Don Coryell Selected As The Coach/Contributor Candidate For Hall’s Class of 2023

Finally.

After seven years as a finalist, including one Top-10 finish, former St. Louis Cardinals’ and San Diego Chargers’ coach Don Coryell may be on his way to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. In an unexpected move, the Hall’s coach/contributor committee on Tuesday chose Coryell as its candidate for the Class of 2023.

When the announcement was made to the 12 committee voters, who met virtually for over four hours, Hall-of-Fame quarterback and voter Dan Fouts – star of San Diego’s legendary “Air Coryell” offense — buried his head in his hands for several seconds, never looking up.

“Was that relief or emotion?” I asked shortly afterward.

“A little of both,” Fouts said. “I’m almost speechless because I was so expecting bad news. When (Hall of Fame president Jim Porter) said, ‘Don Coryell,’ it was like the biggest thing for me … because of this crusade.”

News of Coryell’s selection was made public Wednesday morning by the Hall.

“Crusade” is an appropriate term for what just happened with Don Coryell. He had been a five-time modern-era finalist prior to the Centennial Class of 2020, but he could never cross the finish line. No problem, supporters figured, the Centennial Class was designed for former coaches like him, Buddy Parker and Clark Shaughnessy.

Except it wasn’t. Modern-era coaches Jimmy Johnson and Bill Cowher were chosen instead.

Coryell wasn’t elected to the Class of 2021, either. Or the Class of 2022. In fact, according to voters on the coaches’ committee, Coryell was little more than a distant finisher. The reason: He was 3-6 in the playoffs and never reached a Super Bowl.

“Coaches are measured by their jewelry,” one voter told me, “and he has none.”

OK, fine. But then what is George Allen doing in the Pro Football Hall? He was 2-7 in the playoffs, and, yeah, he reached a Super Bowl. He lost it. Supporters counter with his .705 regular-season winning percentage, and that’s great. But I was told that we measure coaches by their jewelry … and George Allen has as much as Don Coryell.

One difference: Allen is in the Hall, and Coryell is not.

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That may soon change.

Coryell will now be presented to the Hall’s board of 49 selectors as the Class of 2023’s coach/contributor candidate prior to Super Bowl LVII, along with three seniors (Joe Klecko, Chuck Howley and Ken Riley). If each gains 80 percent of the board’s vote, they will be enshrined in August in Canton.

Also included at that meeting will be 15 modern-era finalists. That group will be pared to five for induction to the Class of 2023.

Coryell was one of six coaches under consideration Tuesday. The others were Buddy Parker, Clark Shaughnessy, Mike Shanahan, Mike Holmgren and Dan Reeves. Of that group, Parker was the favorite, if only because he was the first runner-up the past two years to Tom Flores (2021) and Dick Vermeil (2022) when there was a separate coaches’ committee.

However, Patriots’ owner Robert Kraft was the popular favorite to emerge as the committee’s choice. He was among the top finishers for the 2022 contributor candidate but lost out to former NFL director of officiating Art McNally.

Neither was chosen.

Coryell was, ending a wait – or “crusade,” as Fouts termed it – that began in 2010 when he first appeared as a modern-era finalist. He failed to make the first cut from 15 to 10 in his first two attempts (2010, 2015) but ascended to the Top 10 in 2016 when Tony Dungy, Brett Favre, Marvin Harrison, Kevin Greene and Orlando Pace were enshrined. He never broke through the Top 10 again, with supporters convinced that a change in the process was necessary to advance his candidacy.

And they were right.

When the Hall this spring announced that it would couple coaches with contributors, Coryell and Clark Shaughnessy – two former coaches whose offensive and defensive innovations changed the NFL game –suddenly were back in play. If Coryell couldn’t make it on his record, he could with a revolutionary passing attack that more resembled a blitzkrieg of yards and points and a coaching tree that featured Hall-of-Fame inductees.

“If you talk about impact on the game,” said Dungy, “training other coaches – John Madden, Bill Walsh and Joe Gibbs, to name a few – and influencing how things are done, Don Coryell is right up there with Paul Brown. He was a genius.”

And while Coryell didn’t win a Super Bowl, his acolytes did. Former Chargers’ assistant Joe Gibbs won three in Washington as its head coach. Dallas won three with Norv Turner and, later, with his mentor, Ernie Zampese, calling plays. Mike Martz, who called Coryell “the father of the modern passing game,” was the offensive coordinator for the St. Louis Rams when they won Super Bowl XXXIV.

“So what’s his greatest impact?” Hall-of-Famer and former Chargers’ tight end Kellen Winslow asked me. “It’s called the TV contract. There would be no TV contract like there is today without a passing game.”

Amen.

There will be those who criticize Tuesday’s vote, but the Hall’s committee made a wise choice. Coryell not only resuscitated two franchises and sent three players (Fouts, Winslow and wide receiver Charlie Joiner) to Canton,, he had a profound effect on offenses that copied his schemes and defenses that had to contend with them.

“The impact he made,” said former Chargers’ wide receiver Wes Chandler, “changed how defenses saw the passing game. He was an innovator. By all means, Don Coryell changed the game.”