AFC West's coaching quartet hits winning tune

SAM FARMER ON THE NFL >>> There are great coaches all over the NFL. Super Bowl champions.

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NO DIVISION in the NFL boasts four coaches with better resumes than the AFC West with, from left, Pete Carroll, Andy Reid, Jim Harbaugh and Sean Payton.

Coach of the year winners. Future Hall of Famers. But when it comes to head coaches, across the board, no division can match the AFC West. T Andy Reid, Sean Payton, Pete Carroll and Jim Harbaugh. It's Mount Rushmore or maybe Mount Passmore. That's 10 conference championships and five Super Bowl rings, possibly the most accomplished quartet of coaches since the league went to eight four-team divisions in 2002. There are no weak links. "I really appreciate the competition," said Carroll, coach of the Las Vegas Raiders. "I think it's amazing that we all have a chance to be in the same spot. It's good." Most decorated in this group is Kansas City's Reid, whose Chiefs have won three of the past six Super Bowls. His teams have won six conference titles - one by Philadelphia and five by Kansas City.

In 2004, Reid was the youngster in an NFC East coaching foursome that included Bill Parcells (Dallas), Joe Gibbs (Washington) and Tom Coughlin (New York Giants). At that point, neither Reid nor Coughlin had led teams to Super Bowl victories.

"I was the low man on that totem pole," Reid said.

"That was a great group to go against, tremendous coaches. I remember that well, being a young guy trying to compete against them." Carroll, 73, and Reid, 67, are the NFL's two oldest active coaches. Harbaugh and Payton, born six days apart and both 61, rank fourth and fifth. Each is on at least his second team as an NFL head coach, and Carroll is on his fourth.

"We're in this because of the competition," Reid said.