Bill Cowher

Bill Cowher
Bill Cowher at the White House
Positions: Head Coach , Linebacker	Jersey numbers: 53, 57
born on May 8, 1957 in Crafton , Pennsylvania
Career information
Active : 1980 - 2006
Undrafted in 1979
College : North Carolina State University
Teams
as a player Philadelphia Eagles ( 1979 ) Cleveland Browns ( 1980 - 1982 ) Philadelphia Eagles ( 1983 - 1984 ) as an assistant coach Cleveland Browns ( 1985 - 1988 ) Kansas City Chiefs ( 1989 - 1991 ) as a trainer Pittsburgh Steelers ( 1992 - 2006 )
Career statistics
Victories: defeat as a coach	149-90-1
Win rate	62.3%
Play as a player	45
Stats at NFL.com
Coaching stats at pro-football-reference.com
Career highlights and awards
Super Bowl XL winner (2005) 2 × AFC Championship Game Winner (1995, 2005) NFL Coach of the Year Award (1992) Pro Football Hall of Fame (2020)
Pro Football Hall of Fame

William Laird "Bill" Cowher (* 8. May 1957 in Crafton , Pennsylvania ) is a former American American football players and coaches. He was active in the National Football League (NFL).

Player career

Cowher attended high school in his hometown and was active as a football player, basketball player and track and field athlete. At his college , North Carolina State University , he was used as a linebacker . In his senior year of college, he was the team captain and MVP of his team. He graduated with a degree in education. From 1979 to 1984 Cowher was with two NFL teams, the Philadelphia Eagles and the Cleveland Browns under contract, but was not used until 1980. Cowher was never drafted . In total, he played for the two teams 45 times. He couldn't win a title.

Coaching career

Cowher began his coaching career in 1985 with the Browns as an assistant coach. In 1987 he became an assistant coach with the Kansas City Chiefs , who were trained by Marty Schottenheimer and with whom he has already worked in Cleveland . In 1992 he succeeded Chuck Noll with the Pittsburgh Steelers . Noll had led the Steelers to four Super Bowl wins, but could not move into the play-offs with the Pittsburgh team in the past two years .

Cowher only used the 1991 quarterback Neil O'Donnell as a starter in the regular season . The Steelers managed to move into the play-offs in the first year of Cowher, where they were eliminated early against the Buffalo Bills with 3:24. Until 1997 you could consistently qualify for the play-offs . In 1995, the Steelers managed to move into the Super Bowl for the fifth time. In the Super Bowl, the Steelers were not without chances against the Dallas Cowboys . Overall, the Steelers gained more space than the Cowboys, but O'Donnell threw three interceptions , the Cowboys, however, had no loss of the ball. The game went to the team from Dallas with 27:17 .

In 1996, Jerome Bettis, one of the best running backs in the league, was committed. Bettis achieved a space gain of 1431 yards that year - the Steelers were able to qualify for the finals again, but failed to get into the Super Bowl at the New England Patriots with 3:28.

From 1998 to 2000 Cowher could no longer move into the play-offs with his team. It was not until 2001 that the final round was reached again, but in the AFC Championship Game they failed because of the Patriots trained by Bill Belichick with 17:24. After another finals participation in 2002 was a bad season in 2003. The 2004 season, the Steelers closed with 15 wins in 16 games. Ben Roethlisberger had been drafted before the season and had successfully established himself as a starting quarterback . Although the Steelers were considered an easy favorite, they were beaten again in the AFC Championship Game by the Patriots and their quarterback Tom Brady with 41:27. Again, the Turnovers (ball losses) of the Steelers were the decisive factor for the outcome of the game. They had lost the ball four times, the Patriots had no loss of the ball.

In the 2005 season, Cowher succeeded in winning the long-awaited Super Bowl. Although the Steelers were only able to make 11 out of 16 games victorious in the season, they managed to get into Super Bowl XL . Opponents were the Seattle Seahawks trained by Mike Holmgren , who had to admit defeat at 10:21. After a year with a balanced game record, Cowher ended his coaching career in 2006. The Cowher team won 62.3% of all games in the main round during its 15-year coaching career . The cut is above the 56.6% of the four-time Super Bowl winner Chuck Noll. The play-off statistics of 61.9% to 66.7%, however, speak for Noll.

Game scene with Bill Cowher

Cowher also made a name for himself as an instructor for young trainers. Numerous NFL coaches such as the long-time head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals , Marvin Lewis , or Ken Wisenhunt of the Arizona Cardinals , have been trained by him.

After the football career

Cowher has worked as a football game analyst for Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) since 2007, alongside Dan Marino , Shannon Sharpe and Boomer Esiason . In the past few months he was repeatedly in conversation as a coach for various NFL teams such as the New York Jets or the Tampa Bay Buccaneers . For family reasons, he declined all of the offers. Cowher is married and has three daughters. His wife Kaye was a professional basketball player. The family lives in Raleigh , North Carolina .

In January 2020, Bill Cowher was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame .

Web links

• Bill Cowher in nndb (English)
• Coach statistics
• Player statistics
• Bill Cowher with the Steelers
• Bill Cowher at CBS

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Annual Statistics of the Steelers 1992
2. ^ Annual statistics of the Steelers 1995
3. ↑ Super Bowl XXX Statistics Super Bowl XXX
4. ↑ Annual Statistics of the Steelers 1996
5. ↑ Game statistics 1997
6. ↑ Annual Statistics of the Steelers 2001
7. ↑ Play-off game statistics 2001
8. ↑ Annual Statistics of the Steelers 2004
9. ↑ Annual Statistics of the Steelers 2005
10. ↑ Super Bowl XL statistics Super Bowl XL
11. ^ Bill Cowher elected to HOF's centennial class. January 12, 2020, accessed on January 12, 2020 .