Andy Reid just signed with the Kansas City Chiefs. He’s far from the first coach to leave Philly and find work elsewhere as a head coach in the NFL. So let’s see where previous Eagles coaches ended up, and how they did in a new town. (Spoiler: Other than Vermeil, the answer is “terribly”.)
Bert Bell- (Eagles coach from 1936-1940. Details on his disastrous tenure can be read here.) This one is complicated. But long story short, Bell helped Art Rooney sell the Steelers to Lex Thompson in 1940, then let Art buy half of the Eagles, but after buyers remorse Rooney and Bell traded the Eagles to Thompson for the Steelers (it was known as The Pennsylvania Polka). Anyways, Bell coached the Steelers for the first two games of the 1941 season. They lost their first two games of the 1941 season, then Rooney convinced Bell to step down. His combined coaching record with the Eagles and Steelers was 10-46-2, and for coaches with at least three years coaching experience, it’s still the worst win % ever.
Nick Skorich- (Eagles coach from 1961 to 1963. Pictured left.) He took over a team that had just won the NFL championship, and within 3 years, they were 2-10-2. He then got a job as an assistant for the Browns. He worked his way up to head coach in 1971. He had some success in Cleveland, leading them to a 10-4 mark in 1972, and nearly upsetting the undefeated Dolphins in the playoffs before falling 20-14. He would be fired after the 1974 season and then served as supervisor of officials for the NFL.
Mike McCormack– (Eagles coach from 1973-1975.) Canned by the Birds after the 1975 season, he took an assistant job with the Bengals, then got a shot with the Colts in 1980. After leading them to a 7-9 record in 1980, the bottom fell out in 1981, as two wins over the Patriots by a total of 3 points were the only thing that stopped them from going 0-16. They were really one of the worst teams in NFL history, losing 12 of their 14 games by double digits, including 8 by 20 or more points. They were 26th in the league in scoring, and 28th in points allowed. He was fired after the season, and then got a front office job with the Seahawks. When Seattle fired its head coach two games into the 1982 season, he took over and guided the Seahawks to a 4-2 record in a strike shortened season. After the year he moved back upstairs, and eventually became GM and president of the team. He was later the first ever GM and president of the Carolina Panthers.
Dick Vermeil– (Eagles coach from 1976-1982.) Interesting to think how different things might have been here. It’s well known that Vermeil took over as Rams coach 15 years after burning out with the Eagles in 1982. But he interviewed for the Eagles job again in 1995, after Rich Kotite was fired. (I was not here and did not know that, and look forward to researching it further and writing about it in the coming days.) Anyways, he did not get the job and went on to coach the Rams to a Super Bowl victory in 2000, retiring after the game. He didn’t stay retired long, as he signed with the Chiefs in 2001. By 2003 he had led them to a 13-3 record and an AFC West title, but they lost a shootout to Manning and the Colts in the playoffs, 38-31. He would coach them for two more seasons, going 10-6 in 2005 before retiring for good.
Marion Campbell- (Eagles head coach from 1983-1985.) Campbell, Vermeil’s defensive coordinator and Chester native, was brought in to coach the Birds when Vermeil stepped down. The team hovered at mediocre for his three years there. In 1985, with a game left to go in the season he was fired. In 1987, he was hired by the Falcons to be their head coach for the second time (he had coached there for a season and a half in the 70s). Things were worse in Atlanta than they had been in Philly, and 2 1/2 seasons later he was out the door with a 11-32 record. His final NFL coaching mark was 34-80-1, third lowest all-time winning percentage for coaches with more than 3 years experience (only Bert Bell and David Shula had a lower mark.)
Buddy Ryan- (Eagles head coach from 1986-1990.) I don’t need to tell you much about Buddy Ryan’s tenure here in Philly. He was one of the few coaches in Philly to end his career with a winning record, a fairly respectable 43-38-1, though to hear the locals tell it he finished up undefeated with 5 Super Bowl wins. Anyways, he was fired after 1991, spent a year as defensive coordinator with the Oilers, and then returned to coaching with the Arizona Cardinals. It did not go well. He ended his two year stint with a 12-20 mark and retired to his farm in Kentucky.
Rich Kotite- (Eagles head coach from 1991-1994.) Kotite’s career in Philly started with promise, as he led the team to 10 and 11 win seasons. But then they went 8-8, and a 7-2 start in 1994 turned into a 7-9 finish, and he was out the door. He was quickly scooped up by the Jets, and the results were beyond disastrous. In two years with the Jets, he went 4-28 (Taking into account his last Eagles season, he was 4-35 in his last 39 games coached). He stepped down after the 1996 season and never coached anywhere else again.
Ray Rhodes- (Eagles head coach from 1995-1998.) Rhodes’s career in Philly also started with some promise, but like Kotite’s it ended poorly. After back to back 10 win seasons, the team slipped to 6-9-1, and then came 1998, which I wrote about recently. He was out the door after that disaster, but landed quickly on his feet, as the Packers scooped him up. He lasted all of one season in Green Bay, going 8-8 before being shown the door. He has been a defensive coordinator and assistant ever since, and currently works in the Browns front office.
