The longest coach-quarterback tenure is the 184 games shared by Don Shula and Dan Marino in Miami. It is a breathtaking number, in many ways, especially when you consider that they didn't win a Super Bowl together, either. But Shula already had won twice with the Dolphins, and Marino had otherworldly individual statistics, and Miami wasn't an eat-its-young media market, and it ended 15 years ago.
When you look at the rest of the list, you see at least one of three things. Either the tandems won multiple championships during their eras (Chuck Noll/Terry Bradshaw/158 games, Hank Stram/Len Dawson/157 games, Shula/Bob Griese/151 games, Bill Belichick/Tom Brady/127 games), or played in a relatively small media market (Marv Levy/Jim Kelly/153 games, Jeff Fisher/Steve McNair/131 games), or had their tenure span a gentler era of public discourse (Dan Reeves/John Elway/142 games).
When you look at it, Reid and McNabb are the only coach and quarterback to survive such a long stretch together without winning a Super Bowl, in a big media city, and in the talk radio/Internet age.
It might never happen again.
Because Donovan Fatigue was real. It wasn't all McNabb's fault, but it was real. Philadelphia is a loud place in the best of circumstances and, in 2010, everyone has a megaphone. To pretend that all of this didn't exist, that Donovan Fatigue didn't exist, is to pretend that we are not human.
Nobody anymore survives as long as
