Pillars of the NFL for Playoff Time

As the football season winds down and fans are settling down to watch the playoffs and finish to the season, we like to remind them about the top ten NFL coaching heavyweights who are expertly covered in author Patrick McCaskey's Pillars of the NFL: Coaches Who Have Won Three or More Championships.  This is an important project because it entertains and informs--plus it helps keep the memory of many great coaches alive. 

ESPN offered a great service to fans with their Greatest Coaches in NFL History series in which some of the best and the brightest in sports writing and analysis selected their 20 top coaches.  In Pillars of the NFL our selection of the top ten was made strictly by NFL championships won. We took out the hype media coverage. 

Our book covers the football lives of:

1. George Halas

2. Guy Chamberlin

3. Curly Lambeau

4. Paul Brown

5. Weeb Ewbank

6. Vince Lombardi

7. Chuck Noll

8. Bill Walsh

9. Joe Gibbs

10. Bill Belichick

Weeb Ewbank

Guy Chamberlin

We've gone to bat recently to try to call attention in particular to two great coaches who get much less attention these days than the others: Guy Chamberlin and Weeb Ewbank.  Chamberlin played for teams that have gone out of existence and he won his championships in the first decade of the NFL.  Ewbank was a team builder who started out with teams that needed complete overhauls.  He also had two great quarterbacks playing for him and most give credit for the championships his teams won to those two individuals:  Johnny Unitas and Joe Namath. 

Pillars introduces readers to each coach first with a "your are there" present tense feature that takes the reader to the coach's surroundings.  Each coach's early life is examined and then his school days and playing career is described.  The coaching life focuses on the professional venue, the key players, and the seasons.  A highlights and contribution to the game section ends each coach's individual coverage.  At the end of the book, championship tables are provided and a thorough index helps make the book most useful.  Readers have a book that distills the character and achievements of each man.