Super Bowl or Senior Citizen Bowl? Older coaches are having a moment in the NFL

The college all-star game played Saturday in Mobile, Ala., is called the Senior Bowl, but the game between the Chiefs and Eagles a week from Sunday in New Orleans could be called the Senior Citizen Bowl.

While the Sean McVay effect remains real (see the hirings of 38-year-old Ben Johnson and 39-year-old Liam Coen), coaches who are old enough to be McVay’s father could dominate the Super Bowl.

Foremost among them is Andy Reid. He was once the McVay of his day, the second-youngest head coach in the NFL. Now, at 66, he moves a little slower on his way to the podium to accept his trophies but makes the walk more frequently.

And oldest Andy could be best Andy.

“I really feel after we won the first Super Bowl (five years ago), something changed with Andy,” says Chiefs special teams coach Dave Toub, who has coached with Reid for 20 seasons. “There was a narrative out there he couldn’t get over the big one. Once that burden was gone, I noticed he was more relaxed and more open to subtle changes in the way we handled the players.”

Now, Toub says, Reid remains firm on his core beliefs but is more willing to make concessions for youth.

One of the most accomplished coaches in history, Reid is one of five finalists for the Associated Press Coach of the Year and will tell you his coaching staff is one of the reasons he wins so much.

His defensive coordinator, Steve Spagnuolo, at 65, will be competing for his fifth Super Bowl ring, and he already has more than any coordinator ever.

After the AFC Championship Game, defensive tackle Chris Jones said the Chiefs will continue to win as long as they retain Spagnuolo. That seems likely, as team owners seem to think that age is more than a number with Spagnuolo, the one-time head coach of the Rams. Before interviewing for the head coaching jobs of the Jets and Jaguars this year, Spagnuolo had not had a head coaching interview in 16 years (besides a token interview with the Giants after he finished the 2017 season as their interim head coach).

Aggressiveness is often associated with youth, but nobody blitzes like Spagnuolo. His corner blitz on fourth down against the Bills in the closing minutes of the AFC Championship Game helped seal the Chiefs’ win.

If Spagnuolo is not the most respected defensive coordinator in the NFL, Vic Fangio may be. Fangio, 66, reportedly is the highest-paid defensive coordinator in the league, and he earned his money by coaching the defense that led the league in fewest yards allowed. The Eagles also ranked second in fewest points allowed, finishing 23 points ahead of the Chiefs.

It’s typical for Fangio, whose defenses have finished in the top 10 of fewest points allowed in nine of the past 13 seasons. Fangio, however, has never won a Super Bowl. He came close in 2022 as a consultant to the Eagles — but Reid and Spagnuolo got the rings that season as the Chiefs beat the Eagles in the Super Bowl.

Last January, Fangio left the Dolphins after one season, with some pushing the narrative that he didn’t get along with some players because he yelled at them to get off his lawn. There have been no such murmurs in Philadelphia, where defensive end Nolan Smith says he is a “mastermind.”

If someone is going to call Fangio, Spagnuolo or Reid old, it isn’t going to be McVay.

“All three coaches have been the standard for what it looks like to be great coaches who connect with their players and maximize their abilities year in and year out while remaining at the cutting edge schematically with the evolution of the game,” says McVay, 39. “Their agility year in and year out while having a commitment to core beliefs and philosophies is a true separator.”

Neither the Chiefs nor the Eagles might be in the Super Bowl without two other assistant coaches on the high side of 60.

Toub, 62, is the Chiefs’ special teams version of Spagnuolo. Toub’s schemes have dominated kicks, kick coverages and returns for 23 NFL seasons. The Chiefs, it may be argued, might not still be standing if not for Toub, who designed plays that resulted in blocked field goal attempts against the Broncos in November and the Texans in the playoffs. The Chiefs also won three games on walk-off field goals with three players making the kicks.

Some consider the Eagles’ offensive line the finest in the NFL. One reason is the coach who presides over it. Jeff Stoutland, 62, is so valued by Eagles management that he has been retained through three head coaching regimes.

His players have mad respect for him too.

