Beathard, multiple Super Bowl-winning executive, dies at 86
Bobby Beathard, the architect of four Super Bowlwinning teams with two different organizations during his lengthy tenure in football, has died. He was 86.
A spokesperson for the Washington Commanders said Beathard's family told the team he died Monday at his home in Franklin, Tennessee, less than a week after his 86th birthday. A cause of death was not immediately available.
Beathard was director of player personnel for two of the NFL championships by Miami in the 1970s and served as general manager for two more by Washington in the '80s. He also scouted for Kansas City when the Chiefs won the American Football League title and made Super Bowl I following the 1966 season and was GM with San Diego when the Chargers got there in the mid-1990s.
Part of seven teams that made the Super Bowl during his lengthy front office career, Beathard was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2018.
“Bobby not only built winning teams throughout his career, but he also built winning cultures that lasted beyond his years with an organization,” Pro Football Hall of Fame president Jim Porter said in a statement. “He combined an eye for talent with a special gift for working with other people. The results speak for themselves.”
Beathard also scouted for the Atlanta Falcons, but is most known for his roles with Don Shula's Dolphins that won the Super Bowl back-to-back and then hiring coach Joe Gibbs and drafting Darrell Green, Art Monk and others during his time in Washington.
“I came to the Redskins from the Miami Dolphins, and the years at the Miami Dolphins including the '72 season of undefeated teams and being with Shula, I learned a lot more than I ever had up until that time about football,” Beathard said in 2016. “So I felt coming into a situation like this that I felt prepared because I never wanted to go into a situation that I felt was too big for me or where I wasn't prepared.”
Beathard resigned from that job in 1989, before Washington won a third Super Bowl with a core he constructed, and went into TV before being hired as GM of the Chargers in 1990. He spent a decade with them, including overseeing the team that went to the Super Bowl before losing to the 49ers, though he nearly resigned before that 1994 season because of a dispute with owner Alex Spanos.
But Spanos' son, Dean, stepped in and was put in charge of the day-today operations. Beathard stayed, and the Chargers reached their only Super Bowl in franchise history.
Now owner and chairman of the Chargers, Dean Spanos in a statement called Beathard “one of the best judges of football talent in NFL history.”
“He was the best GM in football, but he was also the guy sitting on his surfboard in the ocean that you caught waves with, jogged trails alongside and chatted up in the checkout line of the local market,” Spanos said. “He was just a regular guy who happened to be anything but. Bobby was, in fact, exceptional. He was one of a kind. And he will be incredibly missed.” COMMANDERS TALK TO 49ERS' LYNN >> The Washington Commanders are interviewing Anthony Lynn for their offensive coordinator vacancy.
The team confirmed the interview Wednesday. Lynn, the 49ers' assistant head coach/running backs coach, is the sixth candidate the Commanders have spoken to about the job.
Coach Ron Rivera interviewed Lynn in person in California days after the 49ers flew home following their loss at Philadelphia in the NFC championship game. Rivera was criticized on social media Tuesday by Washington radio broadcasters for golfing at Pebble Beach before hiring an offensive coordinator.
That process has been ongoing since Rivera fired Scott Turner on Jan. 10. MCCARTHY TO CALL COWBOYS' PLAYS >> Dallas Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy is set to call plays in 2023 after the club parted ways with offensive coordinator Kellen Moore.
Owner/general manager Jerry Jones told reporters at the Senior Bowl on Wednesday that McCarthy will run a version of the West Coast offense he used when calling plays as head coach in Green Bay from 2006-18.
Executive vice president of personnel Stephen Jones hinted at philosophical differences between McCarthy and Moore, who kept the play-calling role for three seasons after McCarthy was hired.
The Los Angeles Chargers hired Moore as offensive coordinator Monday, a day after the Cowboys announced Moore's departure.
The Cowboys haven't had the head coach calling plays since Jason Garrett gave up that role after the 2012 season. Moore's debut as offensive coordinator came in 2019, Garrett's final year in Dallas.
McCarthy said he wanted to keep Moore as the playcaller because he thought it was the best thing for quarterback Dak Prescott.
The Cowboys had one of the league's most productive offenses the past two seasons when Prescott was healthy. But they misfired on offense in playoff losses each time, most recently in a 19-12 divisional-round loss to the 49ers last month.