Question
The Colts have found their new coach, Frank Reich, and he fits a familiar coaching profile – a former quarterback, but one that was never a regular starter at the NFL level. Just like Doug Pederson, Jason Garrett, Hue Jackson, Sean Payton, Pete Carroll and others. Among head coaches in this century, who are the only three who also started more than 20 NFL games at quarterback? Two of these guys coached the same NFL team for two years each and once started in a sort-of-notable NFL game against each other.
Answer
Jim Harbaugh (140 games) is the easy one. Then we’re down to Jim Zorn (106 starts) and Steve Spurrier (38), who both went 12-20 coaching in Washington. In 1976, they were the starting quarterbacks for the league’s two expansion franchises, with the Seahawks getting their first-ever win with a 13-10 victory at Tampa Bay. Skimming over the list of other coaches since the merger, I see three who started a decent number of games: Bart Starr (157), Norm Van Brocklin (101) and Tom Flores (68).