John Madden may not have lasted ten years in the current environment for National Football League head coaches. Madden was the first NFL coach to win 100 games in his first ten years in the role. He won a Super Bowl to complete the 1976 season and retired by his own decision after the 1978 season.
While Madden led the Silver and Black to one Super Bowl, a win over the Minnesota Vikings in Roman Numeral XI, he also lost five American Football Conference Championship games, four before his lone Super Bowl victory. In the past couple weeks, we have seen head coaches with similar credentials either fired or, like Madden, decide to retire.
Mike Tomlin never suffered a losing season in 19 years with the Steelers and led his team to a pair of Super Bowls. He beat the Arizona Cardinals in Super Bowl XLIII and lost to the Green Bay Packers two years later. He didn’t match his early success in leading Pittsburgh to Super Bowls, both gained in his first five years on the job, and in more recent times the Steelers have been a punching bag for opponents in the postseason.
Tomlin lost his last seven postseason games and has a career record of eight wins and a dozen losses in the playoffs. He was feeling heat this year from the media and fans, and perhaps the front office too. That can be based on the fact that team owner Art Rooney was quick to state at the press conference following Tomlin’s announcement that no coach on his current staff was being considered for the head coaching position.
The loss of 19-year veteran Tomlin was nearly matched when the Baltimore Ravens fired John Harbaugh after 18 years on the job. Like Tomlin, Harbaugh had one Super Bowl win to his credit during his tenure with the Ravens. Baltimore beat the San Francisco 49ers to complete the 2012 season. This year, the Ravens started poorly based on whatever goes wrong with a team and numerous injuries while winning only one of their first six games. Then Baltimore got flashes of brilliance enroute to earning a shot at their division title in a road game against the Steelers on the final day of the regular season.
In that contest, a last play of the game field goal sailed wide right, and the Ravens two-point defeat gave Tomlin and his Steelers a one-week reprieve while the Ravens fired Harbaugh soon after the loss.