The STRANGEST Interim Head Coach in NFL HISTORY | Phil Bengtson

The concept of loaning players, though not familiar in the NFL, is familiar in soccer. But what about the concept of loaning coaches? That's sort of what happened during the 1972 NFL season, when the New England Patriots fired head coach John Mazur in the middle of the season, and then replaced him for five weeks with Phil Bengtson, who was working with the San Diego Chargers at the time. This is the story behind what can only be described as the strangest hiring of an interim head coach ever.
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[@luisvaldes1568]

Beautiful Schaefer Stadium. Yes!

[@tygrkhat4087]

One of the reasons that the Packers deteriorated under Bengtson was that the team got old and Hall of Fame talent wasn't replaced with Hall of Fame talent. And Bengtson's belief that he would get his job with the Chargers was that Sid Gillman would still be with the team.

[@67marlins81]

Are you saying Bengston believed San Diego would keep him if Sid Gillman were still the coach there?

[@tygrkhat4087]

@@67marlins81 There might have been an agreement between Bengtson and Gillman. But if there was a new power structure, SOL.

[@84sp84]

I always kinda believed Lombardi saw the writing on the wall at GB. Although they won the SB, at 9-4-1 they weren’t dominant as usual. The offense had been slipping to average at best, while the defense was still very strong. With Bengston the following year, it was similar. I’m not remotely saying Bengston was a great head coach, but the decline wasn’t solely on him.

[@jackmessick2869]

Nothing surprises me about the New England Patriots' 1970s: every year a soap opera, even 1976. Went along with the 1975-1978 Red Sox.

[@JonFrumTheFirst]

I doubt I knew the details at the time, but I was a sad Patriots fan at the time. What a sad-sack franchise that was.

[@daviddechamplain5718]

Maybe the Chargers didn't care because they were going to fire him anyway.

[@makinmoviesandstuff]

Phil Bengtson was my Grandpa. I never knew any of this stuff! Thanks for the awesome video.

[@JonPITBZN]

Shout to the people who mishear "Eric the enemy" every time someone mentions Eric Bieniemy. Also, that dude should definitely be a head coach.

[@Derek-tk4wf]

The background music he plays sounds like some uppity happy music from an 8/16-bit role playing game. Or maybe sim city.

[@russellseilhamer4552]

I think assistant coaches should be in the HOF. Buddy Ryan, Ritchie Pettibon come to mind also Phil Bengston whose defense was a top 5 defense all 9 of Lombardis seasons. He wasn’t a great HC but the Packer dynasty never happens without Bengston. Pettibon was fired after 1 season in 1993 but Joe Gibbs never wins 3 SBs without Pettibons defensive guidance. The 1982 NFC title game was a prime example. The Skins led 21-17. The last 4 Cowboy possessions were missed FG, INT that led to FG, INT returned for TD, turnover on downs.. Defense wins championships and Pettibon deserves credit

[@sludge4125]

I don’t.

[@lookonthebrightsideoflife5200]

You can't really blame Bengston for the Packers demise as they were ancient by the time he took over. The '67 Packers were the worst of Lombardi's title teams as they won 9 games in a lousy division and were so injury riddled it was a miracle they made it to the postseason in the first place. Bengston could've done a better job, sure, but the team as a whole was a few years shy of an actual retirement home.

[@georgeorwell4534]

You need to do the story of George Allen returning to the Rams in 1978, only to be fired after the second preseason game….and the Rams went to the Super Bowl.

[@drewnogy]

TheRrams went to the Super Bowl in the following season, 1979.

[@jeromemaida4933]

This move is worse than what your rating would be if you took the snap and spiked the ball on every play :)

[@RevJack-jn1nu]

WHAT NEWS !!! DA PLAYERS....DID NOT PLAY !

[@gluserty]

Wat happened with the 1972 Patriots reminds me of what happened with the 1992 Patriots: an improved previous season, expectations heightened a bit, but things turn out horribly. At least it got better for the Patriot in both cases (the 1976 Patriots were a good team befitting the year, while the 1993 Patriots had Bill Parcells as coach).

[@diaz5292]

1:32 The much needed context.

