Coach Mudd's First Super Bowl: A Wait Fulfilled

Mudd Coaching in First Super Bowl in 33rd Season as NFL Coach.

Howard Mudd doesn't know quite how to explain it.
Does he tell about The Drive?

Or does he tell about The Fumble?

Does he tell about 33 years as an NFL assistant, some on some very, very good teams, or does he emphasize seven previous postseason appearances with the Colts, all of which fell short of the season's ultimate game?

Hard to tell just how hard it is to make a Super Bowl, Mudd said this week.

But he'll tell you it's hard. Just, plain hard.

"I don't know how you quantify that," Mudd said as the AFC Champion Colts (15-4) prepared to play the NFC Champion Chicago Bears (15-3) in Super Bowl XLI at Dolphin Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla., Sunday at 6:25 p.m.

"I don't know how you quantify how much work it is. Or to look back upon it and say, 'That's a lot of work.' Every year's a lot of work. But somehow all the pieces fit together right if you keep trying and keep trying to do the thing the same way all the time."

Around the Colts the past two weeks, there has been a lot of talk about people who have waited long amounts of time to reach the Super Bowl.

There's Colts Head Coach Tony Dungy, who last participated in the game as a player with the Pittsburgh Steelers after the 1978 season.

There's assistant coach Leslie Frazier, who last participated as a player with the Chicago Bears after the 1985 season.

But there are many in the organization making their first Super Bowl appearance, a list that includes support staff with the team since before the 1984 move to Baltimore, and a list that also includes Mudd, one of the league's longest-tenured, most-respected coaches.

With the retirement after the 2006 regular season of Pittsburgh Steelers running backs coach Dick Hoak, Mudd's 33 consecutive seasons as an NFL assistant coach became he league's longest such active streak.

He has coached on good teams, with superstar players, and four times he has coached on teams that played in the AFC Championship Game.

But Sunday's Super Bowl will be his first.

"I think it's terrific," Colts center Jeff Saturday said. "Any coach who has been in the league as long as Howard has, and who has been as successful in the league as long as he has for so long - I'm proud to get him here.

"I was excited for him when (Colts offensive tackle) Tarik (Glenn) got selected to the Pro Bowl. I got sent to the Pro Bowl. He has had such an impact on our careers, and now he's here at the ultimate game, which is obviously the Super Bowl.

"Hopefully, we'll get him a Super Bowl victory."

Mudd, Saturday said, is about more than longevity. Offensive players on the Colts such as quarterback Peyton Manning and wide receiver Marvin Harrison are likely Hall of Fame selections after their careers, but since Mudd's 1998 hiring, the Colts' line has been among the NFL's best. It also has been a critical reason for the team's success.

The Colts have ranked first in the NFL in fewest sacks allowed in five of the past eight seasons, including the last three in succession. Mudd is a big reason, Saturday said.

The Colts rarely use top draft selections on offensive linemen. Left tackle Tarik Glenn is the lone first-day draft selection on the line, and he is in his 10th NFL season. But with a collection of second-day draftees and free agents, the Colts' line has helped the offense

rank among the NFL's top 10 offenses every season since 1999.

"He stays so committed to his philosophy of techniques and fundamentals," Saturday said. "He never wavers from what he knows will be successful. He's always talking about your pad level, your technique. He believes in, 'Whatever the defense gives you.' He's not an ego maniac.

"If you have to run it, run it. If you have to throw it, throw it."

Said Mudd, "We have a method we use. We believe in it. I personally encourage the players to make it better. If they don't believe it works, let's make sure it does work, but once we decide that's the way we're going to do it, my job is to ensure we keep doing it the same way and not abandon the way we go about things."

When Mudd talked this week about his career, and his approach, a word he used often was "persistence." It's one he uses to describe his approach to offensive line play, and one that might describe his Super Bowl quest.

Mudd, who played guard with the San Francisco 49ers from 1964-1968 and with the Bears from 1969-1971, joined the NFL as the offensive line coach at San Diego from 1974-1976. After a season with the 49ers, he had tenures with Seattle (1978-1982, 1993-1997), Cleveland (1983-1988) and Kansas City (1989-1992) before joining the Colts.

"I really loved coaching," Mudd said. "As soon as I started coaching, I knew I was going to do it for a long time. I knew that. There's a quote that's sort of an indirect way of saying what I think, that's when you coach, in order to stay with it, that has to be what drives your motor. I have to coach. I have to be teaching something, doing something.

"I never thought about doing anything else. Once I decided to do it, I never looked back. Did I think I'd be doing it 33 years? Not when I started. When you look around, casualties are pretty high. Maybe you lose your energy, I suppose."

In 1986 and again in 1987, Mudd came within a game of the Super Bowl. The Browns lost the AFC Championship Game both seasons, losing in the legendary "Drive" game in the title game following the 1986 season and the "Fumble" game following the 1987 season.

In 2003, the Colts lost to the New England Patriots in the AFC title game.

"I've been some really good football teams that were quite successful," Mudd said. "I go back to the Cleveland days, and I was there for the Drive and the Fumble. We were pretty good. Bernie Kosar was a good quarterback, very efficient. He was an awful lot like (Colts quarterback) Peyton (Manning) with his brain.

"We were very efficient, but we couldn't quite pull it off. We really worked hard and had a very good defense, then we were a pretty good football team here when we played New England. You work hard, and you build a good unit, but somehow the pieces don't just fit quite right.

"Persistence, professionally - you keep trucking and do your job. . . . Somehow, the pieces fit together right."

What Mudd said he enjoys most about coaching, even after 33 years, is the teaching of the craft, the passing on of the fundamentals. He talked this week about the philosophy of offensive line play, and spoke at length of a craftsman learning an apprenticeship.

"There's a lot of that," Mudd said. "I rely on that a lot."

He has relied on it for 33 years, persistently passing along his philosophies. And as hard as it may have been at times, the persistence at last has him in the ultimate game. - By Colts.com