Ray Rhodes Raymond Earl Rhodes ( born October 20 , 1950 ) is currently a senior defensive assistant for the Cleveland Browns . He is also the former American football head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles and the Green Bay Packers . He is the former assistant defensive backs coach of the Houston Texans . He earned five Super Bowl rings as an assistant coach with the San Francisco 49ers and was named Coach of the Year by The Associated Press in 1995 , his first season as a head coach . Playing career . High school . Rhodes attended Mexia High School in Mexia , Texas and was a letterman in football , basketball , and track and field . College . Rhodes was a running back at Texas Christian University for two seasons before transferring to the University of Tulsa , where he played wide receiver and defensive back . NFL . Rhodes was selected by the New York Giants in the 10th round of the 1974 NFL Draft . He spent his first three years in the NFL as a wide receiver before switching to defensive back . In 1979 , he was traded to the San Francisco 49ers for Tony Dungy , another future head coach . He retired after one season with the 49ers . Coaching career . NFL . Assistant coach . Rhodes remained with the 49ers as an assistant secondary coach before becoming defensive backs coach . He won two Super Bowl s with a group that included Ronnie Lott , Eric Wright , and Dwight Hicks . After serving that position for many years , he was hired by former colleague Mike Holmgren to be the new defensive coordinator for the Green Bay Packers . After two years Rhodes returned to San Francisco as the defensive coordinator of their 1994 Super Bowl Winning team . Following his head - coaching jobs , Rhodes served as the defensive coordinator for the Washington Redskins and the Denver Broncos . After the 2002 season , Rhodes was reunited with Holmgren when he became the defensive coordinator for the Seattle Seahawks , where he remained through the 2007 season . In September 2005 , Rhodes was hospitalized for dizziness and tests later revealed that he had suffered from a mild stroke . Early Monday October 2 , 2006 , the Seahawks charter flight had to make an emergency landing in Rapid City , South Dakota to get precautionary medical care for Rhodes . The Seahawks were flying home from a loss at the Chicago Bears . On January 28 , 2008 , Ray Rhodes joined his sixth NFL organization when he was hired by the Houston Texans as an assistant defensive backs coach . Head coach . Philadelphia Eagles . On February 2 , 1995 , five days after the 49ers won Super Bowl XXIX , Ray Rhodes was named head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles , becoming the fourth African - American head coach in NFL history behind Fritz Pollard , Art Shell and Dennis Green . Rhodes gained notoriety for his no - nonsense approach and unusual ways of motivating his players . One such tactic was an analogy " comparing the feeling of a loss to someone breaking into ( one ' s ) home and sodomizing ( one ' s ) horses and kids . " In Rhodes ' s first season , he received the NFL Coach of the Year Award as the Eagles overcame a 1 - 3 start to finish 10 - 6 and qualify for the playoffs as a wild card . Despite playing the first round game at home , the Eagles were an underdog to the Detroit Lions , whose starting left tackle , Lomas Brown , guaranteed an easy win . Using this perceived lack of respect as a rallying cry , Philadelphia dismantled Detroit , 58 - 37 , at one point leading the game by a 51 - 7 score . Rhodes said after the victory that the only things guaranteed in life are " death and taxes . " Though the Eagles were eliminated by the Dallas Cowboys the following week , the 1995 season was considered an enormous success . In 1996 , the Eagles again finished 10 - 6 , but struggled down the stretch after an impressive 7 - 2 start . Once again , Philadelphia reached the playoffs as a wild card , traveling to San Francisco to face the 49ers , Rhodes ' s former team . At a rain - soaked 3com Park , the Eagles , who boasted the top - ranked offense in the NFC during the regular season , were shut out , 14 - 0 . During training camp in 1997 , Rhodes remarked that season ' s Eagles team was his most talented one to date . Despite the optimism , Philadelphia started 1 - 3 , and never quite recovered , stumbling to a disappointing 6 - 9 - 1 record , including an 0 - 7 - 1 mark on the road . As the team struggled through the season , it was widely speculated that players had grown weary of Rhodes ' s fiery approach and were tuning him out . The 1998 season proved to be a disaster . A listless Eagles team finished 3 - 13 , setting a franchise record for losses in a season . For the second straight season , Philadelphia did not win a road game , going 0 - 8 away from home . The offense , which ranked first in the NFC two years earlier , finished dead last in the NFL . The Eagles were shut out three times and scored only 161 total points . On December 28 , one day after the season ' s final game , Rhodes was fired as Philadelphia ' s head coach . In four seasons as the Eagles ' head coach , Rhodes complied a 29 - 34 - 1 record in the regular season , 1 - 2 in the playoffs . Green Bay Packers . The Green Bay Packers were looking for a new coach after Mike Holmgren had left to become head coach and general manager of the Seattle Seahawks . Green Bay GM Ron Wolf was a fan of Rhodes ' coaching style . On January 11 , 1999 , Rhodes was hired to coach the Packers after being the only candidate to interview for the position . Rhodes ' s tenure as head coach lasted only one season . The Packers finished 8 - 8 , their only non - winning season between 1992 and 2004 . Green Bay missed the playoffs for the first time since 1992 , based on a complicated tiebreaker system ( Detroit and Dallas reached the playoffs with 8 - 8 records , while Green Bay and the Carolina Panthers did not ) . Rhodes , a former NFL Coach of the Year , spent the 1999 season under heavy scrutiny by the Wisconsin sports media , beginning with accusations of underachieving , and highlighted by objection to his use of replay to overrule a go - ahead 4th - quarter touchdown by the opposing Carolina Panthers . The criticism of this decision was also echoed by NBC ' s Paul McGuire . On January 3 , 2000 , Rhodes was fired by the Packers , and subsequently replaced by Mike Sherman . Coaching tree . NFL head coaches under whom Ray Rhodes has served : " Following first head - coaching job " Assistant coaches under Ray Rhodes who have become NFL head coaches : Personal life . While in Philadelphia , Rhodes spent a lot of time enjoying his favorite hobby , horse racing . He appeared regularly on Courier - Post ' s " Dusty Nathan ' s Winner ' s Circle " radio show . Additionally , Rhodes had his own TV and radio shows in the Philadelphia market before moving to the Green Bay Packers in 1999 and deciding to end his foray into on - air media talent . In September 2005 , Rhodes suffered a stroke while at his suburban Seattle home . During the 2006 season , Rhodes suffered from stroke - like symptoms while on the Seahawks ' team flight home from a game at Chicago ; the plane made an emergency landing in South Dakota due to the incident .