[@nin920]

Mr. Big Context

[@nasetvideos]

Great video! I remember hearing of this story but never got a really good explanation of what happened. Excellent story-telling/context.

[@F40PH-2CAT]

I'm gonna play Madden, spike the ball into the ground on every play and see if I can win 😆

[@gluserty]

Ha ha, that's just great! It should be an interesting endeavor to take on.

[@fredleeland2464]

That's basically the Bears 2006 season

[@gluserty]

@@fredleeland2464 Well, the Bears did make it to the Super Bowl that season (They would've been better off just spiking the ball on O during that Cardinals game for sure, since all it supplied was turnovers and bad play:-) Funny, I was just thinking about that team, how the offense greatly improved from the previous season (it was also the only season Rex Grossman really did anything, although the quality of his play was all over the place). After '06 though, the Bears didn't make another strong move until the 2010 season, and now they're sort of a team that has a good season every so often.

[@fredleeland2464]

@@gluserty the Cardinals game was completely defense, special teams and Matt Leinart not playing well probably due to that Bears defense HOWEVER there were multiple games that year where Urlacher, Tillman or Hester won the game

[@jbj7599]

Challenge accepted! Ill try on each difficulty also for fun

[@thatsmrtguy4935]

Im binging this channel and I noticed that A) 6 consecutive videos from the 60's and 70's B) This is your second straight video involving Phil Bengston, what are the odds of that?

[@stuartmartin2615]

Why does every video have that quote about spiking the ball every play? Please get a new analogy.

[@CSLGSKS]

So was this some gigabrained way for the Chargers to gather intel on the Patriots? Learn how not to run an NFL organization?

[@robertholmberg6485]

I think that Bengston benefitted greatly from having the coach he was under and all of the talent he had on our '60s defenses. He was not a very good coach

[@robertholmberg6485]

I think that if people want to name Bart Starr as the worst coach we had in the Super Bowl era, they need to look at Bengston

[@joachimguderian4048]

While Bart didn’t start out as a very good head coach, he WAS turning things around when he was let go. If he’d been able to start the turn around a couple years earlier, I think things would have ended VERY differently.

[@lawrencetaylor4101]

I am so offended at your channel. I finally got my chance to play as an NFL quarterback and decided to spike the ball on every play. I practiced hard to do it and spent the off-season throwing footballs into the ground. I was expecting to have a successful career with a passer rating of 31. But the first 5 spikes somehow found its way into the hands of receivers and they ran all the way for touchdowns. No interceptions. My passer rating was off the charts. By then a couple ex-wives and four girl friends found out I was on an NFL team, and the jig was up. Maybe you'll do a video in a couple decades about how passer ratings are overrated.

[@thelasthandbook6704]

The Sullivan Family, who owned the team from inception until the early 1990s, sadly never had either the talent or the money to make a credible NFL team. I had never heard this story before, but it sounds like something they would have done. Nobody knew if the AFL would succeed or flop in the early 1960s, so certain people got expansion franchises that probably shouldn't have gotten one, like the Sullivans. As an aside, Schaffer ("The one beer to have if you're having more than one," yes that was their slogan) stadium was basically a giant concrete toilet, little surprised to hear it praised here. The town of Foxboro banned Monday Night Football for about a decade in the 1980s due to fan shenanigans, not sure if that ever happened anywhere else.

[@eugenedenbrook322]

Love this tidbit. Wonder if they were trained in economics by Sonny Werblin, the old New York Jets (originally Titans, I think?) owner.

[@davidlafleche1142]

It WAS privately financed, you have to concede that. And it did have the best sightlines in the NFL.

[@BlackFlagsMatter]

Found your channel a month ago now I can’t leave. These videos are awesome and so Informative. A lot of these stories I had no clue happened so thank you!

[@braderwin9620]

Same here. As a kid, the '70s were my favorite time for watching the NFL. Today, I can literally name more starting lineups of the '70s teams than I can for current teams. That's why I love this channel. I know all of the players and coaches he talks about, but due to the poor sports coverage we had back then, I didn't know any of these stories happened.

[@okolo22000]

Moral of the story: don’t take an interim job for a team you’re not currently an assistant coach on.

