Fisher Surpasses Shula For Career Losses

Venerable Hall of Fame Dolphins coach Don Shula saw one of his many NFL milestones eclipsed this week, when the Los Angeles Rams were whitewashed, 28-0, by the San Francisco 49ers, on Monday night, as pointed out by Michael David Smith, of Pro Football Talk. In fact, if Fisher manages to lose nine of his remaining fifteen games this season, he will own the record, outright, for most losses by any head coach, in NFL history.  As of today, only Tom Landry, with 162 losses, and Dan Reeves, with 165, stand in Jeff Fisher's way, for a unique place in immortality.

Rams coach Jeff Fisher, who was, ironically, one of the finalists in Stephen Ross' coaching search in 2012, notched his 157th career loss as an NFL head coach, against 169 wins.  Fisher is now 13th overall, in NFL history, for career wins, yet 3rd overall in career losses.  To put the comparison, if there indeed, can be any comparison, between Fisher and Shula, in perspective, Shula suffered 156 losses in a head coaching career which spanned thirty three years, while Fisher reached the 157 loss plateau during the first game of his twenty third NFL season.

To be fair, the NFL regular season was only fourteen games in length for much of Shula's career, while being 16 games long for the entirety of Jeff Fisher's tenure, thus giving Fisher an additional forty and some odd opportunities to be defeated -- opportunities he seems to have made the most of.  Indeed, since Rams owner Stan Kroenke beat out our own Stephen Ross in 2012, for the right to hire Fisher, he has yet to see the Rams turn in a single winning season for his efforts.  Still, the Dolphins haven't had a winning season since 2008 themselves, so it would difficult, at best, for Dolphin fans to gloat with much gusto over the Rams' ineptitude.