Romeo Crennel (born June 18, 1947) is a former
American football
American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...
coach, who was the senior advisor for football performance for the
Houston Texans
The Houston Texans are a professional American football team based in Houston. The Texans compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) South division, and play their home games at NR ...
of 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). A former long-time coaching assistant to
Bill Parcells, Crennel served as the head coach of the
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 ...
from 2005 to 2008 and the
Kansas City Chiefs
The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division.
The t ...
in 2012, as well an assistant coach for six NFL teams and four
collegiate teams. He has over 50 years of coaching experience, which has included consistently being employed as a coach for all but two seasons since 1970, only taking the 2009 and 2013 seasons off following both of his tenures as a permanent head coach. He has five Super Bowl wins as assistant coach, two with the
New York Giants
The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divisio ...
and three with the
New England Patriots
The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East divisio ...
.
From 2014 to 2021, Crennel has served as an assistant coach for the Houston Texans under head coaches
Bill O'Brien and
David Culley
David Wayne Culley (born September 17, 1955) is an American football coach who most recently served as the head coach of the Houston Texans of the National Football League (NFL).
Culley has 45 years of coaching experience in both collegiate and ...
, and served as the team's interim head coach during the 2020 season after O'Brien was fired following an 0–4 start. At 73 years and 115 days of age at the time of his promotion to interim coach, Crennel is the oldest person in NFL history to serve as a head coach, a record previously held by former
Chicago Bears
The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The Bears have won nine ...
head coach/owner and NFL co-founder
George Halas
George Stanley Halas Sr. (; February 2, 1895October 31, 1983), nicknamed "Papa Bear" and "Mr. Everything", was an American professional football player, coach, and team owner. He was the founder and owner of the National Football League's Chi ...
, who was 72 years and 318 days old when he coached the final game of his career on December 17, 1967. Crennel was the first
Black
Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ha ...
head coach in Texans franchise history; he was also the first Black noninterim head coach in Browns history.
Playing career
Crennel played baseball and football at
Fort Knox High School in Kentucky and Amherst County (Va.) High School before committing to college football at
Western Kentucky. Although he was a four-year starter as a defensive lineman, he became an offensive lineman during his senior season at the request of the coaching staff. He was named the team's
most valuable player
In team sports, a most valuable player award, abbreviated 'MVP award', is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a partic ...
after the switch, but was not drafted and never played in the NFL. While the move may have hindered his draft chances, it increased his knowledge of the game, by experiencing the trenches from both the offensive and defensive side of the football. Crennel earned a bachelor's degree in physical education from
Western Kentucky University, and then a master's degree while serving as a graduate assistant for the school in 1970.
Coaching career
Western Kentucky University
After one season as a graduate assistant with Western Kentucky (1970), Crennel served as the defensive line coach for three seasons (1971–1974).
Texas Tech
After four seasons at WKU, he became an assistant for defensive coordinator
Bill Parcells and head coach
Steve Sloan
Stephen Charles Sloan (born August 19, 1944) is a former American football player, coach, and college athletics administrator. He played college football as a quarterback at the University of Alabama from 1962 to 1965 and then played for two se ...
at
Texas Tech
Texas Tech University (Texas Tech, Tech, or TTU) is a public research university in Lubbock, Texas. Established on , and called Texas Technological College until 1969, it is the main institution of the five-institution Texas Tech University Sys ...
for three seasons (1975–1977).
Ole Miss and Georgia Tech
Crennel finished his collegiate career with two seasons as the defensive ends coach for
Ole Miss (1978–1979) and one season as the defensive line coach for
Georgia Tech (1980).
New York Giants
After spending two seasons as an assistant with the
New York Giants
The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divisio ...
, Crennel became the special-teams coach for seven seasons (
1983–
1989
File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...
) and the defensive line coach for three seasons (
1990
File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of humanity on Earth, astrophysicis ...
–
1992). In 1983, he was reunited with Parcells as the head coach.
When Parcells stepped down as Giants head coach after
Super Bowl XXV, Crennel stayed with the team under the two-year tenure of
Ray Handley.
New England Patriots and New York Jets
Crennel left the Giants after the 1992 season and worked as the defensive line coach for the New England Patriots for four seasons (
1993–
1996) and for the
New York Jets
The New York Jets are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Jets compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The ...
for three seasons (
1997
File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...
–
1999
File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...
) during the time that Parcells was the head coach in each franchise.
Cleveland Browns
Crennel was hired as the Cleveland Browns' defensive coordinator for the
2000 season.
Return to New England
After one season in Cleveland, he filled the same role with the Patriots for four seasons (
2001–
2004) under long-time friend
Bill Belichick. Crennel and Belichick both served as assistant coaches for the New York Giants, Patriots, and New York Jets, all coached by Bill Parcells from 1981-1990 and 1996-1999. Crennel helped lead New England to three Super Bowl victories (
XXXVI,
XXXVIII, and
XXXIX).
Before beginning the
2003 playoffs with the Patriots, Crennel interviewed for head-coaching positions with six teams in under 36 hours. He was not offered any jobs and was passed up by the New York Giants,
Buffalo Bills
The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo metropolitan area. The Bills compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division ...
,
Arizona Cardinals, Chicago Bears, and
Atlanta Falcons.
Return to Cleveland
Crennel was hired to replace
Butch Davis as head coach of the
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 ...
