Saturday’s loss to the Indianapolis Colts was a significant one for the Pittsburgh Steelers and head coach Mike Tomlin. It was the 100th loss of his career in the regular season, making him just the 32nd head coach in NFL history to lose 100 games.
He also became just the 10th head coach to lose 100 regular season games for a single franchise, and the second Steelers head coach after Chuck Noll, who retired with a 193-148-1 record over 23 seasons. Bill Cowher retired with a record of 149-90-1 after 15 seasons, Tomlin now having coached nearly two full seasons longer, but his career winning percentage of .629 is dipping closer and closer to Cowher’s .623.
Now, first off, it goes without saying that you have to have a certain level of skill to be in a position to coach 100 games, let alone lose 100. The vast majority of head coaches would have been fired long before they could lose that many games, but it helps when you’ve won 170 to balance it out.
Tomlin’s 100 all-time losses as head coach are tied for 28th-most all-time, for example, but his 170 career wins are tied for the 16th-most in NFL history. He still surely continue to climb both ranks as time goes on, whether in Pittsburgh or elsewhere, unless he surprises and opts to retire.
While reaching 100 career losses is a dubious distinction, it simply comes with the territory of longevity. There is not a single head coach in NFL history who has coached more games than Tomlin while losing fewer of them. Lovie Smith lost 100 games in 193. Ron Rivera just lost his 100th in 204 games. He has the seventh-best winning percentage among those who have lost 100 or more games.
The others who have lost 100-plus games with a single franchise are Tom Landry with the Dallas Cowboys (162), George Halas with the Chicago Bears (148), Noll with the Steelers (148), Don Shula with the Miami Dolphins (133), Marvin Lewis with the Cincinnati Bengals (122), Jeff Fisher with the Houston/Tennessee Oilers/Titans (120), Bill Belichick with the New England Patriots (119), Curly Lambeau with the Green Bay Packers (104), and Steve Owen with the New York Giants (100).
Other notable coaches who have lost 100-plus games between multiple franchise include Andy Reid, Mike Shanahan, Bill Parcells, Pete Carroll, Jon Gruden, Mike Holmgren, Paul Brown, and Mike McCarthy. Along with Rivera, Reid, Belichick, Carroll, McCarthy, and Tomlin make up the active head coaches with at least losses in their careers.
Of the 32 head coaches with 100-plus career losses, 20 of them have won at least one championship title, including Tomlin. Only four of them have a career losing record, though Rivera is tipping close to the borderline at 102-100. He could theoretically finish this season 102-103.
The next two head coaches who will join the 100-loss club are the Baltimore Ravens’ John Harbaugh with a 158-98 all-time record and a career .617 winning percentage, and Sean Payton (assuming he doesn’t get fired at the end of this season, currently with the Denver Broncos) at 159-96 and an all-time .624 winning percentage. Both have one championship to their name.
Harbaugh’s losses will all be with the Ravens, marking the 11th head coach to lose 100 games with a single franchise and making the AFC North (formerly the AFC Central) the only division with a head coach for each team to accomplish the feat. When Harbaugh reaches 100 losses, he will be the fifth in divisional history, and among four who brought at least one title to his franchise in the process.
