Before Don Shula was a Hall of Famer, he was a lot like Eric Mangini. Shula was a 33-year-old defensive coordinator for the Detroit Lions in 1963 when Colts owner Carroll Rosenbloom made him the youngest head coach in the NFL.
Forty-three years later, no one is questioning whether Shula was too young. He left the game as the NFL’s all-time leader with 347 wins and two Super Bowl titles.
Shula’s advice for young Mangini?
“The best advice I can give is surround yourself with the best assistants you can find,” Shula said yesterday. “Make sure you all get on the same page. Establish the fact that you’re the boss with the assistants and with your football team when you get with them. You have to prove yourself day in, day out that you have the leadership quality you’ve been hired for.”
Shula’s success is rare among coaches hired in their early 30s. The list of the NFL’s youngest coaches features a few Boy Wonders, but more Boy Blunders. Many of them were no longer a head coach by their 40th birthday.
The men who have been down the road Mangini now faces said the number of wins and losses next to a coach’s name has nothing to do with the date on his birth certificate.
“I went in believing I could do it,” John Madden, who was 32 when he took over the Raiders, said yesterday. “I sold myself to Al Davis that if I have it in me to be a head coach, it doesn’t matter whether I do it now, in three years, in five years or in 10 years. I’m as ready now as I’ll ever be.”
Of the 16 youngest coaches in the modern era of the NFL, Madden is the only one to win a Super Bowl with his first team. Shula (Dolphins), Mike Shanahan (Broncos) and Jon Gruden (Buccaneers) all won a Super Bowl in their second head-coaching job.
When Mangini conducts his first team meeting with the Jets, he will be speaking to some players who are the same age as him and some who are older. David Shula, who was 32 when the Bengals promoted him to head coach, said a key for Mangini will be letting the Jets know who’s boss immediately.
“As a head coach, the buck stops here,” David Shula said. “That’ll be the first thing he has to establish, that he is the guy that can make a decision on their livelihood. Once that becomes clear, he’ll get all the respect he needs.”
The younger Shula struggled to get that respect. He lasted less than five seasons in Cincinnati and wound up with a 19-52 record. Today, he is the president of Don Shula Steakhouses.
Boomer Esiason was quarterback of the Bengals when David Shula arrived in 1992. Esiason remembers a “Monday Night Football” game during that season when linebacker Gary Reasons went to the sideline and yanked the bill of Shula’s hat in anger.
“That undercut him and who he was,” Esiason said. “I like David. He knew what he was doing, but you can imagine how that played on television.”
Madden said he doesn’t think Mangini will face problems disciplining players.
“It’s not like he’s coming out of coaching high school,” Madden said. “He’s been coaching pro players. Now the thing is, can he be a head coach? I think people are missing that. I hear this guy is a defensive guy or this guy is an offensive guy. The question is, can he be a head coach?”
The youngest coach of the modern era is former Giant Harland Svare, who at 31 took over the Rams in the middle of the 1962 season when Bob Waterfield quit. His advice for Mangini is simple.
“There’s no formula,” Svare said. “You’ve just got to keep going and learn as you go just like everything else. You’ve got to dig in and go to work.”
Young guns
New Jets coach Eric Manging turs 35 years old tomorrow. Here’s a look at how the youngest coaches in NFL history fared:
Name, Team Age at Hiring 1st Year Record Career Record
Harland Svare, Rams 31 years, 11 months 0-5-1 21-48-5
John Michelosen, Steelers 32 years, 2 months 4-8 20-26-2
David Shula, Bengals 32 years, 7 months 5-11 19-52
John Madden, Raiders 32 years, 10 months 12-1-1 112-39-7 *
Don Shula, Colts 33 years, 4 days 8-6 347-173-6 **
Al Davis, Raiders 33 years, 6 months 10-4 23-16-3
Joe Collier, Bills 33 years, 7 months 9-4-1 13-17-1
Bob Snyder, Rams 33 years, 11 months 6-6 6-6
Jim Trimble, Eagles 34 years, 3 months 7-5 25-20-3
Jon Gruden, Raiders 34 years, 5 months 8-8 78-57*
Bill Cowher, Steelers 34 years, 8 months 11-5 151-91-1
Joe Kuharich, Cardinals 34 years, 8 months 4-8 58-81-3
Norm Van Brocklin, Vikings 34 years, 10 months 3-11 66-100-7
Joe Schmidt, Lions 34 years, 11 months 5-7-2 43-35-7
Mike Shanahan, Raiders 35 years, 6 months 7-9 130-78 **
Dick Nolan, 49ers 35 years, 10 months 7-6-1 71-85-5
* won one Super Bowl
** won two Super Bowls