Don Shula was one of the last great NFL coaches and most fans missed it

The NFL is mourning the loss of Don Shula today who passed away on Monday at age 90. He was one of the last in a golden era of NFL coaching.

There was a time, believe it or not when coaches in the NFL lasted more than a few seasons. It was a golden era of the NFL, the birth of a league, and Don Shula was one of those patriarchs who helped it grow. Many fans today, they never got to see him walk along the sidelines barking at the referees and even less got to see the other great coaches of that era.

For all the accolades being thrown at Don Shula today, the fact is he was not only a living legend but he represented the best of the NFL coaching world from a time that was loaded with legendary coaches.

To those of us lucky enough to have grown up watching Shula at his best and even those who are old enough to remember the last few years were fortunate to witness history. Some of us never realized how long ago, we witnessed chess matches the like of which will never be seen in the NFL.

Tom Landry paced the sidelines in a suit and hat. Out west John Madden paced those sidelines with his floppy blonde hair flying everywhere. In the north, Bud Grant’s stoic look carried the Vikings while Hank Stramm ran the midwest Chiefs. It was an era of great coaching. A time when the league was transitioning from the previous greats of Paul Brown and Vince Lombardi. These were the young guns who would change the league.

By the mid-80s, the coaching trees began to sway but Shula, Chuck Noll, Landry, and others continued to dominate their divisions. They were joined by the next young up and coming coaches like Joe Gibbs and Bill Walsh. It was a great time for football. A great time for the NFL.

There was something different about those coaches. Integrity was a word used often to describe them. They coached with leadership and discipline. They changed as the league changed and when the league changed to much, they simply rode off leaving their legacies behind.

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With Don Shula passing, only Bud Grant and John Madden remain from that era. They are the dying breed that will never be seen in the NFL again. Forget about Bill Belichick. For all his wins and his Super Bowls, he will never be considered one of those old-school coaches who exuded, integrity.

Shula’s passing reminds me of those times during the mid-’70s when football was a battle to the end, a reminder that the ’80s was a change in philosophy, and finally, the 90’s as the NFL took a different path with free agency as it paved a new future.  Today, the NFL is fun but it is also about ESPN and network highlights. It’s about showboating and self-image. Yet it is these same youthful players that line up to shake Shula’s hand at a practice or a player from another team running over during pre-game warm-ups to say hello. They get it. They get what coaches like Shula meant to the NFL. Sadly, there are only a couple left.

Coaching now is a lot different. While the game is more explosive and to a degree more exciting, coaching these days is a short leash profession that sees a lot of annual turnover. The coaches mentioned above spent years with one team and in many cases, only one team.