football coach
Personal Information
Born October 20, 1950, in Mexia, TX; married to Carmen Rhodes; children: Detra, Candra, Tynesha, Raven.
Education: Texas Christian University; University of Tulsa.
Career
Made high school football team while still in junior high school; was running back, wide receiver, and defensive back as college football player; selected by New York Giants in tenth round of NFL draft, 1974; traded to San Francisco 49ers, 1979; became assistant coach for San Francisco 49ers, 1981; was defensive backs coach, San Francisco 49ers, 1982~91; served as defensive coordinator, Green Bay Packers, 1992~93; was defensive coordinator, San Francisco 49ers, 1994; became head coach, Philadelphia Eagles, 1995.
Life's Work
Making his mark in the National Football League (NFL) as both a player and coach, Ray Rhodes made a major impact on the Philadelphia Eagles after becoming their head coach in 1995. He was given Coach of the Year honors after his first season as a head coach, earning the award for having brought his team into the playoffs despite a poor start and injuries to key players. As a coach with the San Francisco 49ers, he helped the team rack up five world championships, one of only four coaches in football history to have done so. His 49er teams made the playoffs ten times during his twelve years with the franchise.
Rhodes has often been cited for his ability to both evaluate talent and motivate his players to overachieve on the gridiron. As was noted on the Philadelphia Eagles website on the Internet, "A psychology student in college, Rhodes prides himself on being able to read a player and understanding how much a player can give him." Paul Attner paid tribute to Rhodes in the Sporting News after the coach's notable first year with the Eagles by saying, "In one season, Rhodes has given the Eagles backbone, discipline, pride and a fighting spirit that makes them play much better than their talent should allow." Rhodes's players have also heralded him for his ability to communicate, calling him "a straight-shooting player's coach," according to the NFL website on the Internet.
Revealing his own talent as a player at an early age, Rhodes made his high school team while still in the seventh grade. At a young age, he already knew that football could open doors to a better life for him. "As a kid growing up in Mexia, Texas, a dusty town 35 miles east of Waco, Rhodes knew early on that football would be his ticket out of the depressed, two stoplight town," wrote Kevin Chappel in Ebony. Following his stellar high school career, Rhodes enrolled at Texas Christian University and became a running back on their team. From there he transferred to University of Tulsa, where he changed positions to wide receiver and defensive back.
After being picked by the New York Giants in the tenth round of the 1974 NFL draft, Rhodes quickly established a reputation as one of the more consistent wide receivers in the league. In his second season he led all receivers in the National Football Conference (NFC) with a 20.7 yards-per-catch average. He demonstrated his versatility by shifting to defense two seasons later, landing a starting position as a cornerback.
Rhodes was traded to the San Francisco 49ers in 1979, playing with them for two seasons before wrapping up his professional career. Bill Walsh, San Francisco's head coach, hired him as an assistant secondary coach in 1981. Rhodes got an early taste of coaching success, as the 49ers won the Super Bowl in his first season as an assistant coach there. His coaching talent was rewarded with a promotion to defensive backs coach in 1982, a job he held through 1991. In 1992, Rhodes was hired as a defensive coordinator for the Green Bay Packers. In 1993, the Packers made their first playoff appearance since 1982 thanks, in part, to Rhodes's influence. Two of his defensive players were selected for the Pro Bowl, the first Packer players to make the defensive All-Star team in fifteen years. In only two seasons with Green Bay, Rhodes helped lift the Packers from tenth to second in the league in overall defense.
In 1994, Rhodes returned to the 49ers as their defensive coordinator. Under his leadership, the team finished second in the NFL in defense against the run and eighth in overall defense. By this time, Rhodes's credentials as a coach and his association with successful teams had made him a likely candidate for a head coaching position. In 1995, the Los Angeles Rams and the Philadelphia Eagles both offered Rhodes a head coaching position. He ended up signing a five-year contract with the Eagles, even though he was owner Jeffrey Lurie's third choice. After Jimmy Johnson and Dick Vermeil turned Lurie down, Lurie made the offer to Rhodes and was quickly impressed by his dedication to coaching. "He knew how players were as high school players," noted Lurie about Rhodes's ability to evaluate players, according to the NFL website. "That showed when he made a recommendation, this was not a superficial choice." Rhodes appointment made him only the third African American to become a head coach in modern NFL history.