. He went 24–40 in his tenure with the Browns. His team went
6–10 and
4–12 in his first two seasons with the Browns, finishing last or tied for last in the AFC North. The Browns finished the
2007 season with a 10–6 record, just falling short of making the playoffs–only the franchise's second winning season since its revival in 1999. Crennel's success in the 2007 season earned him a two-year contract extension in January 2008.
On December 29, 2008, following a disappointing 4–12
season
A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and ...
, Crennel was fired by the Browns.
Kansas City Chiefs
On January 13, 2010, Crennel was hired as the
Kansas City Chiefs
The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division.
The t ...
defensive coordinator
A defensive coordinator is a coach responsible for a gridiron football (American football) team's defense. Generally, the defensive coordinator, the offensive coordinator and the special teams coordinator represent the second level of a team's c ...
, reuniting him with
offensive coordinator
An offensive coordinator is a member of the coaching staff of an American football or Canadian football team who is in charge of the team's offense. Generally, along with the defensive coordinator and the special teams coordinator, this coach r ...
Charlie Weis and general manager
Scott Pioli from their days with the Patriots.
Following
Todd Haley's termination as the team's head coach after 13 games in the
2011 season, Crennel was named the team's interim head coach for the remaining three games of the season. Crennel won his first game as the interim head coach of the Chiefs on December 18, 2011 against the then undefeated Green Bay Packers 19–14, which was significant as Crennel snapped the Packers' 19-game winning streak and ended their hopes for a perfect season. Crennel finished his stint as interim head coach with a 2–1 record. However, in his tenure as a head coach for the Chiefs, Crennel would only win 2 more games finishing with a 4–15 overall record.
On January 9, 2012 Crennel was named the 11th full-time head coach in Chiefs history. Three days later, Crennel announced his intent to remain as defensive coordinator during his tenure as head coach.
On November 5, 2012, Crennel announced he would be stepping down as defensive coordinator and named linebackers coach
Gary Gibbs
Gary Gibbs (born August 13, 1952) is an American football coach and former player who previously served as the head football coach at the University of Oklahoma for six years, compiling a record of 44–23–2.
Gibbs spent the first half of his a ...
to the vacant position, after a 1–7 start to the
season
A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and ...
.
On December 1, 2012, Crennel attempted to prevent the suicide of player
Jovan Belcher by talking to him and witnessed his death by a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
The following day, Crennel coached his team to a 27–21 victory over the
Carolina Panthers
The Carolina Panthers are a professional American football team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Panthers compete in the National Football League (NFL), as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. ...
, the Chiefs' first home victory since defeating the Packers the previous season, and the only other home win during his tenure.
On December 31, 2012, Crennel was fired as head coach.
Houston Texans
On January 20, 2014, Crennel signed a 3-year deal with the NFL's
Houston Texans
The Houston Texans are a professional American football team based in Houston. The Texans compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) South division, and play their home games at NR ...
becoming their new defensive coordinator under their new head coach
Bill O'Brien. He was one of the highest paid defensive coordinators in the NFL for three seasons (
2014
File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wa ...
–
2016), earning roughly $1.8 million per year. Crennel finished the 2016 year with the NFL's #1 ranked defense and in January 2017 was promoted to Assistant Head Coach. On January 20, 2018, he returned to his role as defensive coordinator for the Texans after
Mike Vrabel left to become head coach of the
Tennessee Titans.
Crennel was named the interim head coach for the Texans on October 5, 2020 after O'Brien was fired following an 0–4 start to begin the
2020 NFL season
The 2020 NFL season was the 101st season of the National Football League (NFL). The regular season started with the NFL Kickoff Game on September 10, in which defending Super Bowl LIV champion Kansas City defeated Houston. The playoffs wer ...
. In his first game as interim head coach, at the age of 73 years and 115 days, he became the oldest head coach in
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 ...
history, a game the Texans won 30–14 over the
Jacksonville Jaguars. Crennel also became the Texans' first
African American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
head coach in franchise history, albeit on an interim basis. Crennel was retained under new Texans head coach
David Culley
David Wayne Culley (born September 17, 1955) is an American football coach who most recently served as the head coach of the Houston Texans of the National Football League (NFL).
Culley has 45 years of coaching experience in both collegiate and ...
along with a new coaching staff in 2021, being given the title of senior advisor for football performance on March 10, 2021. Crennel's last game as an NFL coach was on January 9, 2022, a 25-28 loss to the
Tennessee Titans, as he announced his retirement from coaching on June 6, 2022.
Head coaching record
* – Interim head coach
Personal life
Crennel had hip replacement surgery in early 2009 and decided to sit out the 2009 football season while recuperating.
References
External links
Houston Texas profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Crennel, Romeo
1947 births
Living people
American football defensive linemen
American football offensive linemen
Cleveland Browns coaches
Cleveland Browns head coaches
Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets football coaches
Houston Texans coaches
Houston Texans head coaches
Kansas City Chiefs coaches
Kansas City Chiefs head coaches
New England Patriots coaches
New York Giants coaches
New York Jets coaches
Ole Miss Rebels football coaches
Texas Tech Red Raiders football coaches
Western Kentucky Hilltoppers football coaches
Western Kentucky Hilltoppers football players
National Football League defensive coordinators
Sportspeople from Lynchburg, Virginia
Coaches of American football from Virginia
Players of American football from Virginia
African-American coaches of American football
African-American players of American football
21st-century African-American people
20th-century African-American sportspeople