.jpg) Crennel in 2005 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born: | June 18, 1947 Lynchburg, Virginia, U.S. |
| Career information | |
| High school: | Fort Knox (KY) |
| College: | Western Kentucky |
| Undrafted: | 1970 |
| Career history | |
| As a coach: | |
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| Career highlights and awards | |
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| Head coaching record | |
| Regular season: | 32–63 (.337) |
| Coaching stats at PFR | |
Romeo Crennel (born June 18, 1947) is a former American football coach, who was the senior advisor for football performance for the Houston Texans of the National Football League (NFL). A former long-time coaching assistant to Bill Parcells, Crennel served as the head coach of the Cleveland Browns from 2005 to 2008 and the Kansas City Chiefs in 2012, as well an assistant coach for six NFL teams and four collegiate teams. He has over 50 years of coaching experience, which has included consistently being employed as a coach for all but two seasons since 1970, only taking the 2009 and 2013 seasons off following both of his tenures as a permanent head coach. He has five Super Bowl wins as assistant coach, two with the New York Giants and three with the New England Patriots.
From 2014 to 2021, Crennel has served as an assistant coach for the Houston Texans under head coaches Bill O'Brien and David Culley, and served as the team's interim head coach during the 2020 season after O'Brien was fired following an 0–4 start. At 73 years and 115 days of age at the time of his promotion to interim coach, Crennel is the oldest person in NFL history to serve as a head coach, a record previously held by former Chicago Bears head coach/owner and NFL co-founder George Halas, who was 72 years and 318 days old when he coached the final game of his career on December 17, 1967. Crennel was the first Black head coach in Texans franchise history; he was also the first Black noninterim head coach in Browns history.