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At the end of the 1932 NFL season, the Portsmouth Spartans and the Chicago Bears tied for first place (6-1); under the rules at the time, standings were based on winning percentage, with ties excluded from the calculation. The Spartans and Bears had tied each other twice during the regular season, making the league's only tiebreaker useless. So the league had to make a rule change to allow another game. For the first time, the league played what amounted to a replay game to determine the NFL champion. Coach Ralph Jones led the Bears to a 9-0 victory over Coach Potsy Clark. The game is recorded as a regular season game for the teams' statistics. Three seasons later Coach Clark would lead his team to their first title, when they were the Detroit Lions.
Because it proved so popular, the 1932 NFL "Playoff Game", as it is unofficially called, started a new era for the National Football League. Beginning in the 1933 NFL season, the league was divided into divisions, and the winner of each division would meet in a playoff game to determine the champion. The first NFL official playoff game was the 1933 NFL Championship Game between the Chicago Bears and New York Giants where Coach George "Papa Bear" Halas beat Hall of Fame Coach Steve Owen. After the 2015 season there will have been a total of 526 NFL playoff games including games from the AFL, but not the AAFC. The following list shows the career postseason records for each coach that has recorded a win in the NFL playoffs from 1933 through the 2015–16 NFL playoff games.
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Champion coaches
Since playoffs began in the 1933 NFL season, the following 54 coaches have led their team to an NFL or AFL title thru 2015.
Super Bowls before the 1970 AFL–NFL merger are not included in total championship count.
Sort chart by clicking on heading. Reload page to return to original form.
Sorting Team in ascending order will list all champion coaches for each team in the order they won the title game for their team.
† is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame
Coaches with wins
Bill Belichick holds the current NFL record for most playoff wins by a head coach with 26, and shares with Tom Landry and Don Shula the record for most playoff games coached (36.) Vince Lombardi won 90% of his playoff appearances, the record for coaches with more than two games to their credit. Several coaches are undefeated in post-season play but all of them have just a single appearance as a coach except for George Wilson who, with two wins, coached the Lions to the 1957 championship and Dan Quinn, the head coach of the Falcons in his first year coaching in the playoffs.
While many coaches have won playoff games for 2 teams, only two have won a championship for different franchises. Weeb Ewbank won 1958 and 1959 NFL title with the Baltimore Colts, then won the 1968 AFL crown and Super Bowl with the New York Jets. The other coach to win a championship with two teams was Don Shula. Shula was the NFL champ in 1968 with the Baltimore Colts, but lost in Super Bowl III to the AFL champs coached by Weeb Ewbank. Coach Shula then led the Miami Dolphins to titles in 1972 and 1973. So far, Shula has coached the only no loss, no tie perfect season in NFL history (1972).
This table lists every coach who has won a playoff game in the NFL or AFL.
If a coach has led multiple teams to the playoffs, the teams are listed in the order of his playoff appearances.
Sort chart by clicking on heading. Reload page to return to original form.
Sorting 'Teams' in ascending order will list all champion coaches for each team first and in the order they won the title game for their team.
From 1960–1969, NFL and AFL Champs are listed.
Super Bowls listed after the 1970 NFL-AFL merger.
0†0Coach is in the Hall of Fame as a player or a coach
Updated through Conference Championships, 2016-17 playoffs.
Notes
Other Playoff Coaches
All records can be verified at Pro Football reference.com.
This is a list of all men that have coached in playoff games that have no wins.