Former Washington and Dolphins exec Bobby Beathard, who helped construct 4 Tremendous Bowl winners, dies at 86
Bobby Beathard, a Corridor of Fame normal supervisor helped assemble Tremendous Bowl winners for the Miami Dolphins and Washington Commanders, died Monday. He was 86 years previous.
His son Casey Beathard told The Washington Post his reason behind loss of life was problems from Alzheimer’s illness.
Beathard spent almost 4 many years in NFL entrance places of work, beginning with the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs as a scout in 1960 and retiring as normal supervisor of the Chargers once they had been in San Diego. He carved out a popularity as one of many NFL’s sharpest negotiators and judges of abilities within the years between, and the outcomes communicate for themselves.
That features 4 Tremendous Bowl rings and 7 convention championships.
After almost a decade as a scout for the Chiefs and Atlanta Falcons, Beathard joined the Dolphins as director of participant personnel within the fortuitous yr of 1972. With head coach Don Shula additionally working the workforce as normal supervisor, Beathard spent his first-year as a high-level govt serving to name the pictures for the NFL’s solely undefeated Tremendous Bowl champion.
His Dolphins tenure continued via 1977, a span of time that noticed Miami go 63-21 within the common season and win one other Tremendous Bowl in 1974. That success alongside Shula landed Beathard the highest entrance workplace in Washington.
Three years into his D.C. tenure, the Commanders fired head coach Jack Pardee. Beathard, tasked with discovering his successor, determined to rent Chargers offensive coordinator Joe Gibbs, however wanted a three-and-a-half-hour interview to persuade Washington proprietor Jack Kent Cooke the comparatively obscure assistant was the person for the job.
From the Post:
“Who within the hell is Joe Gibbs?” Beathard recalled Cooke asking him, throughout an NBC interview. “‘If we rent a man named Joe Gibbs, they’ll by no means forgive us. You’re going to be fired.’ I mentioned, ‘No, simply keep it up.’”
Sticking with it proved fruitful for all three males. With Beathard drafting the likes of Artwork Monk, Darrell Inexperienced, Russ Grimm, Mark Might and extra, Gibbs made Washington a powerhouse of the Nineteen Eighties. By the Publish’s depend, 26 members of the Commanders’ 1983 title-winning workforce had been free brokers signed by Beathard.
Beathard resigned in 1989 after two Tremendous Bowl wins and 5 playoff berths with D.C., which might win one other ring in 1991 with a equally constructed workforce. Beathard then spent a yr as an NBC analyst earlier than taking the Chargers normal supervisor job.
The beforehand moribund Chargers received their division in his third season and reached the Tremendous Bowl within the 1994-95 season. Beathard retired in 2000, after demonstrating you possibly can’t win all of them with the drafting of Ryan Leaf (he told ESPN “Throughout my profession I’ve by no means seen a participant that had a lot expertise accomplish that little with it”).
Beathard was inducted into the Professional Soccer Corridor of Fame in 2018.
Per the Publish, Beathard is survived by his spouse Christine, 4 youngsters from his first marriage, his brother Pete, 13 grandchildren, one being Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback C.J. Beathard, and 7 great-grandchildren. One other grandson, Clayton Beathard, was murdered in 2019.