“He’s kind of like the Mickey character from the ‘Rocky’ movies,” Eagles right tackle Lane Johnson says. “Sometimes he’s very funny with these funny sayings. But then he’s intense. He’s relentless in how he approaches the game, and that’s what you have to have to get the best out of your guys.”

In 2024, Reid was one of six NFL head coaches over 60. The others were Todd Bowles, Jim Harbaugh, John Harbaugh, Mike McCarthy and Sean Payton. All but McCarthy led their teams to the playoffs.

Reid was the oldest head coach in the NFL this season. Next season, he will be the second-oldest because the Raiders hired 73-year-old Pete Carroll.

After the 2023 season, Carroll’s 14th in Seattle, the Seahawks tried to give him the gold watch treatment. But Carroll keeps time differently than most.

Raiders owner Mark Davis referenced Carroll’s “amazing” energy at Carroll’s introductory news conference. During Seahawks practices, Carroll didn’t ride around in a golf cart, but if someone else did, they risked getting run over by Carroll, who was nonstop motion. Running sprints and playing catch were part of his routine, and he occasionally took practice reps at quarterback.

Carroll will become the oldest coach in NFL history when the season kicks off, beating a record held by Romeo Crennel, who coached the Texans in 2020 at 73 (he’s 68 days older than Carroll). Carroll coached at 72, as did George Halas and Marv Levy.

Between the ages of 65 and 68, Levy led the Bills to four AFC championships while jogging three miles a day. He believes he did his best coaching in that timespan.

“By then, I had a lot of great experience,” he says. “I had worked with some fine guys like George Allen and competed against guys I held in very high regard like Don Shula. But there is a span that governs maybe 25 years that you can be on top of the game.”

Levy retired at 73, then later said he left too soon. At 80, he became the team’s general manager. Now 99, Levy uses a walker but remains robust enough to take a daily walk of about 30 minutes. In October, nine players from his Super Bowl teams, including hall of famers Jim Kelly, Andre Reed, Bruce Smith and Thurman Thomas, visited him in Chicago to celebrate his life.

Levy believes today’s senior coaches are capable of more than senior coaches of generations past.

“We’ve benefited from wonderful medicine and living conditions, so coaches can be older now and can manage better,” he says. “We’ve even had presidents older than I was when I retired from coaching.”

As people age, they sometimes become forgetful. But in a sport that often rewards a short memory, it has not been a problem for Reid, a meticulous note-taker.

If there are drawbacks to being a 66-year-old head coach, it’s safe to say the benefits outweigh them for Reid.

Foremost among the benefits, of course, is experience.

“It’s critical,” says Tom Moore, the 86-year-old offensive consultant for the Bucs who recently announced he will return for his 46th NFL season. “What jumps out to me is these coaches in the Super Bowl have done a great job of understanding what the people they have can do, putting them in the proper places and designing the schemes to facilitate the players’ abilities. That comes with experience.”

Spagnuolo says that the most intelligent people he has encountered have a wealth of experience — which usually means they have overcome setbacks.

“I believe we are seeing that those tested in the fire of this profession over a long period of time and stay true to who they are eventually find success,” he says.

Moore shares his insight in a new book with Rick Stroud entitled, “The Players’ Coach: From Bradshaw to Manning, Brady, and Beyond.”

Moore enjoys crushing stereotypes about older coaches.

Not enough exuberance to keep pace with the youngsters? He’s the first in the office at 3 a.m.

Can’t relate to Gen Z? Moore meets with players who are six decades younger daily, talking about life as much as ball.

Stuck in yesterday’s game? He prides himself on evolving philosophically.

“Hell, I’m 86 years old and still learning every day,” he says. “And it’s a tribute to coaches like Andy because they are still learning and willing to adjust to new trends. They are flexible, and that’s the key.”

Wisdom that can only be developed over time may be valued more by NFL teams these days.

Last week Chuck Pagano was in his fifth year of a blissful retirement, clowning with his former punter on “The Pat McAfee Show” and posting photos of himself with his grandchildren on social media.

This week, he’s the senior secondary coach of the Ravens.

Pagano is 64.

Older coaches clearly are having a moment.

Just don’t call it a senior moment.

(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; photos of Vic Fangio and Steve Spagnuolo: Mitchell Leff, David Eulitt / Getty Images)