Rhodes had his work cut out for him when he arrived in Philadelphia. Under coach Rich Kotite, Rhodes's predecessor, the Eagles had lost their last seven games after an impressive 7-2 start. "Rhodes came in running, working horrendously long days, agonizing about losses, barely celebrating victories, obsessed with succeeding and refusing to hear any negative words," noted Attner. Pressure mounted on Rhodes after the Eagles stumbled to a mediocre 1-3 start in 1995. During this inaugural season as Philadelphia's head coach, Rhodes benched starting quarterback Randall Cunningham, a popular player among Eagles fans, and replaced him with Rodney Peete. He also scolded running back Rickey Watters for bragging after the opening game of the season and chastised players for not giving their best effort. It became abundantly clear that Rhodes was willing to challenge and change the status quo in order to make the Eagles a winner. "I'm not a conventional man," Rhodes stated during the 1995 season, as quoted on the NFL website. "This is my first year in the business and I'm not going to be like a lot of your coaches that have been doing this for a long time."
Rhodes's personnel changes and skills as a motivator turned the team around. Following the poor 1-3 start, the Eagles won nine of their next twelve games, finishing the 1995 season with a 10-6 record and second place in the NFC East Conference. The impressive regular season record allowed the Eagles to qualify for the playoffs as a wild card team. In the first round of the playoffs, the Eagles trounced the Detroit Lions, 58-37, before succumbing to the Dallas Cowboys in the second round by a score of 30-11.
As a result of his success with the Eagles, Rhodes edged out Dom Capers of the Carolina Panthers and Marty Schottenheimer of the Kansas City Chiefs in the Associated Press balloting for NFL Coach of the Year honors in 1995. He also received Coach of the Year honors from Sports Illustrated, Sporting News, Football Digest, the Maxwell Club, Visa, and NFL Films. Rhodes refused to make a fuss about the Coach of the Year honors, even though he had received them in his rookie season as a head coach. "I'm not a guy who's big on personal achievements," he remarked in Jet. "Anybody who knows me knows that. Really, this award is a reflection on this organization for making the commitment to get this thing pointed in the right direction." In 1996, the Eagles duplicated their success of the previous season with another 10-6 record and second place in the conference standings. However, they were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by the San Francisco 49ers, 14-0.
Rhodes has demonstrated an intense passion for coaching. He's known for beginning his workday at 5 a.m. and delivering fiery pep talks before games. Rarely reveling in victory, Rhodes continually looks ahead to future games and the work that has to be done to keep improving. His seriousness is made evident by his reputation for never smiling, even for the photographers. "A whole lot of guys are just hanging around, going for the ride," stated Rhodes about coaches in general, according to the NFL website. "But I was actively involved in everything we did from '81 on, from personnel decisions to everything, and a whole lot of coaches weren't."
Awards
NFL Coach of the Year (Associated Press, Sports Illustrated, The Sporting News Football Digest, The Maxwell Club, Visa, NFL Films, 1995; NFC Coach of the Year (United Press International, Football News, Kansas City 101 Club), 1995.
Further Reading
Periodicals
- Ebony, November 1996, pp. 144~150.
- Jet, January 15, 1996, pp. 46~47.
- New York Times, September 6, 1992, Section 8, p. 14.
- Sports Illustrated, January 8, 1996, pp. 28~29.
- Sporting News, January 8, 1996, pp. 9~10.
- "Eagles rookie coach Rhodes wins coaching honors," http://www.nando.net/newsroom/sports/fbo/1996/nfl/phi/feat/phi.html (accessed 1996).
- "Ray Rhodes--Philadelphia Eagles," updated February 11, 1997, http://www.eaglesnet.com/rhodes1.html (accessed January 1997).
- "Rhodes has Eagles on winning road," http://www.nando.net/newsroom/sports/fbo/1996/nfl/phi/feat/phi.html (accessed 1996).
— Ed Decker
