The National Football League Coach of the Year Award is presented annually by various news and sports organizations to the
National Football League
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the majo ...
(NFL) head coach who has done the most outstanding job of working with the talent he has at his disposal. Currently, the most widely recognized award is presented by the
Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. new ...
(AP), although in the past several awards received press recognition.
First presented in 1957, the AP award did not include
American Football League
The American Football League (AFL) was a major professional American football league that operated for ten seasons from 1960 until 1970, when it merged with the older National Football League (NFL), and became the American Football Conference. ...
(AFL) teams. ''
The Sporting News
The ''Sporting News'' is a website and former magazine publication owned by Sporting News Holdings, which is a U.S.-based sports media company formed in December 2020 by a private investor consortium. It was originally established in 1886 as a pr ...
'' has given a pro football coach of the year award since 1947 and in 1949 gave its award to a non-NFL coach,
Paul Brown of the
All-America Football Conference's
Cleveland Browns
The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conferenc ...
. Other NFL Coach of the Year awards are presented by ''
Pro Football Weekly''/Pro Football Writers of America and the
Maxwell Football Club. The
United Press International
United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 2 ...
(UPI) NFL Coach of the Year award was first presented in 1955. From 1960 to 1969, before the
AFL–NFL merger, an award was also given to the most outstanding coach from the AFL. When the leagues merged in 1970, separate awards were given to the best coaches from the
American Football Conference
The American Football Conference (AFC) is one of the two conferences of the National Football League (NFL), the highest professional level of American football in the United States. The AFC and its counterpart, the National Football Conference ...
(AFC) and
National Football Conference
The National Football Conference (NFC) is one of the two conferences of the National Football League (NFL), the highest professional level of American football in the United States. The NFC and its counterpart, the American Football Conference ( ...
(NFC). The UPI discontinued the awards after 1996.
AP NFL Coach of the Year
''Sporting News'' NFL Coach of the Year
''Pro Football Weekly'' NFL Coach of the Year
Maxwell Football Club NFL Coach of the Year
Created in 1989 and presented by the
Maxwell Football Club, the award is officially titled the Earle "Greasy" Neale Award for "Professional Coach of the Year".
Touchdown Club of Columbus NFL Coach of the Year
This award is officially called the
Paul Brown Trophy.
Kansas City Committee of 101 AFC/NFC Coach of the Year Awards
:''See:
Kansas City Committee of 101 Awards#Coach of the Year Awards (NFC and AFC) (since 1969)''
UPI NFL Coach of the Year
See also
*
List of National Football League awards
References
{{NFL awards
National Football League trophies and awards
National Football League coaches
Coaching awards