A social media post the other day, proclaimed “Bill Belichick is 18 wins shy of tying Don Shula as the all-time winningest coach in NFL History!” This writer, who grew up in New England, could not help but roll his eyes and type a simple response to said post; an asterisk. Yes, if baseball players who broke rules will be denoted with such punctuation, why shouldn’t a coach who did the same (league and ethical rules)? The negative aspect of all the rules that were broken by Belichick and/or his players will not be noted here. Instead, this article will focus on the career of the true winningest coach in NFL history who played by the rules on his way to achieving success; Don Shula.
Don Shula Remains the Winningest Coach in NFL History
Baltimore Colts
Shula got his first head coaching experience with the then-Baltimore Colts in 1963. Of note, Shula lead the team to the NFL Championship game in 1964. He also lead the team to a tiebreaker for the then-NFL Western Division Championship in 1965. The team would fall two victories shy of being crowned NFL Champions in what would be the final NFL Championship Game, season. Shula would then lead the Colts to the third-ever Super Bowl Game.
Miami Dolphins
After seven seasons in Baltimore, all without a losing record, Shula left to become the second head coach in the history of the Miami Dolphins. In the 26 glorious seasons, Shula was the Dolphins head coach, he accomplished some incredible feats.
24 Winning Seasons
Shula was able to lead the Dolphins to 24 winning seasons including five Super Bowl appearances, winning two of the five.
17-0
Speaking of those two Super Bowl wins, one of them included a perfect 17-0 (Not 18-1, to be clear) season. That team remains the only NFL team to have a perfect season and win (yes, and win) the Super Bowl.
Keeping Themselves Perfect
In 1985, the Chicago Bears were on a tear (pun intended). They did eventually lose only one game. That one game was to the Miami Dolphins on December 2, 1985. The Bears lost by two touchdowns, 38-24. The Bears would go on to destroy the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XX, 46-10.
Recap
Shula led two different franchises to the Super Bowl; not one. He had two losing seasons as a head coach in the NFL; not nine. Shula is the only NFL coach to lead his team to a perfect season and win the Super Bowl. He was the only coach to beat the 1985 Bears; they did not get destroyed by the Bears by 36 points with the whole world watching. Shula was not perfect. He did have two personnel/players suspensions occur during his career; not 16. Then again, technology like cell phones, were not available to the masses, and rules regarding PEDs were not as stringent when Shula coached. The real culprit is not the coach that had 16 suspensions occur during his tenure compared to Shula’s two. No, the real culprit is the times of the society the rule breaking-coach, coached during.
Takeaway
Don Shula will always be the winningest NFL coach in many people’s eyes, and rightfully so. Others will scream, shout, snark, and keep making excuses as to why Bill Belichick is the winningest coach of all time. That’s fine. If one tells themselves a lie over and over again, they eventually believe it to be true. If a mass of people (Say from six US states, hypothetically) do the same thing and spread that belief it becomes a fact. A fact to those disillusioned enough to believe the initial fallacy, anyway. They can scream, they can shout, they can debate and at least one Dolphins fan will reply with one simple statement/punctuation mark: asterisk.
Main Photo Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports
