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Michael Francis Sherman (born December 19, 1954) is an American gridiron football coach and former player who most recently was the head coach of the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League (CFL). He was the head coach of the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League (NFL) from 2000 to 2005. Sherman led the Packers to five consecutive winning seasons from 2000 to 2004 and three divisional titles in 2002, 2003, and 2004, but never advanced past the divisional round of the playoffs. He was also the head football coach at Texas A&M University from 2008 to 2011. He has also been a coach in the NFL for the Seattle Seahawks, Houston Texans and Miami Dolphins. Before he started coaching in the NFL, he served as an assistant coach at five different colleges, including Texas A&M, where he coached the offensive line for seven seasons. He is one of only a few coaches that has been a head coach at the high school, college, CFL and NFL levels.
Sherman earned a scholarship to play at Central Connecticut State University, where he played defensive end and offensive tackle. He majored in English studies. Though he was considered to be an average player with limited abilities in college, he was noted for his strong commitment. Right after college, Sherman became an English teacher and an assistant football coach, serving at Stamford High School in Connecticut in 1978 and at Worcester Academy in Massachusetts from 1979 to 1980.
Sherman's father worked for a pipe company in New England and retired in 1991. Both his parents lived on Cape Cod. Sherman has been married to his wife Karen since 1982, and the couple have five children together (Sarah, Emily, Matthew, Benjamin and Selena). Sherman is the father-in-law of Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor, who is married to his oldest daughter.
Sherman and his family reside on Cape Cod. A former reading and special education teacher, Karen is a very active member of the West Dennis Library Board of Trustees.
From 1989 to 1993, Sherman coached the Texas A&M offensive line. During the 1992–93 season, he met retired head coach Gary Kubiak, who had coached the A&M running backs. In 1994, Sherman left Texas A&M to coach the UCLA offensive line, which included former Baltimore Ravens pro bowler Jonathan Ogden. Sherman later returned to Texas A&M to coach the offensive line again for the 1995–96 seasons. Under Sherman, the Aggie offense averaged over 400 yards of total offense four times in his seven seasons at A&M. The 1990 Aggie team set a school record of 471.1 yards per game. Sherman also helped the Aggies to win three Southwest Conference championships consecutively from 1991 to 1993. Additionally, he recruited Leeland McElroy, who would become one of the Aggies' top 10 all-time leading running backs.
On December 20, 1996, A&M head coach R. C. Slocum promoted Sherman to offensive coordinator to replace dismissed Steve Ensminger. Months later, Sherman resigned to start his NFL coaching career as the assistant offensive line and tight ends coach for the Green Bay Packers. When asked by a reporter why he chose to accept the Green Bay job, Sherman responded: "There is absolutely no other college job I would have left Texas A&M for and only one professional job that I've ever had any interest in and that being the Green Bay Packers. I've enjoyed the small-town atmosphere of College Station for my family, and Green Bay offers that same atmosphere. If the truth be told, there is not a whole lot of difference between an `Aggie' and a `Cheesehead." He served the position for the 1997–98 seasons. After Packers head coach Mike Holmgren resigned to accept the Seattle Seahawks head coach position, Holmgren hired Sherman to become the offensive coordinator for the 1999 season.
An offensive-minded coach, Sherman led the Packers to break franchise records for rushing in 2003 and passing in 2004. In 2003, Packers quarterback Brett Favre led the NFL in touchdown passes, in addition to setting a franchise record for rushing yardage. The 2003 team also gained a total of 442 points, which is the fourth most in franchise history (560 in 2011, 461 in 2009, 456 in 1996, when the team won the Super Bowl).
Despite receiving a contract extension earlier in the 2005 season, Sherman was fired by the Packers on January 2, 2006, after compiling a 4–12 record — Green Bay's first losing record since the 1991 season (it was also Sherman's only losing season during his Packers tenure). The Packers had lost Pro Bowl Javon Walker, Bubba Franks and Ahman Green to injured reserve early in the season.
In his six-year head coaching career with the Packers from 2000 to 2005, Sherman compiled a 57–39 regular season record and a 2–4 postseason record. Sherman used the West Coast offense at Green Bay.
Sherman's first solo draft pick as GM and in charge of the draft was Javon Walker in 2002, who made the Pro Bowl in 2004, and was traded to the Denver Broncos in 2006.
In 2005 the Packers hired Ted Thompson from the Seattle Seahawks to take over Sherman's general manager duties, although Sherman remained the Packers' head coach for one more season.
The Texans finished the 2006 season with a 6–10 record. In 2007, they finished with an 8–8 record.
After two straight losing seasons, the Aggies started the 2010 season 3–3 but won their final six games to finish 9–3 and earn a share of the Big 12 South Division title. After the 2010 season, he signed a contract extension through the 2015 season. His salary was raised to $2.2 million.
In 2011, the Aggies began as a top 10 ranked team, but fell out of the polls after losing four games, three of which had double-digit half-time leads. Three of those four losses were to teams later ranked among the top ten in the nation. On November 19, 2011, the Aggies defeated Kansas by a score of 61–7 and became bowl-eligible for a third straight season. Five days later, on November 24, 2011, they would lose at home to the University of Texas 27–25 on a last-second field goal, in what would likely be the last game of the rivalry. It was the Aggies' sixth loss of the season, and the fifth in which they held a second-half lead of two or more scores.
On April 27, 2012, the Dolphins drafted Ryan Tannehill with the 8th overall pick. Sherman coached Tannehill at Texas A&M and was instrumental in the decision-making leading to the Dolphins selecting Tannehill.
On June 8, 2019, shortly before the start of the regular season and a week after the Alouettes ownership surrendered the franchise back to the CFL, the Alouettes released an ambiguously worded statement claiming that they and Sherman had "agreed to part ways."
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