It fitting that on a day when the EPL’s leading and undefeated team went down to Liverpool (thus ending their pursuit of duplicating Arsenal’s unique invincible season) we are reminded of the last days of Don Shula. Shula is in the pantheon of great American football coaches, and (like Arsene Wenger in the Premiership) the only NFL coach to lead a team to an undefeated season. In 1996 Shula ended his own career as coach of the Miami Dolphins after internal friction over the leadership and control of the franchise (sound familiar?). The LA Times reported:
Refusing to surrender power after a season that scuffed his image, Miami Dolphin Coach Don Shula has decided to retire, ending a 33-year career during which he won more games than any coach in NFL history.
According to Dolphin sources, Shula was ordered by owner Wayne Huizenga in a meeting Wednesday to make widespread changes in his coaching and personnel staffs.
In response, Shula told Huizenga he would not make others scapegoats for a season during which their collection of stars finished 9-7, leading to a first-round playoff humiliation in Buffalo.
When Huizenga would not back down on his demands, Shula decided to retire.
Shula won 61% of his games over his last four years in the league, including three playoff appearances during that period – by most objective measures something of a success. But Shula (like Wenger) was aging and the game had changed significantly during his time as coach. He held all the power in Miami, had a positive record and made numerous playoff appearances, yet had not brought the team to the Super Bowl in 12 years nor had he won the league in over 20. So at 66, he was replaced by Jimmy Johnson, ten years younger and hot off a successful run with the Dallas Cowboys.
There’s a very odd symmetry between Shula and Wenger. Wenger, two decades in as the longest-standing manager of any team in the EPL, and at a high-profile and storied football club. Shula, three decades as head of one of the most famous American sports franchises over the prior 35 years. Wenger, who accumulated great power and control over a club to which he has dedicated the mature years of his adult life. Shula, who went from coach to overseer of the organization, with final say on all personnel matters. Wenger, who steered this club to a still-legendary season of domination. Shula, whose 1972 Dolphins still celebrate the day the last undefeated NFL teams loses their first game.
But the symmetry may end with the respective resolutions of the teams’ struggles. Shula resigned following the request by his (locally-based) team owner that he cede power. Wenger (whose disinterested and absentee boss lives thousands of miles away) appears both comfortable and stubborn in his position. This week when asked about any possibility of leaving his position, he stated “my contract clarifies that. Did I ever walk away? Never. Why should I change?”.
The Dolphins, 21 years later, have yet to win any trophies in the NFL. Shula’s esteemed replacement, Johnson, won only 56% of his games over a short four-year stint. The Dolphins have been even worse since. The owner who forced Shula out, Wayne Huizenga, sold his share of the team for $1B in 2009 after paying $145M for the stake 15 years earlier. Winning anything, in the end, was irrelevant to the financial growth of the business.
We don’t know what will happen to Wenger or to Arsenal. The machinery of global football facilitates player movement and recovery in a way that American sports leagues do not allow. But we do not expect any of this to be pleasant. We know from Shula that legends and innovators at some point cease being that. Wenger is there now. And while the amplification of calls for the manager to step aside or for the absentee owner of the team to make a move himself, the reality is that any such change will likely be followed by difficulty. And possibly years of it.
We’ve seen it all before.