William E. Callahan (born July 31, 1956) is an American football coach who is the offensive line coach for the Atlanta Falcons of the National Football League (NFL). Callahan was the head coach of the Oakland Raiders in 2002 and 2003, leading them to Super Bowl XXXVII, where the Raiders lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He was also the head coach for the Nebraska Cornhuskers from 2004 to 2007 and interim head coach for the Washington Redskins in 2019. Callahan is considered to be one of the best offensive line coaches in the NFL. His son, Brian, was the head coach of the Titans.
Callahan was a four-year starter at quarterback at Illinois Benedictine College in Lisle, Illinois, where he was an NAIA honorable mention All-American in his final two seasons.
The Chicago native began his coaching career in 1978 with back-to-back year-long stints as an assistant coach at Oak Lawn Community High School and De La Salle Institute. Callahan started his college coaching career shortly after in 1980 as a graduate assistant at the University of Illinois before being promoted to full-time assistant in 1981, coaching tight ends, offensive line, quarterbacks and special teams through 1986.
Callahan served as the offensive line coach at Northern Arizona University from 1987 to 1988 and one year as offensive coordinator of Southern Illinois in 1989. From 1990 to 1994, Callahan was offensive line coach at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He has been praised by former Wisconsin coach Barry Alvarez as being one of the primary reasons why the Badgers were able to turn their program around and eventually win three Rose Bowls in the 1990s. Alvarez cited Callahan specifically for his strong recruiting abilities.
At Southern Illinois in 1989, Callahan led an offense that ran for 1,245 yards and threw for 2,569 yards with 19 touchdowns. As of 2011, the 238 completions and 432 pass attempts were second most in school history in both categories.
At Wisconsin after a 1–10 season in 1990, Callahan helped pave the way for Terrell Fletcher to run for 446 yards in 1991. In 1992, that number jumped to 492 and Brent Moss ran for 739 yards and 9 touchdowns. By 1993, Wisconsin's offensive line paved the way for Moss rushing for 1,637 yards and 16 touchdowns. Fletcher also ran for 996 yards and nine touchdowns and quarterback Darrell Bevell was able to throw for 19 touchdowns. In 1994, Bevell would throw 17 touchdowns while Fletcher would run for 1,476 yards and 12 touchdowns and Moss ran for 833 yards and eight touchdowns. Some of the offensive linemen that Callahan coached during this period include Joe Panos, Joe Rudolph, Steve Stark, Mike Verstagen, and Cory Raymer.
Callahan started his NFL career as the offensive line coach for the Philadelphia Eagles from 1995 to 1997.
Callahan then spent four seasons as the Oakland Raiders' offensive coordinator before being named the franchise's 13th head coach prior to the 2002 season.
In his first season as a head coach, Callahan led the Raiders to a third consecutive AFC West title and the franchise's first Super Bowl since returning to Oakland, making him just the fourth rookie head coach in NFL history to do so. The Raiders suffered a lopsided defeat in Super Bowl XXXVII losing 48–21 to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers coached by his former boss Jon Gruden. It did not help that the Raiders were without starting center Barret Robbins, the leader of their offensive line. Robbins went into a manic episode after not taking his medication, and spent most of the day before the game in Tijuana believing that the Raiders had already won. When he finally resurfaced, Robbins was so incoherent that Callahan had no choice but to leave him off the roster.
Callahan is the third Raiders head coach to win an AFC West title and lead his team into the conference championship game in his first full season. Only Art Shell (1990) and John Madden (1969) had accomplished this feat.
Under Callahan's guidance, the Raiders led the NFL in passing for the first time in team history and led the league in total offense for just the second time in team history.
During his tenure as not only head coach but also offensive coordinator for the Raiders, the Raiders offense led the league in rushing in 2000 and led the league in passing in 2002. In 2002, the Raiders became the first team to win games in the same season while rushing at least 60 times (against the Kansas City Chiefs in a 24–0 shutout victory) and passing at least 60 times (against the Pittsburgh Steelers in a 30–17 win). The Raiders offense also set many franchise records during this period, including fewest sacks allowed (28) in 2000, a mark that was broken the following year (27).
Despite the success of the 2002 team, the Raiders had a losing record in 2003. After they got off to a 2–5 start, many of the players, in particular Charles Woodson, publicly criticized Callahan, even suggesting that Callahan was deliberately trying to "sabotage the season". According to Woodson, the Raiders locker room was almost in a state of mutiny against Callahan, a claim corroborated by veteran receiver Tim Brown and others. Callahan, his supporters claim, had recognized that the team was aging and needed younger talent. To get it, he would have to cut existing salaries, an assertion that did not sit well with many of the team's veterans. It did not help that quarterback Rich Gannon was sidelined with injuries for much of the season. On November 30, after a 22–8 loss to the Denver Broncos, Callahan said the Raiders must have been "the dumbest team in America in terms of playing the game." After a lackluster 4–12 season, Callahan was fired by Raiders owner Al Davis. Although the Raiders had gone all the way to the Super Bowl a year earlier, Davis was not known for being patient with his coaches. Callahan was the last Raiders head coach to post a winning season until Jack Del Rio in 2016.
Controversy surrounding Super Bowl XXXVII
In January 2013, Callahan was publicly accused of sabotaging Super Bowl XXXVII by several former players. According to comments by Tim Brown and others, the Raiders struggled on offense during the Super Bowl because of Callahan changing the game plan from a heavy run attack to a heavy passing one on the Friday before the game. Although some claim this was due to the Barret Robbins incident, Brown offered no proof for the sabotage claim, but said: "this is the problem we have, because of Callahan's relationship with Gruden, because of his disdain for the Raider organization; that's what makes people get to that conclusion." Rich Gannon defended Callahan, but did suggest that Oakland may have been disadvantaged by Callahan's failure to change the terminology for play calls at the line of scrimmage. According to Gannon, the same play names had been used during Gruden's tenure as Raiders head coach, and Gruden had taught his Buccaneers defensive players these play names.
Jerry Rice, an NFL Hall of Famer who was a wide receiver for the Raiders at that time, was quoted as saying, "I was very surprised that he waited till the last second and I think a lot of the players they were surprised also so in a way maybe because he didn't like the Raiders he decided 'Hey look maybe we should sabotage just a little bit and let Jon Gruden go out and win this one.'"
Callahan has denied the allegations, stating that, "While I fully understand a competitive professional football player's disappointment when a game's outcome doesn't go his team's way, I am shocked, saddened and outraged by Tim Brown's allegations and Jerry Rice's support of those allegations made through various media outlets over the last 24 hours. To leave no doubt, I categorically and unequivocally deny the sum and substance of their allegations." Callahan further referred to the claim as "ludicrous and defamatory."
Brown backtracked from his comments a day later, denying having said that Callahan sabotaged the game.