The Denver Broncos are on the cusp of a return to the Super Bowl. And their head coach, Sean Payton, is on the cusp of joining a rather exclusive club as a result.
Payton has been in NFL coaching circles since the late 1990s, ascending to the head coaching job with the New Orleans Saints in 2006 and spending 15 seasons across two stints with the organization (Payton didn’t coach the 2012 season due to a suspension). He led the organization to nine trips to the postseason — including a win at Super Bowl XLIV — before retiring at the end of the 2021 campaign.
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He wasn’t long for retirement, however. After a year away from coaching, Payton returned to the NFL to lead the Broncos, with their record steadily improving under his tutelage. A 10-7 record with a wild-card exit last season has turned into a 14-3 mark and a trip to the conference championship, one win away from the team’s first Super Bowl since 2015. If Payton leads them there, he’ll become one of just eight head coaches to lead two franchises to the league’s biggest stage (and if he comes out on top on that stage, he’ll be the only coach to have won with two teams).
Here are the seven coaches he’d join on that list.
Andy Reid
Perhaps the best modern example of a coach who found a stronger second wind at a second coaching destination, Reid enjoyed a successful 14-season spell with the Philadelphia Eagles — including eight regular seasons with double-digit wins — but came up just short in his lone trip to the Super Bowl.
Following his time with the Eagles, Reid headed west to take over the Kansas City Chiefs — a decision that would prove wise. Reid got the Chiefs humming, finally breaking through in 2019 for his first Super Bowl win in a lengthy coaching career … and then two more in the five seasons after that.
John Fox
Fox made it to the Super Bowl with two very different teams in two different decades, but unfortunately couldn’t crest the final summit on either occasion. His first crack at winning it all came in just his second season as a head coach — Fox guided the Carolina Panthers to the final game, but Adam Vinatieri’s game-winning field goal secured the New England Patriots the win as the Bill Belichick-Tom Brady dynasty shifted into gear.
After taking over the Broncos, Fox would get a second chance at hoisting the Lombardi Trophy. Unfortunately, his lone trip to the Super Bowl with Denver resulted in a thorough beatdown at the hands of the Legion of Boom Seattle Seahawks.
Green Bay Packers were filled with torment by one team in particular: the Dallas Cowboys. Green Bay was knocked out of the playoffs by Dallas in Holmgren’s second, third and fourth seasons. In Holmgren’s fifth season, though, the Cowboys were on the other side of the bracket — and the Packers went to Super Bowl XXXI, winning 35-21.
Holmgren would later move on to take the Seahawks job, where, in his seventh season, he’d take Seattle to the Super Bowl. This time, though, he came out on the losing end, falling to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Dick Vermeil
It’s said good things come to those who wait, and Vermeil’s coaching career offers a strong endorsement of that notion.
Vermeil got his first NFL head coaching gig in 1976, leading the Eagles. His teams had a decent amount of success — most notably a run of four straight playoff seasons from 1978 to 1981 — but Philadelphia lost in its lone trip to the Super Bowl under Vermeil.
Following his departure from the Eagles, Vermeil’s coaching career went on a 15-year hiatus, with the veteran coach working as a broadcaster. He’d get back into the coaching ranks in 1997, however, with the then-St. Louis Rams … and, after two lackluster seasons, led «The Greatest Show on Turf,» one of the league’s most memorable teams, to victory in Super Bowl XXXIV.
Dan Reeves
There aren’t many coaches who have had a worse run of Super Bowl luck than Reeves, who went to a total of four Super Bowls as head coach, including trips with two different teams, but never lifted the Lombardi Trophy.
Reeves’ closest brush with a title came during his own stint coaching Denver — a 12-year run that saw the Broncos make the postseason’s final game no fewer than three times under his tutelage, including back-to-back appearances in 1986 and 1987. Eventually, following a short run with the New York Giants, Reeves would take over at the helm of the Atlanta Falcons. There, Reeves would lead the Falcons to the Super Bowl for the first time in franchise history in his second season, but in a cruel twist of fate was bested by none other than Denver.
Bill Parcells
Parcells was the head coach for four NFL teams during his career, but he is best remembered for his run with the Giants and leading New York to a pair of Super Bowl wins, in 1986 and 1990.
In his next head coaching stop, with the Patriots, Parcells would once again lead his team on a Super Bowl run — but he and the Patriots were bested by Mike Holmgren’s aforementioned title-winning Packers team in Super Bowl XXXI.
Miami Dolphins following his time with the Colts. There, Shula would make no fewer than five more Super Bowl trips, coming up victorious twice — including an undefeated title run in 1972, with those 1972 Dolphins still the only team in NFL history to complete a perfect season.
