On Monday, the NFL lost one the greatest coaches of all time in Don Shula at age 90. Best known as the winningest coach in NFL history, Shula was the long time coach of the Miami Dolphins, and led his teams to multiple Super Bowls, winning two back-to-back in 1972 and 1973. His ’72 team remains the lone undefeated champion in the history of the game. He won an NFL Championship with the Baltimore Colts in 1968, and reached Super Bowl III with the Colts and three others with the Dolphins, Super Bowls VI, XVII, and XIX.
I’ve seen Shula’s bust in Canton, and it’s easy to list his accomplishments as I just did. The man took six teams to the Super Bowl, including a stretch of three straight seasons in the early seventies. His 328 wins look insurmountable, but most likely only be surpassed by Bill Belichick (303) in a few years. If there were a Mount Rushmore of NFL coaches, his blocky visage would be there alongside Paul Brown, Bill Walsh, and Belichick, (yeah, I know I left off Lombardi and Landry.).
But for me, what I find most remarkable about Shula is not the amount of games he won, though staggering, but how he won games with the talent he had. Certain coaches throughout history are well regarded for winning with less superior talent, getting the most out of the teams they had. Guys like Pete Carroll and Tom Coughlin come to mind, though admittedly, their approaches are as different as night and day.
Shula’s Dolphins in the ’70s were a run-first grind it out offense, the classic three yards and a cloud of dust. Names like Larry Csonka and Jim Kiick mowed D-linemen and linebackers down with violent aplomb, while quicksilver Mercury Morris ran around them elusively. This was no-nonsense football, with very little frills and not a lot of thrills, but it was winning football, and win they did — a lot.
But in 1983, a curly haired moptop from Pittsburgh fell remarkably into the Dolphins lap with the 27th pick in draft. Dan Marino wasn’t Shula’s first All-Pro HOF QB, in fact, five different quarterbacks took Shula’s Dolphins to the Super Bowl, but Marino was certainly the cream of the crop. With Dan the Man at the helm, the Dolphins went from a slug-it-out run-first football team, to the finesse, up-and-down the field, slinging the ball around the yard, up-tempo offense that revolutionized the ’80s. I saw it first hand years later as a Colts season ticket holder in 1999. In the midst of a QB Renaissance, with guys like Fouts, Montana, and Elway piling up numbers in the passing game, Shula’s teams were consistently among the best in that regard.
Shula was able to completely change his approach based on the talent he had on his team. He adapted to the roster, not the other way around. Plenty of coaches today are incapable of this flexibility, i.e. Jason Garrett and Jon Gruden, even generally highly regarded coaches like Mike Ditka and Steve Spurrier struggled with adapting their schemes to the talent they had.
That Shula did, and did it multiple times in multiple eras, is a testament to his skill as a coach. It takes a great leader to change his style to fit those toolkit of those around him. Shula did that, and his approach should be the model for young coaches in the NFL today.
A few look like they have paid attention; Sean McVeigh, Matt LeFleur, and Brian Flores have already shown a willingness to moderate their style and strategy. Only time will tell if they and the longevity and the success of Shula.