[@calennon3]

Quarterback: has really bad passer rating JaguarGator9: ‘that’s worse than if you spiked the ball on every single play’

[@jackmessick2869]

Well, all I can say is "The truth hurts."😂

[@MrT571]

I love that he says that in almost every video. It's so great.

[@stuartmartin2615]

Every video with out fail he has that quote

[@arizonawrestlinginterviews1040]

5:25 Y'all know damn well you clicked on this video just to hear him say that :D

[@evets1726]

9:09 when he has a lego collection

[@fredleeland2464]

I wonder if this has ever happened with a player Traded from a team, cut by that team, resigned by team

[@Yapmanpac]

I know that has happened a few times, but I can't for the life of me remember their names.

[@pwinson]

In the NFL I'm not sure. Happened in the NBA with Gary Payton and the Celtics in 2005, but that is no longer allowed.

[@jturner2577]

Yeah quite a few times

[@d0nKsTaH]

This has happened a lot. It's happened a lot of times with the Steelers. Most memorable was when Bryant McFadden (cornerback) was sent to the Cardinals and played a year or two with them. One of the reasons why was a former Steeler assistant coach was their head coach (Whisenhunt). He got cut... and the Steelers resigned him. It may have also happened with Larry Foote (LB) for the Steelers who went to the Lions and returned sometime later. James Harrison was cut several times and signed by the Ravens... who cut him... and he got resigned by the Steelers again. Also... Harrison ... went to the Bengals briefly towards the end of his career... played a full year... and came back to Pittsburgh.

[@fredleeland2464]

@@d0nKsTaH yeah, the Steelers have done that but not in the same year It'll be like if LeGarrette Blount was traded to the Steelers, they cut him after not using him (that was annoying) and then he went back to the Patriots but during the same season

[@snomaim]

This video is really unfair to Bengtson. Lombardi left Bengtson with an aging team that had barely hung on to win the title in 1967. Even if Lombardi had stayed a couple more seasons, the Packers dynasty would’ve been over after 1967.

[@mikeforte7585]

That is the inconvenient truth...n9

[@MrTrickster1984]

It seems the only upside or football IQ belonging to Phil Bengtson was all Vince Lombardi

[@jeffsmith2022]

What the hell was Upton Bell thinking?...

[@MichaelMartin-qe5ye]

Spot the Gabbert at 5:25

[@RagePhoenix96]

Great vid! Keep up the great content! Question though? What's the name of the background music you used? Pretty catchy

[@OfficialJaguarGator9]

Thanks! That’s just a loop I made myself in GarageBand

[@chrisrobinson8339]

Why did Vince retire like that?

[@TommyRibs]

He went to coach Washington. Then after a season in Washington he got a terminal cancer diagnosis, and then he was gone.

[@pronkb000]

He was GM for a year before moving on to be coach/GM of Washington. I don't know if he was burned out or what.

[@dciccantelli]

@@pronkb000 He left the GM position in GB because he didn't like the front office environment. He wanted to be back on the sideline. Also, Washington offered him a share in ownership which was something he could have never gotten in GB.

[@toddbiesel4288]

Did the Chargers get compensation?

[@scottconner7930]

49 Years Ago

[@lucaskincanyon7393]

Sounds like fun.

[@rjsweda]

hat happened to him after chargers fired him, ould have been nice to have an epilogue

[@edpinkerton7947]

Shining example of the Peter principle. Rising to the level of his incompetence

[@englandbengal]

Anthony Munoz is the greatest offensive lineman ever!

[@diaz5292]

Phil Pozderac was the greatest lineman ever!...😂🤣😅🤣😂🤣😅😀👍

[@eugenedenbrook322]

Can't make a case against him, but I have Jim Parker and Dwight Stephenson ahead of Muñoz. Just my opinion, of course

[@Denny_963]

JG have you covered Dan Devine’s tenure in Green Bay

[@roman14032]

if i ever get to the pros im going to spike the ball on every single play

[@bens5661]

"The only win came against the New Orleans Saints" I gotta stop being shocked by these things, honestly

[@CSharp__]

What on earth

[@67marlins81]

This would never happen between division rivals, but even still it's surprising it happened AT ALL, just like our excellent narrator/channel guy said. I mean, how good could ANY coach be under the circumstances?