AVENTURA, Fla. — There was a time when Dave Toub would have taken any head coaching job. Now, the Chiefs special teams coach said, he’s more picky.
“Early on in my career, I just wanted a job, and it’d be great,” he said this week. “The older I get — I’m 57 now — I’m a little more like, ‘I gotta have a quarterback, it’s gotta be the right place.’
“I don’t want to go a place where it’s not right. I see these guys getting beat up and getting fired.”
Whether Toub ever gets a head coaching offer— some in league circles believe he’s overdue — is one question. Whether he gets the right one feels like an even longer shot. But a Super Bowl victory Sunday would immediately become the shiniest line on his already-impressive resume.
His current highlight also took place at the Super Bowl in Miami — when return icon Devin Hester scored a touchdown on the opening kickoff of the Bears’ Super Bowl loss to the Colts.
“It was probably the epitome of my career, that one play,” he said.
Toub was the Bears’ special teams guru from 2004-12, mentoring Hester, whom he believes is a future Pro Football Hall of Famer, for all but two years. Toub parlayed that into two head coaching interviews — with the Dolphins in January 2012 and the Bears, to replace Lovie Smith, in January 2013.
General manager Phil Emery chose Marc Trestman instead, and hired Joe DeCamillis, who had also interviewed to be head coach, as the team’s special teams coordinator. So Toub went to Kansas City, where he would interview for the Broncos’ and Chargers’ head coaching jobs in 2017.
When the Giants named former Patriots assistant Joe Judge their head coach this offseason, they doubled the number of special teams coordinators-turned-sitting head coaches; the Ravens’ John Harbaugh is the other. Perhaps that signals the start of a shift.
Toub isn’t particularly concerned. He’s focused on his second Super Bowl appearance — and first since the Bears played here in 2007.
“That was early on — it came fast,” he said. “A world championship means a lot more. It’s been 13 years since. You know how hard it is to get here.”
NOTE: Oak Forest High School alum Tevin Coleman, who hurt his shoulder in the NFC title game, practiced in full and was cleared to play Sunday. So were 49ers linebacker Kwon Alexander (pectoral) and safety Jacquiski Tartt (ribs), as well as Chiefs defensive tackle Chris Jones (calf), tight end Travis Kelce (knee), center Austin Reiter (wrist) and tight end Deon Yelder (Achilles tendon).
