in progressively worse defeats: 19 to the Giants, 32 to the Redskins and 45 to the Niners. After a dozen years with the Broncos he went to the Giants, going 31-33 in four years before moving to Atlanta, where he only had two winning seasons in seven years, but won was magical. In 1998 they went 14-2, managed to stun the Vikings in overtime in the NFC Championship Game, but was shut down by – of all teams – John Elway and Denver in Super Bowl XXXIII.
4) Marty Schottenheimer:
The man spent 21 years coaching four different teams, had 11 double-digit win seasons, finished below .500 just once, and not only did he not win a Super Bowl, he never coached in one. And the misses were heartbreaking.
With Cleveland from ’85-88 he saw “The Drive” and “The Fumble” in successive years. In Kansas City he won 10-or-more games six times in eight years, yet only made one AFC title game (a loss to Buffalo in 1994) while losing twice as a 13-3 one-seed in the Divisional Round. Then, of course, he did the same thing with San Diego, going 14-2 in 2006, but losing in the fourth quarter to the Patriots in the Divisional Round. His 200 career wins are the most all-time by a non-Super Bowl winning coach.
3) Marv Levy:
After a mediocre stint with Kansas City (31-42 over five years), Levy made the Bills one of the winningest franchises in the league in the late ‘80s through the mid-‘90s. Of course, we all know how things ended: with four consecutive Super Bowl losses from 1990-93.
Aside from the infamy of Wide Right and the other Super Bowl misfortunes, Levy also lost the AFC title game in 1988, and suffered three other playoff losses in his Hall of Fame career.
2) George Allen:
The Hall of Famer is the only one on this list to go an entire career without having a losing season, spanning 12 years as a coach and seven more as an executive. In his time, however, it was harder to made the playoffs, so in five successful years with the Rams he only made two appearances, losing both times in the Divisional Round on the road.
Then he went to Washington for the next seven seasons, where he again lost in the Divisional Round three times in a four-year stretch from 1971-74. The lone exception? The 1972 season, when the 11-3 Redskins advanced to the Super Bowl, only to lose to the undefeated Dolphins 14-7.
1) Bud Grant:
Grant came to Minnesota in 1967 as one of the most decorated CFL coaches ever, winning four Grey Cups. And he took over a bad Vikings team (3-8-3 in 1967, his first year) and made them a power... but he couldn’t win the big one. By 1969 they were 12-2 and in the Super Bowl, losing to the Chiefs. He’d take Minnesota to three more title games in a four-year stretch, losing Super Bowls VIII, IX and XI – they were essentially the Bills before the Bills. Along the way they also lost three times in the divisional round as a one-seed, and fell in the NFC title game in 1977.
