by David Snipes

Created on: April 16, 2008

In January 1999, George Seifert took command as the second head coach in Carolina Panthers history. Seifert came to Carolina in an attempt to be the man to take the Panthers one step further than their original coach, Dom Capers, could - the Super Bowl.

Seifert seemed like the best man for the job - carrying a 77% winning percentage and two Super Bowl rings. Seifert actually had a higher winning percentage than Vince Lombardi, the man whose name is on the trophy. Seifert had held the trophy as a champion five times. He couldn't fail... could he?

George Seifert was, like many coaches of that era, a former player and, like John Madden, an offensive lineman. Seifert also played linebacker but after college returned to Utah to learn coaching as a graduate assistant. Westminster College took a chance on the 24-year-old and hired him to be their head coach. After lasting one season Seifert left for Iowa for Oregon. He then moved to Stanford as a secondary coach. Seifert, under Jack Christiansen, turned the Cardinal secondary one of the better secondaries in 1-A. He then was hired to be head coach at Cornell - but once again after one year Seifert left to join new coach Bill Walsh back at Stanford. Two years later Walsh left for the NFL and the Niners - a year after that, Seifert left to join him.

Despite the Niners' defense dropping from second to twenty-third, Walsh seemed to think he had found his man as a defensive coach. Walsh dumped Chuck Studley, who favored attacking the run, and promoted Seifert in 1983 to defensive coordinator, primarily on the strength of his secondary starring Ronnie Lott and Eric Wright. Seifert was a monster of a defensive coach - finishing fourth, first, second, third and eighth in points allowed. With Walsh guiding Montana, Rice and Roger Craig to dizzying heights as an offensive unit. The offense never finished lower than seventh in the NFL in points scored after Walsh turned the QB sport over to Montana.

Three rings later and Bill Walsh was gone. He turned the team over to his trusty defensive coach. Seifert, who was known as a no-nonsense tough guy coach, didn't seem like he would mesh well with Niners' owner Ed DeBartolo. But Seifert had grown up in the Bay area and had been turned down for jobs in both Green Bay and with the Colts.

Seifert proved to be the right coach as he made very few changes to the team and repeated as Super Bowl champs. San Francisco seemed ready to threepeat but Roger Craig fumbled in the NFC championship game

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