Analysis: Who is Guy Chamberlin and why was Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell so pleased to learn more about him?

Who is Guy Chamberlin and why should Kevin O’Connell feel honored that he’s being mentioned alongside this man who coached his final NFL game 97 years ago?

For starters, Chamberlin is a Pro Football Hall of Famer, enshrined in Canton, Ohio, in 1965 as a player-coach for the Canton Bulldogs (1922-23), Cleveland Bulldogs (1924), Frankford Yellow Jackets (1925-26) and Chicago Cardinals (1927).

Also, Chamberlin won four league championships, two with undefeated teams in Canton, one in Cleveland and one in Frankford, all before the playoffs existed. And, oh yeah, his career regular-season winning percentage of .784 (58-16-7) ranks No. 1 in NFL history among the 204 coaches who have coached at least 50 games, according to Pro Football Reference.

O’Connell — the Vikings’ 39-year-old, QB-whispering, play-calling phenom — coached his 50th game Sunday. While winning his ninth straight game to reach 14-2 and set up a one-game showdown for the NFC’s No. 1 seed at Detroit (14-2) on Sunday night, O’Connell became eligible for that prestigious list.

O’Connell checks in No. 11 at .680 (34-16). Among active coaches, only the Eagles’ Nick Sirianni, who is fifth at .701 (47-20), and the Chargers’ Jim Harbaugh, who is 10th at .681 (54-25-1), rank higher.

Six of the 10 coaches ahead of O’Connell are in the Hall of Fame. Two spots ahead of O’Connell is Hall of Famer George Halas at .682 (318-148-31). One spot behind O’Connell is career wins leader and Hall of Famer Don Shula at .677 (328-156-6).

O’Connell, of course, is only in his third season. He’s trending hard toward doing this gig for a long time, presumably in Minnesota, where Hall of Famer Bud Grant — 31st on the list at .621 (158-96-5) — is the gold standard. Bud would have been the first person to tap our brakes and say winning percentages are a fickle thing over a long career, as evidenced by his percentage dropping from .708 to .621 during a seven-year, career-closing stretch of 51-53-1.

But we digress, since overall winning percentage isn’t what caused O’Connell to go “learn about Guy Chamberlin recently.” It’s O’Connell’s penchant — or perhaps wizardry — for winning one-score games that has him chatted up alongside Chamberlin.

Chamberlin was born in Blue Springs, Neb., on Jan. 16, 1894. His high school wasn’t big enough to field a football team, yet he became a two-time All-American halfback at the University of Nebraska.

He joined the Canton Bulldogs as a player in 1919, a year before the league that became the NFL was birthed in Canton. In 1920, he joined Halas’ Decatur Staleys, which became the Chicago Bears in 1922. Two years later, he went back to Canton as a player-coach and went 21-0-3 with two championships the next two seasons.

When it came to one-score games, Chamberlin remains the best ever nearly a century later. He went 22-7-7 for a .759 winning percentage. O’Connell stands second (.743, 26-9) after moving past Hall of Famer John Madden (.732, 40-14-7) with one-score wins against Seattle and Green Bay the last two weeks. Another one-score win at Detroit on Sunday would move O’Connell to .771 and ahead of Chamberlin heading into next season.

There are many reasons for O’Connell’s success in one-score games. Aggressive play-calling. Fearless mentality. Crisp execution in clutch moments. Add it all up and you got resilient teams that have weathered comebacks — like this year’s Packers racing back from deficits of 28-0 at Lambeau Field and 27-10 at U.S. Bank Stadium — and manufactured great comebacks, including the league’s greatest of all time after being down 33-0 at halftime against the Colts in 2022.

As a head coach in what often feels like the Land of 10,000 Missed Kicks, O’Connell also has charged through a minefield filled with 800-pound gorillas and come out unscathed through 50 games.

He’s 18-1 in all games in which his kicker has missed at least one field goal or extra point. He’s 14-0 in one-score games when his kicker misses.

In 2022, the Vikings had six one-score wins in a seven-game stretch. Greg Joseph missed at least one kick in all six.

This year, the excellent rookie Will Reichard missed his first two field goal attempts when he thought he could kick through a quad injury. The Vikings beat the Colts by one score.

On Sunday, Reichard missed two more field-goal tries. The Vikings beat the Packers by two.

Parker Romo, the excellent emergency signing when Reichard spent four weeks on injured reserve, missed his only field-goal attempt the week Arizona visited. The Vikings won 23-22.

Romo also made the game-winning overtime kick at Chicago and went 4-for-4 for all 12 points in an ugly 12-7 win at Jacksonville.

Chamberlin died in 1967 at age 73. He hailed from a different time. How different?

His Hall of Fame acceptance speech was 56 words and took less than 20 seconds to deliver. (Let’s see K.O. pull that one off if given the opportunity!).

Also, once, when asked why he played professionally, Chamberlin said, “I love the game. I might make more money in some other line of endeavor so it is not the ‘sugar’ that keeps me at it.”

All these years later, we get to learn so much more about this guy named Guy. All because he’s currently the only one better at one-score games than Kevin O’Connell.

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