ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Pick one. Mike Shanahan or Dan Reeves.
A strong case for election into the Pro Football Hall of Fame can be made for both. Only one from a group of 12 coach/contributor finalists, however, can be nominated Tuesday by a special committee.
Shanahan is a three-pronged candidate: One, he won two Super Bowl titles with the Broncos. Two, he has 178 coaching wins. Three, he has a fertile coaching tree that includes Gary Kubiak, Sean McVay, his son Kyle Shanahan and Matt LaFleur.
Comparing Super Bowl titles to other head coaches recently inducted into the Hall of Fame, Shanahan has one more than Tony Dungy, Bill Cowher and Dick Vermeil and as many as Jimmy Johnson.
Comparing wins, Shanahan has 30 more than Dungy, 17 more than Cowher, and 89 more than Johnson.
Shanahan’s coaching tree has two Super Bowl titles (Kubiak and McVay) and four Super Bowl appearances (Kubiak, McVay 2, Kyle Shanahan).
Cowher’s coaching tree has one Super Bowl title (Bruce Arians) and two Super Bowl appearances (Arians and Ken Whisenhunt). Dungy’s coaching tree has one Super Bowl title (Mike Tomlin) and four Super Bowl appearances (Tomlin 2, Jim Caldwell, Lovie Smith). Vermeil’s coaching tree has one Super Bowl appearance (Mike Martz). Johnson’s coaching tree has none.
Reeves should be a two-part candidate as a coach and a player. As a coach he has four Super Bowl appearances – to more than Shanahan – with two teams. Yes, he lost them all. But two other coaches who went to four Super Bowls and lost them all – Bud Grant and Marv Levy – have long been in the Hall of Fame. And their four Super Bowls were with one team. Reeves accomplished the more difficult task of taking two teams to Super Bowls, the Broncos and Falcons.
Then there was a third team Reeves turned around. Fired by the Broncos after the 1992 season, Reeves immediately became head coach of the 6-10 New York Giants and lifted them to 11-5 in his first season of 1993.
Reeves also had 190 career coaching wins to rank 10th all-time. Only Marty Schottenheimer among the top 10 winningest coaches eligible for the the Hall of Fame is not in and that’s likely because he never led his to team a Super Bowl appearance.
Reeves, who died Jan. 1, also had a distinguished playing career as a Dallas Cowboys’ halfback under Tom Landry. In 1966, Reeves rushed for 757 yards and 8 touchdowns, plus had another 41 catches for 557 yards and 8 more touchdowns in a 14-game season. The next year, Reeves added 1,093 yards and 11 touchdowns rushing and receiving combined.
He also threw a 50-yard halfback touchdown pass to Lance Rentzel to give the Cowboys a 17-14, fourth quarter lead against the Green Bay Packers in the iconic Ice Bowl. Only Jerry Kramer’s block that led Bart Starr into the end zone on a 1-yard quarterback sneak with 13 seconds remaining stopped Reeves from halfback immortality.
That doesn’t mean he doesn’t deserve football immortality as a coach and a player.
The other 10 finalists: coaches Don Coryell, Mike Holmgren, Buddy Parker and Clark Shaughnessy; and contributors Roone Arledge, creator of Monday Night Football; owners Robert Kraft, Art Rooney Jr. and Art Modell; executive and scout Bucko Kilroy, and Cowboys executive and Fritz Pollard Alliance director John Wooten, who in 1955 also became the second Black player in University of Colorado history.
Parker, who led the Detroit Lions to back-to-back NFL titles in 1952-53, is expected to get strong consideration.
Wooten was also a guard who blocked for Jim Brown and Leroy Kelly in Cleveland, was a player agent for the likes of Drew Pearson and Billy Joe Dupree, scout and personnel executive for the Cowboys before finally taking charge of the Fritz Pollard Alliance, which helped push for more diversity coach and executive interviews.
While the coach/contributor voting committee will make its lone nomination Tuesday, the Hall of Fame may wait until Wednesday before announcing it. The lone nomination will then go before the general Hall of Fame committee, where he is expected to receive rubber-stamp approval for election into the Hall of Fame class of 2023.
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