The Shakedown: Best NFL Coaching Mustache (contestant #3)

Welcome back to The Shakedown!

Our latest look at the “Best NFL Coaching Mustache” has reached a critical, if not historic point.  We kicked things off in week one with Tennessee Titans head coach Jeff Fisher and his hybrid mustache. Last week we looked at former NFL head coach and current Pitt Panthers top noggin Dave Wannstache.

Now, we enter the realm of a groundbreaking figure for more reasons than you may even realize.

In Week One we referenced the deep, rich, thick history between people of Mustached American descent and the NFL. It was 1982 when then-NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle came to the American Mustache Institute with a quandary.

Concerns had been growing in the Mustached American community that the NFL had only clean-shaven head coaches in its ranks, and Rozelle and AMI and forged a partnership to provide training and counseling to all NFL teams. Beginning in that ‘82 season, by league rule the NFL would require at least one Mustached American candidate to be interviewed for each head coaching vacancy.

Chicago Bears founder George Halas helped to champion the program, and as a result, he personally sought out Mike Ditka — who at the time was teaching sewing to under privileged dwarfs in Mexico — to take over his team’s head coaching reins, and reverse what had been a series of dreadful on-field performances by the Bears in the years since Halas retired as head coach. ###MORE###

The results were, of course, masterful. Ditka and his lip accoutrement reversed the Bears’ pitiful record of only two winning seasons in the previous nineteen, leading the team to six NFC Central titles and three trips to the NFC Championship Game, including a Super Bowl in 1985.

Unfortunately, while Ditka’s mouth guard was an overwhelming success on the playing field with the Bears, it could not prevent him from greenlighting the worst music video in the history of undersized jockies:

So there it is - your third candidate for the “Best NFL Coaching Mustache” as part of our latest “Monthly Mustache Shakedown.” We of course now ask for your suggestions on our final candidate.

Bring it.

Round 3 - Best NFL Coaching Mustache

Week 1 - Jeff Fisher
Week 2 - Dave Wannstedt
Week 3 - Mike Ditka
Week 4 - May 21

*Check out this American Mustache Institute interview with baseball Hall-of-Fame pitcher Fergie Jenkins for his take on baseball, mustaches, and steroids.