Bill Cowher
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| Career history | |
|---|---|
| Philadelphia Eagles Cleveland Browns Philadelphia Eagles | |
| Record at Pro Football Reference | |
| Stats at Pro Football Reference |
William Laird Cowher (born May 8, 1957) is a former American football coach and player. Cowher resigned after 15 seasons as the Steelers' coach on January 5, 2007, just 11 months to the day after winning 2005-06's Super Bowl XL. He currently is a studio analyst for The NFL Today.
Early life
Born in Crafton, Pennsylvania, Cowher excelled in football, basketball, and track for Carlynton High in Crafton, a suburb of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. At North Carolina State University, Cowher was a starting linebacker, team captain, and team MVP in his senior year. He graduated in 1979 with a bachelor's degree in education.
Pro career
He began his NFL career as a player. He was a free-agent linebacker with the Philadelphia Eagles in 1979, and then signed with the Cleveland Browns the following year. Cowher played three seasons (1980-82) in Cleveland before being traded back to the Eagles, where he played two more years (1983-84).
Coaching career
Cowher began his coaching career in 1985 at age 28 under Marty Schottenheimer with the Cleveland Browns. He was the Browns' special teams coach in 1985-86 and secondary coach in 1987-88 before following Schottenheimer to the Kansas City Chiefs in 1989 as defensive coordinator.
He became the fifteenth head coach in Steelers history when he replaced Chuck Noll on January 21, 1992 – but only the second head coach since the NFL merger in 1970. Under Cowher, the Steelers showed an immediate improvement from the disappointing 7-9 season the year before, going 11-5 and earning home field advantage in the AFC after the Steelers had missed the playoffs six times out of the previous seven years. In 1995, at age 38, he became the youngest coach to lead his team to a Super Bowl. Cowher is only the second coach in NFL history to lead his team to the playoffs in each of his first six seasons as head coach, joining Pro Football Hall of Fame member Paul Brown. In Cowher’s 15 seasons, the Steelers captured eight division titles, earned ten postseason playoff berths, played in 21 playoff games, advanced to six AFC Championship games and made two Super Bowl appearances. He is one of only six coaches in NFL history to claim at least seven division titles. It has become an article of faith among NFL pundits that the Steelers do not have a bad team two years in a row – they have never lost 10 or more games in consecutive years since the 1970 NFL merger. At the conclusion of the 2005 season, the Pittsburgh Steelers had the best record of any team in the National Football League since Cowher was hired as head coach.
On February 5th, 2006, Cowher's Pittsburgh Steelers won Super Bowl XL by defeating the Seattle Seahawks 21-10, giving Cowher his first Super Bowl ring.
During the following season, there was talk about Cowher leaving the Steelers, ostensibly to spend more time with his family.
On January 5, 2007, Cowher resigned after 15 years at the helm of the franchise. The Steelers hired former Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Mike Tomlin as Cowher's replacement.
Cowher's record as a head coach is 149-90-1 (161-99-1 including playoff games).
After The Steelers
On February 15, 2007, he signed on to the The NFL Today on CBS as a studio analyst, joining Dan Marino, Shannon Sharpe, and Boomer Esiason.
On April 28, 2007, Cowher's remaining Pittsburgh belongings were to be auctioned off to the public. Only two items with Steeler logos were available for sale[1].
In 2007, Cowher appeared in the ABC reality television series Fast Cars and Superstars: The Gillette Young Guns Celebrity Race, featuring a dozen celebrities in a stock car racing competition. Cowher matched up against Gabrielle Reece and William Shatner.
Coaching tree
Assistant coaches under Bill Cowher that became Head Coaches in the NFL:
Dom Capers (Carolina Panthers and Houston Texans)
Chan Gailey (Dallas Cowboys)
Jim Haslett (New Orleans Saints)
Mike Mularkey (Buffalo Bills)
Ken Whisenhunt (Arizona Cardinals)
Dick LeBeau (Cincinnati Bengals)
Marvin Lewis (Cincinnati Bengals)
Family
Bill Cowher's wife, Kaye, also a North Carolina State University graduate, played professional basketball for the New York Stars of the (now defunct) Women's Pro Basketball League with her twin sister Faye. Kaye is featured in the book Mad Seasons: The Story of the First Women's Professional Basketball League, 1978-1981, by Karra Porter (University of Nebraska Press, 2006). Bill and Kaye have three children. Meagan and Lauren currently play basketball at Princeton University. In 2007, the Cowher family moved to Raleigh, North Carolina from suburban Pittsburgh (Fox Chapel, Pennsylvania).
Endorsements
Cowher is under an exclusive autograph contract with the Mounted Memories company of Florida. Cowher was also on the cover of EA Sports' 2006 video game NFL Head Coach.
Career record
| Franchise | Season | Wins | Losses | Ties | Postseason |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pittsburgh Steelers | 1992 | 11 | 5 | 0 | 0-1 |
| Pittsburgh Steelers | 1993 | 9 | 7 | 0 | 0-1 |
| Pittsburgh Steelers | 1994 | 12 | 4 | 0 | 1-1 |
| Pittsburgh Steelers | 1995 | 11 | 5 | 0 | 2-1 |
| Pittsburgh Steelers | 1996 | 10 | 6 | 0 | 1-1 |
| Pittsburgh Steelers | 1997 | 11 | 5 | 0 | 1-1 |
| Pittsburgh Steelers | 1998 | 7 | 9 | 0 | |
| Pittsburgh Steelers | 1999 | 6 | 10 | 0 | |
| Pittsburgh Steelers | 2000 | 9 | 7 | 0 | |
| Pittsburgh Steelers | 2001 | 13 | 3 | 0 | 1-1 |
| Pittsburgh Steelers | 2002 | 10 | 5 | 1 | 1-1 |
| Pittsburgh Steelers | 2003 | 6 | 10 | 0 | |
| Pittsburgh Steelers | 2004 | 15 | 1 | 0 | 1-1 |
| Pittsburgh Steelers | 2005 | 11 | 5 | 0 | 4-0 |
| Pittsburgh Steelers | 2006 | 8 | 8 | 0 |
Trivia
 | This article contains a list of miscellaneous information. (September 2007) |
- Bill Cowher has been nicknamed "The Chin" or "The Jaw" because of the face that he makes in his frustration or anger.
- Bill Cowher had a higher win percentage (.619) than Chuck Noll(1969-91)(.572), who won four Super Bowls with the Steelers. This was due to Cowher having a higher regular-season win percentage (.623 to Noll's .566). Noll had a higher post-season win percentage (.667 to Cowher's .571).
- Cowher has a street named after him in Crafton, the Pittsburgh suburb where he grew up. This is where he used to play as a child, and it is now named Cowher Way in his honor.
Notes and references
- ^ Going Once, Going Twice...Chin! I Mean, Sold! Mondesishouse.com. Accessed 8 September 2007.
External links
- Articles lacking sources from January 2007
- Articles with trivia sections from September 2007
- 1957 births
- Living people
- American football linebackers
- Cleveland Browns coaches
- Cleveland Browns players
- Kansas City Chiefs coaches
- NC State Wolfpack football players
- Sportspeople from Pittsburgh
- Philadelphia Eagles players
- Pittsburgh Steelers coaches
- People from Raleigh, North Carolina
- National Football League announcers
- North Carolina State University alumni