Before we dive down about whether any first-year head coach ever won the Super Bowl, let us see how hard it is to win a Super Bowl contest in any given year. There is no doubt that winning a Super Bowl is extremely hard. Winning a Super Bowl requires an entire organization to be on top of their game. This means players being healthy, at least one or two superstars on the roster, a top-notch coach, a smart and functional front office… the list goes on and on.
Every year we see a different team (on most occasions) being crowned as the Super Bowl champs. The biggest reason for this is the parity in the NFL. Every team in the NFL has a chance to win on any given Sunday, and there is no one team that is consistently winning the championship year after year. The best example of this is the Kansas City Chiefs. They are the reigning defending champs but this year the San Francisco 49ers look like they are going to win it all.
Another reason why it is so hard to win a championship is because every team that enters the playoffs can always knock out the team that had the best regular season record. This is primarily because the talent around the league is so lethal that nobody is really the clear-cut favorites.
When it boils down to the Super Bowl contest, the two teams that are competing are always under immense pressure. The stakes are so high that one mistake can be the major difference between the winning and the losing team.
Many teams in the NFL have yet to win a single championship and that alone should show how difficult it is to win in the league. Despite the odds, there are a few coaches who took their team to the promised land and won it all in their very first year. How did they pull off the miracle and who they are, shall be discussed below.
Who are the first year head coaches that have won the Super Bowl in their very first season?
We have discussed how hard it is to win a Super Bowl in the NFL. Now we look at which coaches have pulled off winning the Super Bowl in their very first season.
The National Football League was originally founded in 1920. Since its arrival, it has been a century already. The first Super Bowl contest was held on January 15th, 1967. Back then, the Super Bowl was called the “AFL-NFL World Championship Game.”
To understand the odds that were stacked against the only two first-year coaches to win the Super Bowl in the same year, we have to look at how many Super Bowl games have been played. There have been a total of 56 Super Bowl games played since 1967. Out of the 56 Super Bowl contests, only two head coaches have ever won Super Bowls in their very first season. Their names are:
Don McCafferty. Don took the job and straight away led the Baltimore Colts to a Super Bowl victory in 1971. He was the first coach to pull off this ridiculous feat. A dream scenario for any head coach.
George Seifert. Seifert led the 49ers to glory in 1990. He is only the second coach to pull off a win in the Super Bowl within the very first year as the head coach.
This is not to say that the coaches had no prior experience. They both were assistant coaches before they became head coaches.
McCafferty was working with the Colts for 10 years before he got promoted to the head coaching position in 1970. Seifert had worked for 5 years before he was promoted as the head coach in 1989.
Here are some of the factors that helped them win the Super Bowl in their very first year:
As mentioned, the two coaches were already familiar with the personnel that they had given their prior years with the team. Both the coaches knew what game plan would work great and what would not.
Both the coaches had great coaching staff. This helped the head coaches to delegate the tasks and have them carried out properly.
Both the coaches came up clutch with their game plans for the various teams they played. Being an assistant coach earlier, they must have kept an eye out for what plays various teams ran, offensively and defensively.
A bit of luck was also on their side as their teams were healthy throughout the season.
Both of these coaches pulled off a feat that has not been accomplished by any other. The two sit alone at the top. McCafferty and Seifert had to deal with a lot of pressure when they were promoted as the head coach but they did not fumble the opportunity and rather got the result that every coach dreams about.
FAQs
A.Super Bowls are mostly held in the first or second week of February of every year. It happens once a year and is arguably the biggest sports event in the United States.
A. The NFL decides the venue for every year’s Super Bowl, three to four years earlier. The Super Bowl LVIII will be held at Allegiant Stadium in Paradise, Nevada. It will headline on 11th February 2024.
A. Teams enter the finals by winning their individual conference championships. The two conferences are the American Football Conference and the National Football Conference.
A. The trophy’s name is Vince Lombardi Trophy. The trophy is actually named after the legendary coach Vince Lombardi who once coached the Packers and helped them win the first two Super Bowls.
A. The list is endless and it involves some of the biggest stars in the music industry. Some of the few are Michael Jackson, Kendrick Lamar, Justin Timberlake, Rihanna, Travis Scott, Dr.Dre, Snoop Dog and many more.
