Buddy Ryan, Brash NFL Coach And Cunning Defensive Mastermind, Dead At 82

Buddy Ryan, the longtime NFL coach who authored the famed 1985-86 Chicago Bears defense and fathered two of the league's most colorful sideline personalities, died Tuesday. He was 82.

Ryan coached for 36 years and was a two-time champion, winning Super Bowl III in 1969 as a defensive coach for the New York Jets in one of the most famous games in NFL history and Super Bowl XX in 1986 with Chicago, where he was the architect of one of the most fearsome defenses of all time.

Ryan later became a head coach for Philadelphia and Arizona. He also had stints as defensive coordinator with Houston and Minnesota.

The Buffalo Bills, where his son Rex is the head coach, confirmed his death. Buddy Ryan was said to be in declining health.

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On the field, Ryan built his defenses around a chaotic, relentless attack that blitzed quarterbacks, swarmed running backs and caused headaches for offensive coordinators across the league. Off the field, he was outspoken, colorful and combative, in one instance picking a halftime fight with his head coach, Mike Ditka.

His crown jewel as a coach was the 1985 Bears defense, a unit widely considered to be the greatest in NFL history. With Ryan as defensive coordinator, the Bears that year led the league in scoring defense, pitched two playoff shutouts and held the New England Patriots to just 10 points in a blowout Super Bowl victory.

It was the culmination of his "46 defense," the scheme he perfected with the Bears that stacks the box with eight defenders to create pressure and wreak havoc. It was named after Doug Plank, a strong safety who wore the number and played much closer to the quarterback than many safeties do.

Even in today's league, which favors more wide-open passing attacks, teams still feature the 46 defense in some situations.

Plank described the scheme's goal succinctly: "We're going to get to know your backup quarterback today."

But Ryan's brash, cocky swagger that he carried in press conferences, on the field and in locker rooms may have defined his NFL career even more than his defensive prowess.

With the Bears at 12-0 during that 1985 season and trailing the Miami Dolphins 31-10 at halftime, Ditka — the Bears' brutish and authoritative head coach who had delegated defensive duties to Ryan — is said to have challenged Ryan to a fight at halftime, apparently at odds with how he was coaching the game.

"The guys on the team had to separate them — the offense getting Ditka away from Ryan and defensive guys holding Buddy," the Bears' Steve McMichael would later write in a book.

It was the Bears' only loss of their Super Bowl season.

"Buddy was such an integral part of the Chicago Bears and the '85 Bears, it was unbelievable," Ditka said Tuesday after news of Ryan's death. "There's no way we win anything without that defense, without his coaching and I think everybody understands that. We won because of our defense, we can never forget that. That's just the way it was."

Two of Ryan's three sons — twins Rex and Rob — have kept his legacy alive in the league in many of the ways he did, with ferocious defenses and brazen personalities.

Rex coached the New York Jets for six seasons before moving on to the Buffalo Bills, where Rob is an assistant coach.

Buddy Ryan played college football at Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State) and after serving in the Army during the Korean War started his coaching career as the University of Buffalo's defensive line coach during the school's first season in Division I. The Bulls pitched 12 shutouts during his four seasons there.

The New York Jets hired him to coach their defensive line in 1968, and that year Ryan won his first Super Bowl, an upset victory over the Baltimore Colts in the first professional football championship game to be called "The Super Bowl." The Jets' defense held the Colts scoreless into the fourth quarter when the game was out of reach.

During his eight seasons with the Jets, Ryan's strategies of flocking to the quarterback and creating chaos in the backfield began to take shape.

Following his dominant Super Bowl season with the Bears, Ryan was hired to coach the Eagles, his first professional head coaching job. He went 43–38–1 in five seasons and never won a playoff game and was fired in 1991.

After a year in commentating and a stint with the Oilers as defensive coordinator, the Cardinals gave him another head-coaching shot. He went 12-20 in two seasons and was fired again.

Ryan is survived by first wife, Doris; their sons, Rex, Rob and Jim; and their eight grandsons. His second wife, Joanie, died in September 2013.

Patch will update this story

Photo courtesy of Parker Anderson via Flickr