Levy Was Unique Soul Among Coaches

In 1991, Marv Levy failed to show up for Media Day at his first Super Bowl, a transgression unheard of in the NFL and one for which he received a hefty fine.

“I was working on my game plan,” he said.

It turned out to be a lie - a very white one.

Levy was covering for his driver, who couldn’t find the way to Tampa Stadium. Typical Marv. Why get a poor driver in trouble, maybe fired, when you can take the heat yourself?

That’s only one of many stories that made Marv Levy unique in the NFL.

How many coaches would fail to blame someone else, particularly a lowly chauffeur?

How many coaches would take his team to its stadium on a January day to show them the homeless men shoveling out the snow. “They’re doing it for the minimum wage so you can play for millions,” he told his players.

How many coaches would quote Lord Byron at their retirement news conference?

How many coaches, asked if the Super Bowl was a must win, would reply: “World War II was a must win?”

In fact, such was his reputation that the question he was always asked at his four Super Bowls was “What book are you reading this week?” Once, he replied in mock anger, “You people must think that all I do is lean back in my easy chair and read, read, read.”

Not quite.

But in a profession where X’s and O’s are at the end of most coaches’ tunnel vision, Marv Levy saw the world. If Joe Gibbs, coaching in Washington, couldn’t identify Oliver North when he was on the front pages every day, Marv Levy, with a master’s in English history from Harvard, would have no problem discussing Becket or Beckett (Thomas or Samuel).

Despite his four Super Bowl losses, Levy remains one of the foremost coaches of his era. He’s the only coach to make it to four straight Super Bowls. And the method he used was one other coaches would try and try and try but never get to work.

“We take the disappointment for one day,” he’d always tell his team. “Then we blot it out of our minds and get on with the next year’s work.”

From 1990-1993, next year’s work always resulted in a season that extended through late January. For that reason alone (and there are many others), Marv Levy was singular.

The succession

The front-runner for Levy’s job appears to be Wade Phillips, the defensive coordinator and former head coach in Denver. The offensive coordinator, Dan Henning, is also a former head coach (in Atlanta and San Diego, as well as at Boston College), but would appear to have no shot.

Leaf could help quarterback shortage

With the first pick of the NFL draft in April, the Indianapolis Colts will choose Peyton Manning of Tennessee or Ryan Leaf of Washington State. The second pick will probably be the other quarterback.

What does that do for the other 15-20 NFL teams who could use a top-flight passer?

Manning and Leaf are prototype NFL quarterbacks: big, strong-armed, drop-back passers.

But as has been quite clear for the past decade, there aren’t enough QBs who combine physical ability with the head, the heart and the leadership an NFL quarterback needs. Some have the head and the heart and the leadership, but not the skill; some have the skill, but not the intangibles - Jeff George is the most obvious of that kind.

NFL coaches and executives, particularly the brighter ones, are slowly changing their thinking and will use what they have.

The most obvious example of flexibility is Pittsburgh’s Kordell Stewart, hardly a prototype and the kind of quarterback who in the past would have been made a full-time wide receiver, running back or defensive back.

But the best quarterbacks now are old quarterbacks.

John Elway, Dan Marino and Steve Young are nearing the end of their careers and Boomer Esiason’s success with Cincinnati at the end of the season only accentuates the lack of younger quarterbacks.

How many top-flight quarterbacks are in their prime - or close to it?

Brett Favre (Green Bay), Troy Aikman (Dallas), Drew Bledsoe (New England), Mark Brunell (Jacksonville) and Stewart (Pittsburgh). Tennessee’s Steve McNair, Minnesota’s Brad Johnson, Tampa Bay’s Trent Dilfer and Kansas City’s Elvis Grbac look like they could be first-raters.

However you cut it, there’s still a quarterback shortage.