Ray Sherman (November 27, 1951) is an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

coach for the

Vegas Vipers The Vegas Vipers are a professional American football team based in Las Vegas, Nevada. The team is an owned-and-operated member of the XFL (2020), XFL, owned by RedBird Capital, Dwayne Johnson and Dany Garcia's Alpha Acquico, LLC. The team beg ...

. Sherman has more than four decades of coaching at the college and professional levels.

Coaching career

College career

Sherman played college football at

Fresno State California State University, Fresno (Fresno State) is a public university in Fresno, California. It is one of 23 campuses in the California State University system. The university had a fall 2020 enrollment of 25,341 students. It offers bachelo ...

as a wide receiver and

defensive back In gridiron football, defensive backs (DBs), also called the secondary, are the players on the defensive side of the ball who play farthest back from the line of scrimmage. They are distinguished from the other two sets of defensive players, the ...

. In 1974, he took a job as graduate assistant for

San Jose State San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a public university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the oldest public university on the West Coast and the founding campus of the California State University (CSU) sy ...

. After leaving San Jose State following that season, Sherman remained a coach at the college level through 1987, working for five additional schools; this includes two stints at

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

NFL career

The

Houston Oilers The Houston Oilers were a professional American football team that played in Houston from its founding in 1960 to 1996 before relocating to Memphis, and later Nashville, Tennessee becoming the Tennessee Titans. The Oilers began play in 1960 as ...

gave Sherman his first NFL coaching job in 1988, when he was hired as a running backs coach. After one more year in Houston, during which he was a wide receivers coach, he took an assistant head coaching position with the

Atlanta Falcons The Atlanta Falcons are a professional American football team based in Atlanta. The Falcons compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. The Falcons joined th ...

in 1990. Sherman then went to the

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National ...

the next season, staying there through 1993; he coached running backs in 1991 and wide receivers the following two seasons. The

Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. Founded in 1960 as an expansion ...

hired Sherman as quarterbacks coach in 1995, and he spent three seasons with the team. In 1998 and 1999, Sherman served as offensive coordinator of the

Pittsburgh Steelers The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional American football team based in Pittsburgh. The Steelers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. Founded in , the Steel ...

and Vikings, respectively. He was the wide receivers coach of the

Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. It ...

from 2000 to 2004, and held the same position with the

Tennessee Titans The Tennessee Titans are a professional American football team based in Nashville, Tennessee. The Titans compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) South division, and play their h ...

in 2005 and 2006. The

Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divisi ...

hired him as wide receivers coach in 2007. In January 2010, Sherman was considered for a head coaching position with the Oakland Raiders. In January 2011, Sherman interviewed for the head coaching position of the Dallas Cowboys to satisfy the Rooney Rule, and it was thought that he might be offered the offensive coordinator job with the team. It was announced that Sherman will not return to the Cowboys for the 2011 season. In 2019, Sherman served as the Steelers interim wide receivers coach for the season following the death of the incumbent coach

Darryl Drake Darryl Drake (December 11, 1956 – August 11, 2019) was an American football player and coach. His career spanned four decades, including stints as the wide receivers coach of the Chicago Bears, Arizona Cardinals, and Pittsburgh Steelers of ...

that August. Sherman was officially hired by the

on September 13, 2022

Personal life

Sherman is married and is the father of three children, one of whom died in 2003.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sherman, Ray 1951 births Living people African-American coaches of American football American football defensive backs American football wide receivers California Golden Bears football coaches Dallas Cowboys coaches Georgia Bulldogs football coaches Green Bay Packers coaches National Football League offensive coordinators New York Jets coaches Pittsburgh Steelers coaches St. Louis Rams coaches San Francisco 49ers coaches Sportspeople from Berkeley, California Wake Forest Demon Deacons football coaches 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American sportspeople