“I don’t think there’s ever been a coach who was more courageous about creating offense.” Dan Fouts on Don Coryell
Don Coryell was many things in his 85 years on this Earth. He was an Army paratrooper during World War II, a defensive back for the Washington Huskies, a longtime high school and college coach, the head coach of the St. Louis Cardinals and San Diego Chargers, and finally, a retiree living a gentle life in the Pacific Northwest. Most prominently, of course, was his work in the NFL from 1973 through 1986, when he took the Sid Gillman vertical passing game, added his own rushing formation concepts, and spun the NFL’s passing offense forward a generation. Coryell can be considered the functional link between the deep passing games of the 1960s and 1970s, and the West Coast Offense that followed into the 1980s and 1990s. As much as any coach in the history of football, Coryell preached the gospel of the nuanced, aggressive passing game wherever he went — and wherever he went, he got results.
