Bill Cowher

As a player

• Philadelphia Eagles (1979 )
• Cleveland Browns (1980-1982)
• Philadelphia Eagles (1983-1984)

As assistant coach

• Cleveland Browns (1985-1988)
• Kansas City Chiefs (1989-1991)

As coach

• Pittsburgh Steelers (1992-2006)

• Super Bowl XL winner (2005)
• 2x AFC Championship Game winner (1995, 2005)
• NFL Coach of the Year Award ( 1992)

William Laird "Bill" Cowher ( born May 8, 1957 in Crafton, Pennsylvania, USA) is an American former American football player and coach. He was active in the National Football League ( NFL).

Playing career

Cowher visited in his hometown high school and was there active as a football player, basketball player and athlete. At its College, North Carolina State University, he was employed as a linebacker. In his last year he was the team captain and MVP of his team. He received his degree in education. From 1979 to 1984 Cowher stood with two NFL teams, the Philadelphia Eagles and the Cleveland Browns under contract, but only came in 1980 for use. Cowher was never drafted. Overall, he played for the teams 45 times. A title he could not win.

Coaching career

Cowher began his coaching career in 1985 with the Browns as an assistant coach. In 1987 he was an assistant coach with the Kansas City Chiefs, who were coached by Marty Schottenheimer and with whom he has already worked in Cleveland. He succeeded Chuck Noll with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1992. Noll led the Steelers to four Superbowl wins, but could not move with the team from Pittsburgh in the play -offs in the last two years.

Cowher sat in the regular season one only in 1991 pledged quarterback Neil O'Donnell as a starter. The Steelers succeeded in the first year of Cowher of making the play -offs, where, however, was eliminated early against the Buffalo Bills at 24:3. Until 1997, you could qualify for the play -offs themselves consistently. 1995 succeeded the Steelers then for the fifth time to move into the Super Bowl. In the Super Bowl the Steelers against the Dallas Cowboys were not without chances. Overall, the Steelers scored more extra space than the Cowboys, however, O'Donnell threw three interceptions, the Cowboys had, however, not recorded any loss of possession. The game ended with 27:17 on the team from Dallas.

In 1996, committed with Jerome Bettis one of the best running backs in the league. Bettis scored this year, a gain of space of 1431 yards - the Steelers were able to re-qualify for the finals, but failed because of the way into the Super Bowl to the New England Patriots with 28:3.

From 1998 to 2000 Cowher could not move into the play -offs with his team. Only in 2001 was again the final was reached in the AFC Championship game one but was thwarted by the trained by Bill Belichick Patriots with 24:17. After another finals appearance in 2002 was a bad season in 2003. The 2004 season included the Steelers with 15 victories in 16 games from. Ben Roethlisberger was drafted before the season and had been able to successfully establish itself as a starting quarterback. Although the Steelers were considered a slight favorite, they were again defeated by the Patriots and their quarterback Tom Brady in the AFC Championship game with 41:27. Again gave the turnovers ( turnovers ) the Steelers decisive for the outcome of the game. They had lost the ball four times, the Patriots were without losing possession.

In the 2005 season, then managed Cowher the long-awaited Super Bowl win. Although the Steelers were able to make only 11 of 16 games victorious in the season, you succeeded in gaining the Super Bowl XL. Opponents were the Mike Holmgren trained Seattle Seahawks, who had to admit defeat with 21:10. After a year with a balanced game balance Cowher ended his coaching career in 2006. The team of Cowher won 62.3 % of all games in the main round during his 15 years of coaching career. The cut is above the 56.6 % of four-time Super Bowl winner Chuck Noll. The Play Off statistic of 61.9 % to 66.7 %, however, speaks for Noll.

Cowher was also evident as an instructor of youth coach a name. Many NFL coaches, as the current head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals Marvin Lewis or Ken Wisenhunt of the Arizona Cardinals have been trained by him.

After the Football Career

Since 2007, Cowher works as an analyst of football games to the broadcast Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS ) next Dan Marino, Shannon Sharpe and Boomer Esiason. In recent months, he was again and again. Than coach at various NFL teams, like the New York Jets or the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, talking He declined for family reasons the deals from all. Cowher is married and has three daughters. His wife Kaye was a professional basketball player. The family lives in Raleigh, North Carolina.