The Broncos barely manage in 2007 to get by with 21 coaches – a head coach, an assistant head coach/quarterbacks coach, an offensive coordinator/offensive line coach, an assistant head coach/defense, a defensive coordinator/defensive backs coach, a special-teams coordinator, an associate head coach and assorted other assistants and strength and conditioning coaches. They have won six.
I saw it, but I can’t believe that (head) coach Red Miller survived — much less, got to the Super Bowl — in 1977 with just nine assistants, including only two coordinators and no assistant head coaches or strength and conditioning coach or even a pass rush specialist. They won 14.
Yet, imagine this: When Miller was the Broncos’ offensive line coach in 1963, there were two other assistants. They won two.
The more, the merrier Christmas, I guess. Well, maybe not. The undefeated New England Patriots have one head coach and 10 assistants (and three strength and conditioning gurus). Bill Belichick must count as four or five coaches.
Of course, everybody knows that Belichick was hired by Miller in 1978, the year after the Broncos’ first Super Bowl, as a special-teams aide and defensive coordinator Joe Collier’s gofer.
At training camp one day I told the 26-year-old Belichick that he was blocking my view.
Miller, recently honored at a surprise 80th birthday gala in Denver, obviously knew how to pick excellent coaches. A longtime assistant before being named coach of the Broncos in 1977, Red surrounded himself with what I believe is the best and brightest staff in team history. Still.
Miller, his own offensive coordinator, had as assistants on offense: quarterbacks, Babe Parilli, one of the all-time great college and AFL quarterbacks (and Joe Namath’s backup), who also was a head coach in the WFL and, later, the USFL; running backs, Paul Roach, a former Wyoming, Oakland and Green Bay assistant who eventually would be the outstanding Wyoming head coach and athletic director; receivers, Fran Polsfoot, who had been an assistant in pro football since 1962, and linemen, Ken Gray, a seven- time all-pro guard.
Collier, who had coached with Miller for many years and was the head coach of the Buffalo Bills from 1966-68, created the Broncos’ 3-4 “Orange Crush” defense (and was with the Broncos until 1988). He was assisted by: defensive backs, Bob Gambold, a former college and pro quarterback; linebackers, Myrel Moore, who would leave to become defensive coordinator of the Raiders and return in 1982; and linemen, Stan Jones, a Hall of Fame guard with the Chicago Bears. Jones also served as the Broncos’ weightlifting coach.
The special-teams coach was Marv Braden, an ex-college head coach, who produced one of the top three special-teams groups in the league.
Parilli resurrected Craig Morton’s career; Roach developed a three-headed Chimera monster in the backfield (which rushed for 1,353 yards); Polsfoot tutored a quality tight end, Riley Odoms, and wide receivers Haven Moses, Jack Dolbin and Rick Upchurch. Gray somehow constructed a line out of broken-down veterans, castoffs and rookies.
Jones worked with two rock-solid linemen and a wild man-Pro Bowler (Lyle Alzado); Moore molded the league’s No. 1 linebacking corps; and Gambold built a secondary out of a first- round pick who was a track star, a converted quarterback and a tough leader at strong safety.
Braden had the only player in NFL history who kicked off and was the kickoff returner — and finished as the team’s second-leading rusher.
Every coach was a smart, sharp, stable teacher, and friendly and helpful — even to the public and the media.
Dec. 24 will be the 30th anniversary of the Broncos’ first playoff game, and the 1977 coaches should be remembered fondly and with respect. They were the first to succeed.
Fran Polsfoot passed on in 1985, and the others are quasi-retired, with Marv Braden in Arkansas, Ken Gray in Texas, Bob Gambold in Arizona, Paul Roach in Laramie, Stan Jones in Fraser, Myrel Moore in Wellington and Joe Collier, Babe Parilli and The Old Redhead, who brought them together, in the Denver area. Babe lives nearby; I see Red and Joe occasionally, and Stan e-mailed me recently. They all look and sound like they could coach — and win — Monday’s game.
The 21 current coaches should take a timeout this week to study the 10 former coaches — the class of 1977.
Woody Paige: 303-954-1095 or wpaige@denverpost.com
