NFL Coach of the Year - Foxworthy

John Fox headlines Carolina\'s \'Blue Collar\' tour all the way to Super Bowl XXXVIII
by: David Purdum
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The NFC Championship Game in 2001 featured a classic match up of the Minnesota Vikings’ high-powered offense, led by first-year starting quarterback Dante Culepepper and wide receivers Chris Carter and Randy Moss, versus the stingy Giants defense, led by sack master Michael Strahan.

The Vikings came into the game confident and favored, hot off an impressive 31-16 win over New Orleans. Minnesota had been lighting up the scoreboard with more than 25 points a game, and Culepepper was torching opposing secondaries for 260 yards through the air. The Vikings left 41-0 losers, gaining only 60 passing yards.

The coach responsible for the Giants dominating D, fourth-year defensive coordinator John Fox, suddenly became a hot commodity and deservingly so. After 12 years in the league as an assistant, Fox would get his first opportunity to be a head coach one year later in Carolina.

Skip forward to January 2004. This time, Fox, in only his second year as a head coach, led the Panthers, a team only two years removed from an NFL record 15-game losing streak, into the NFC Championship Game in Philadelphia.

Just like in New York, Fox’s defense was spectacular. Carolina picked off Eagles All-Pro quarterback Donovan McNabb three times before knocking him out of the game. The Panthers also would intercept back up Koy Detmer once and head to the franchise’s first Super Bowl with a dominating 14-3 victory. Again, only two years after setting an NFL record by losing 15 consecutive games.

Fox, this year’s Sportexe NFL Coach of the Year presented by American Football Monthly, inherited a team headed in the wrong direction when he took over the Panthers in January 2002. In his first year, Carolina’s defense became the only unit since 1970 to go from a last place unit one year to second best in the NFL in overall defense the following season.

The Panthers first-year head coach would persevere through an eight-game losing streak and lead his young team to wins in four out of its last five, finishing at 7-9. The Panthers’ six-game improvement was the largest in the NFL in 2002. It was a sign of things to come.

This year, Fox turned his offense over to a virtually unknown back up quarterback in Jake Delhomme and relied on the ground game behind off-season acquisition Steven Davis. Both players delivered, and the Panthers finished with an 11-5 mark in the regular season and a NFC South Division crown.

Carolina won nine games by seven points or less, including a thrilling 29-23 double overtime victory in St. Louis to advance to the NFC title game. But in a season in which the Panthers did all the little things right, the moment that defined Fox’s team came early on in Week 2.

Carolina held a 9-3 fourth-quarter lead over the defending Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers. But Brad Johnson found Keenan McCardell for a game-tying 6-yard touchdown pass with no time left on the clock. Tampa Bay kicker Martin Gramatica needed only to make the extra point, and the Buccaneers would escape with a victory. Gramatica had never missed an extra point in his career (129 attempts). Not anymore. Carolina All-Pro defensive lineman Kris Jenkins blocked Gramatica’s kick, sending the game into overtime where a 52-yard punt return by Steve Smith would set up John Kasay’s fourth field goal of the game to lift the Panthers over the Bucs 12-9. Carolina was a perfect 7-0 in games decided by three points.

Fox, 49, has seen the land in his 26 years coaching, spending time at seven different colleges and a year with the USFL’s Los Angeles Express, before entering the NFL in 1989 as the secondary coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Twelve years and three teams later, Fox landed in New York as the Giants defensive coordinator. His impact was felt immediately, as the 1997 G-Men’s D set a team record with 44 takeaways and led the NFL with 27 interceptions in Fox’s first year.

Fox is a graduate of San Diego State, where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in physical education and earned a secondary education teaching credential.

Fox and his wife Robin have three sons, Matthew, Mark and Cody, and a daughter, Halle.

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