John David Rosenberg (born 1947 or 1948) is a former American football coach. His coaching career has spanned over 30 years at a variety of levels, including collegiate and professional teams in the United States, and pro club teams in the Italian Football League and German Football League in Europe. Most notably, he served as head football coach at Brown University from 1984 to 1989, compiling a record of 23–33–3. Rosenberg is credited by some as the creator of the zone blitz defense made popular by the Pittsburgh Steelers.[2] His career has included national championships in three countries.
United States
Penn State
Rosenberg was an assistant coach at Penn State for 11 seasons, working for head coach Joe Paterno. During this time he coached in 11 bowl games, including the National Championship team in 1982. He coordinated recruiting from 1974 to 1977, and also served as defensive backfield coach from 1977 to 1982.
Rosenberg was the head coach at Brown University in the Ivy League from 1984 to 1989. He led the Bears to three consecutive winning seasons, including a 7–3 mark in 1987. He resigned in 1990 following a 2–8 season in 1989 and a season with no victories in 1988. School officials acknowledged that calls from alumni for his dismissal had been growing. He had a 23–33–3 record in his six seasons at Brown.
In 2002, he was head coach of the Hamburg Blue Devils in the GFL, winning the German Bowl for the German National Championship. In 2004, he coordinated the defense of the Braunschweig Lions, Germany's most winning team with many German Bowl appearances and ten National Championships.
Rosenberg grew up in Newton, Massachusetts. He now lives in Los Angeles, California where he has done some writing and editing for films and television projects with football themes. He also was a sports radio talk show host in the early 1990s.
