NFL Power Rankings: 30 Best Coaches of All-Time
By Will Osgood
9. John Madden (1969-1978)
John Madden at Nine! Any teenagers reading this just lost all respect for me. I mean the guy has the most prominent sports video game franchise ever named after him! And he’s only the ninth best NFL coach of all-time? I mean, I’m writing it, and I think it’s wrong.
His .763 regular season winning percentage isn’t helping the argument. Nor is the fact that he made the playoffs in eight of his 10 seasons as a head coach. I’m not getting any breaks in the playoff win percentage column either. He went .563. But he only won one Super Bowl. Nobody left on the list won any fewer than two, save for one, and he’s next.
It’s a hard line to draw, and probably not a fair one. But some line has to be drawn. That, and he only coached 10 years, and Madden fits in nicely at No. 10 overall.
Note: It’s nice that he comes in one spot ahead of his mentor Paul Brown (one of them, Sid Gillman was another). Also: He is probably the greatest color commentator in sports broadcast history, in any sport, though that is definitely up for debate.
Next: Which coaches were better than John Madden?