The Oldest Head Coaches In NFL History

In the cutthroat world of NFL predictions, it takes some doing to not only make it through several decades as a coach, but to retain a job well into your late 60s – or even your 70s!

Still, if you keep producing, the teams will keep coming back for more. Right now, the oldest NFL head coach who you can back in any live betting also happens to be one of the most victorious of the last ten years, Andy Reid.

Reid has a fair few years ahead of him if he’s to break into the record books as one of the top five oldest NFL head coaches ever, so for now, these are the coaches who stuck in the job well beyond the usual retirement age.

Bill Belichick

Considered by many to be one of, if not the greatest NFL head coaches of all time, Bill Belichick made the New England Patriots a near-unstoppable Super Bowl-winning machine and stuck around until he was 71 years and 269 days old.

With the Patriots as their head coach from 2000 to 2023, Belichick picked up six Super Bowls – making it eight in total when you include his spell as the New York Giants’ defensive co-ordinator.

Most expected Belichick to stay retired after he left the Pats in 2023, set to enjoy his retirement or perhaps feature now and then as an analyst on TV. Instead, he accepted an offer in college football to coach the University of North Carolina.

Pete Carroll

Orchestrator of the ‘Legion of Boom’ and an era of emphasis on defence above all else in the league, Pete Carroll eventually hung up his headset in 2023 to call it a day as the head coach of the Seattle Seahawks.

With a haul of awards for his efforts and a Super Bowl XLVIII ring, the Seahawks couldn’t simply let him leave the organisation.

So, the man who retired as a head coach at the age of 72 years and 117 days to rank among the oldest ever NFL head coaches now gets paid to be an advisor to the team.

Marv Levy

A Grey Cup winner with the Montréal Alouettes prior to coming to the NFL, Marv Levy would end up spending 17 seasons as a head coach in the NFL, eventually bowing out aged 72 years and 139 days old to rank among the oldest NFL head coaches ever.

A Pro Football Hall of Famer, Levy spent the glut of his time in the NFL with the Buffalo Bills, guiding them to the playoffs eight times from 1986 to 1997, which includes four consecutive Super Bowls without lifting the trophy.

For a few seasons now, the Bills have been right up there with the favourites in the NFL betting to finally land the franchise’s first-ever Super Bowl, and yet, they’re yet to return to the big game since Levy was in charge.

George Halas

Earning the nickname ‘Papa Bear,’ George Halas is the legendary founder, owner, and four-time head coach of the Chicago Bears franchise, finally putting in his last shift as head coach in 1967 at the age of 72 years and 318 days old to, for a long time, rank as the oldest head coach in NFL history.

A frequent champion of the pre-Super Bowl era, taking the NFL crown eight times, Halas continued to call his own number for the head coach job because he continued to get results.

At the end of his career, Halas’ head coach record in the regular season read as a .671 win rate with 318 wins, 148 losses, and 31 ties, while in the postseason, his Chicago team went 6-3 when he was calling the shots.

Romeo Crennel

The oldest head coach in NFL history is Romeo Crennel, who coached his 50th year in the game in 2022, deciding to retire as a coach for the Houston Texans. On his last day as an NFL head coach, he was 73 years and 199 days old.

Across his long-spanning career, Crennel helped teams win five Super Bowls, taking on the head coaching job for the Cleveland Browns, Kansas City Chiefs, and Houston Texans between 2005 and 2020.

As the success of the oldest NFL head coaches ever proves, if you keep on winning, teams are more than willing to keep you on the sidelines regardless of your age.