What do you consider the greatest Super Bowl match-up of head coaches?

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saturdaysarebetter
Posts: 45
Joined: Thu Oct 09, 2025 7:43 pm

What do you consider the greatest Super Bowl match-up of head coaches?

Post by saturdaysarebetter »

What do you consider the greatest Super Bowl match-up of head coaches?

So many could be listed but here are some HOF coaching match-ups that come to mind for me:

Walsh-Shula
Landry-Shula
Noll-Landry
Lombardi-Stram
Ewbank-Shula
Gibbs - Levy
Johnson - Levy
Parcells - Levy
Stram - Grant
Shula - Grant
Noll - Grant
Madden - Grant
Belichick - Reid

Others?
Brian wolf
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Joined: Wed Nov 27, 2019 12:43 am

Re: What do you consider the greatest Super Bowl match-up of head coaches?

Post by Brian wolf »

The beauty or agony of the SB III matchup between Ewbank - Shula, was the current HC taking on his predesessor in Baltimore.
That drama should have played out more but everyone wrote off the Jets.

Even before the game, speaking with NFL Films and NBC crews, the Colts players talked about playing for Ewbank, which may have had a psychological impact on their performance? They collectively knew that he understood their team, whereas Shula didnt have alot of knowledge of the Jets other than what he saw on film or television. Of course, Shula had cut former Colts that went to the Jets like Winston Hill, Bill Baird and Bake Turner. He also knew about what Sample could bring to the Jets defense. He insisted that the Jets passing game could challenge his Colts defense but felt his players downplayed the message.

Colts' and Shula fans may disagree but I feel Don losing to the Jets actually HELPED his coaching career ... he learned that his teams needed more a balance between veterans and young players and that his teams had to have better depth at QB, RB and in the secondary to counter other well-coached teams. He also felt that his teams needed better conditioning and mental detail to close out seasons. He was smart choosing to go to a team with a stake in ownership, rather than continuing to coach for a stubborn, impatient owner but Rosenbloom gave him his start.
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