Marty Schottenheimer’s Cleveland run came to a bitter end in 1998. And it marked the turning point in Bill Cowher’s life. After Schottenheimer left, Cowher thought of closing the Cleveland chapter. While he had a chance to join NFC rival Bill Parcells’ roster next, Cowher remained loyal to his boss, Schottenheimer, and joined the Kansas City Chiefs.

“Art Modell wanted me to come back. He actually wanted to go back to being a special teams coach. And I said, ‘All right, I can’t do that.’ And you can’t hire me without hiring a head coach,” Cowher recalled on the Coach2Coach with Jason Garrett podcast. “So I went down to the Senior Bowl, interviewed with Bill Belichick, who was a defensive coordinator with the Giants. Got a call on the same day, honest truth. I got a call from Marty Schottenheimer. He said, ‘I’m going to Kansas City. I want you to come out here with me.’ I said, ‘Sure.’ That afternoon, Bill Parcels called.”

“He goes, ‘I want you to come up here to be the defensive back coach for the New York Giants.’ I said, ‘Well, I think I’m going to go to Kansas City. What are they paying you?’ So, he offered me more money. I said, ‘No, Marty gave me my first chance. I’m going to I’m going to stick with him.’ And he says, ‘Well.’”

Parcells was the head coach of the New York Giants from 1983 to 1990. In 1988, when Cleveland underwent a coaching shakeup, with Schottenheimer leaving and Cowher also making the call, Parcells was savoring a golden time in New York. The Giants were coming off a Super Bowl XXI win. A fat contract offer followed. But to Cowher, nothing was more lucrative than his commitment to Schottenheimer, which he had gained years after working under his wings.

Long before he became a Super Bowl-winning head coach, Cowher was learning the NFL coaching business under Schottenheimer. Their association dated back to Cowher’s playing days in Cleveland, where he lined up at linebacker while Schottenheimer coordinated the defense.

In 1985, Cowher began his coaching career with the Browns as their special teams coach. He remained alongside Schottenheimer as the Chiefs’ defensive coordinator when the latter moved to Kansas City as head coach in 1989. After three years of developing in that position, Cowher landed the Steelers’ head coaching job in 1992. At 35, he began a Pittsburgh tenure that would ultimately cement his place among the NFL’s coaching greats.

In that way, Schottenheimer himself planted the seeds of coaching in Cowher. Did he make the right call by turning Parcells down for Schottenheimer?

After Parcells’ 1986 season in New York ended with a Super Bowl win, he won the second one in his last season as the Giants head coach in 1990. Unfortunately, Cowher had enough reasons to regret not saying a ‘Yes’ to Parcells, as he and Schottenheimer could not bring home a Lombardi Trophy to Kansas City. But if we look at the larger picture, joining the Chiefs paid off well for Cowher, as the Chiefs chapter served as the stepping stone to pitch himself for a head coaching role with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1992.

Back then, he was the NFL’s second-youngest head coach at 34. Yet the Steelers counted on him to replace Chuck Noll, the only coach to win four Super Bowls. Well, they had strong reasons for taking the chance.

His partnership with Schottenheimer continued to pay dividends in Kansas City. Cowher took over as the Chiefs’ defensive coordinator in 1989 and helped oversee a unit that finished atop the AFC in defensive rankings. The accomplishment reflected his growing understanding of defensive schemes and his ability to get players working together effectively.

In those three years, the Chiefs continued to excel defensively, recording more sacks and forcing more turnovers than every team except the Philadelphia Eagles.

Eventually joining the Steelers, Cowher was able to break his Super Bowl drought by winning the Super Bowl XL in February 2006 and hung up his coaching boots a season later.