Longtime NFL coach Romeo Crennel announced his retirement on Monday.
Crennel was working as a senior advisor for football performance for the Texans and he spent the last eight years working for the AFC South team. Crennel released a statement through the team to mark the end of his coaching career.
“Football has been my entire life and it’s been a dream come true to coach for 50 years,” Crennel said. “There are so many friends to thank who have helped me and supported me throughout my career. I especially want to thank the fans and owners of the New York Giants, New England Patriots, New York Jets, Cleveland Browns, Kansas City Chiefs and Houston Texans for allowing me to contribute to the game that I have loved so much for so long. I’ll miss everything about coaching and teaching, but the thing I’ll miss the most is being around the guys every day. My goal was to put every player and coach in the best position to succeed and I consider every guy I coached or worked with a part of my family.”
Crennel coached in college for more than a decade before becoming the Giants’ special teams coach in 1981. He became their defensive line coach in 1990 and then moved on to stints working under Bill Parcells with the Patriots and Jets in the same job. He became the Browns defensive coordinator in 2000 and then won three Super Bowls in four years running the Patriots defense.
Crennel was hired as the Browns head coach in 2005 and went 24-40 over four years. He moved on to run the Chiefs defense in 2010 and became the interim head coach after Todd Haley was fired the next year. He went 4-15 before being fired after the 2012 season.
The Texans were next up for Crennel. He became their defensive coordinator in 2014, their assistant head coach in 2017, and their interim head coach after Bill O’Brien was fired in 2020. He was 4-8 in that stint, which leaves him with a lifetime head coaching record of 32-63.
