What NFL Coach Has the Best Winning Percentage?
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What NFL Coach Has the Best Winning Percentage?
We take a look at the NFL coaches with the best winning percentages of all time.
NFL Coaches with the Best Winning Percentage
The National Football League has been around for over a century now and in that time, there have been a lot of great coaches. Some have come and gone, but there are a few that have really made their mark on the league. These are the coaches with the best winning percentage in NFL history.
Bill Belichick
The New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick has the best winning percentage of any NFL coach. He has led the Patriots to six Super Bowl wins, and his teams have only had one losing season since he took over in 2000. Belichick’s winning percentage is .684, which is higher than any other coach in NFL history.
Vince Lombardi
Vince Lombardi is one of the most successful NFL coaches of all time, with a winning percentage of .769. He coached the Green Bay Packers for 9 seasons, winning 5 NFL Championships and 2 Super Bowls. Lombardi is considered one of the greatest coaches in NFL history, and his name is synonymous with success.
George Halas
George Stanley Halas Sr. (February 2, 1895 – October 31, 1983), nicknamed “Papa Bear” and “Mr. Everything”, was an American professional football player, coach, and team owner. He was the founder and owner of the National Football League’s Chicago Bears and helped develop the game of professional football. He was also lesser known for his contributions to professional basketball and baseball. He played college football at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign and was a member of Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity.
As a player, coach, and team owner, Halas won more games than any other person in NFL history, compiling 318 victories in 40 years of coaching from 1920 to 1967. He led the Bears to six NFL Championships – seven if counting the pre-Super Bowl NFL Championship game in 1946 – and held numerous NFL coaching records at the time of his retirement, including most career wins (318) and most total losses (148). He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1963 and the College Football Hall of Fame in 1968. Halas was born in Chicago in 1895 out of wedlock and raised by his mother, Jennie Basaitis Halas (sometimes spelled Business), who worked as a laundress along with her sisters to support herself; his father John Halas emigrated from Austria-Hungary over two decades later as an adult but never married or had any contact with George apart from a single letter he wrote to him as an adult.
How Winning Percentage is Calculated
In order to calculate a coach’s winning percentage, you must first know the number of games he has coached and how many of those games he has won. For example, let’s say a coach has coached 100 games and he has won 70 of those games. His winning percentage would be 70%.
Regular season games
In the National Football League (NFL), winning percentage is the ratio of wins to losses (.500 is considered breaking even). Many coaches are hired for their ability to win games and advance in the playoffs, so their winning percentage during the regular season is a key factor in whether they keep their job. In addition, teams that win a lot during the regular season are more likely to make it to the playoffs and have a shot at winning the Super Bowl.
NFL coaches typically have a higher winning percentage during the regular season than they do in the playoffs. This is because there are more games during the regular season, so each individual game has less impact on a coach’s record. In addition, teams that win a lot during the regular season often have an easier time making it to the playoffs, where they can face tougher competition. As a result, NFL coaches usually focus on winning as many regular season games as possible.
Playoff games
Calculating a coach’s winning percentage is simple. You take the number of wins they have and divide it by the number of games they have coached. But what if a coach has coached in the playoffs? Do those games count towards their winning percentage?
The answer is yes and no. If a coach has only coached in the regular season, then their playoff game(s) will not count towards their winning percentage. However, if a coach has both regular season and playoff experience, then their playoff games will count just like any other game.
For example, let’s say that a coach has coached 100 games total, with 60 of those being regular season games and 40 being playoff games. Their winning percentage would be calculated as follows:
(60 Wins / 100 Games) * 100 = 60% Winning Percentage
However, if that same coach only had experience in the regular season, then their 40 playoff games would not be included in the calculation and their winning percentage would be lower:
(60 Wins / 60 Games) * 100 = 100% Winning Percentage
Super Bowls
When calculating a coach’s winning percentage, we take into account both the regular season and postseason. However, because the Super Bowl is such an important game, we give it more weight than other postseason games. In other words, a coach’s record in the Super Bowl counts more towards his or her winning percentage than a win or loss in, say, the NFC Championship game.
Why Winning Percentage is Important
A winning percentage is the percentage of games won out of the total number of games played. It is one of the ways to measure the success of a football team. What NFL coach has the best winning percentage?
It’s a measure of success
Winning percentage is computed by dividing the number of wins by the number of games played. It is usually expressed as a three-digit percentage, but can be higher or lower depending on the number of decimal places used.
For example, if a team has 10 wins and 5 losses, its winning percentage is .667. If a team has 9 wins and 6 losses, its winning percentage is .600.
The winning percentage is an important measure of success for NFL teams and coaches. It is one of the factors that is considered when determining which teams make the playoffs and which coaches are hired or fired.
In general, teams with a higher winning percentage are more successful than teams with a lower winning percentage. However, there are many other factors that contribute to success in the NFL, such as team chemistry, player talent, coaching staff stability, and luck.
It determines coaching job security
The higher a coach’s winning percentage, the more likely they are to keep their job. That’s because winning is the most important factor for coaches at all levels of football. While other factors can come into play, such as a coach’s relationship with the front office or ownership, winning is still the bottom line.
Winning percentage is also a good way to compare coaches across different eras. For example, head coaches in the 1950s and 1960s didn’t have the same resources or player pool that coaches have today. So, a coach like Vince Lombardi, who won nine NFL championships with the Green Bay Packers in the 1960s, would have an impressive winning percentage despite never coaching in a Super Bowl. In today’s NFL, a coach like Bill Belichick of the New England Patriots has won six Super Bowls and has a higher winning percentage than Lombardi.
Of course, winning percentage isn’t everything. There have been plenty of coaches with high winning percentages who have failed in the playoffs or didn’t win a championship. But it’s still a good measure of a coach’s success and job security.
It can be a motivating factor for players
Winning percentage is a good way to measure a team’s success, but it’s not the be-all and end-all. It can be a motivating factor for players, but other things like making the playoffs and winning championships are more important.