So many sporting sporting icons of this generation – from Tim Duncan to Alex Rodriguez – have stepped away from competition without ever receiving their due for all they achieved. While the Jeters and Kobes almost get over-appreciated on the way out, other legends are taken for granted and only truly appreciated long after they’re gone. Let’s not make this mistake with Jeff Fisher.

Yes, Jeff Fisher is a sports legend. For years now his career has very much been the stuff of legend, for what bad head coach hasn’t been delighted and inspired by the tale of the mustachioed fist-pumper who remains employed year after year at the highest level despite never achieving anything? But now Fisher is closing in on some milestones that will forever secure his place in the history of the sport and end all debate about who deserves the title of the greatest bad football coach of all-time.

Thanks to Sunday’s 14-10 loss at home to the Miami Dolphins, Fisher is now tied with Tom Landry for the second-most losses by a head coach in NFL history. He did it in style, too, turning his hat backwards as his team blew a 10-0 lead with less than five minutes remaining thanks to their coach’s ultra-conservative style. On the debut performance by quarterback Jared Goff, in which the No1 overall pick threw for 134 yards and no scores on 31 pass attempts, Fisher said: “He did a really good job. No delay of games.” It’s comments like that one that give insight on how Fisher manages to convince ownership to keep him on year after year: “We went 7-9 again, but we did a really good job. We had the most punt yardage.”

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In addition to complimenting the No1 overall pick’s ability to take the snap before a 25-second clock ticked down after four months of watching and learning from the bench, Fisher called Sunday’s game “one of the most disappointing losses” of his career. That’s quite a comment to make, as there have been 162 of them since Fisher took over the Houston Oilers at age 36 in 1994 – with 60 of those coming in just the past six-and-a-half seasons alone. Perhaps all the losses have run together and he can’t differentiate one from the next, this week’s from last week’s, losing 14-10 to the Dolphins in 2016 or 23-16 to the St Louis Rams in 2000. But it’s that level of consistent losing that makes it disrespectful to Fisher and all the failure he has achieved to even mention him in the same sentence as Tom Landry.

The Hall of Famer and late Cowboys coach lost his 162 games over 29 years while also winning 20 playoff games, five NFC championships and two Super Bowl titles. None of that can hold a candle to Fisher losing 162 games in less than 22 seasons while notching just five playoff wins – and none since 2003 – and a single conference title that was won last century. And when Fisher ties Dan Reeves later this year for the most coaching losses all-time with 165, he’ll have done it faster than Reeves, too, while also winning far fewer games in the postseason. Reeves having more career losses than Fisher doesn’t mean Reeves is better at losing, just as Matt Ryan having more passing yards than Tom Brady this year doesn’t make him a better quarterback. But when Fisher holds the record alone, there will be no question of his eternal place in the game.

Of course, Fisher is more than just large numbers in the loss column. It’s the fact that he’s maintained employment that truly amazes. Landry’s 162 defeats came because when you win for so long, you also accumulate some losses along the way. Even Bill Belichick is 15th all-time in head coach losses with 115, and only 44 of those came with the Browns. Don Shula is fourth in losses all-time. Reeves never had quite the success as that trio, but he coached teams to a Super Bowl in both the AFC and NFC and even went 9-6-1 in the season before he was fired by the Falcons 13 years ago. Fisher hasn’t had a season that good since 2008. Yet he’s still employed, year after unremarkable year, failing in four different cities with two different franchises and three different team names. Each year we think his time is up, but he comes back as mediocre as ever and armed with a new contract and worse haircut.

Criticize his coaching all you want – I’ll wait, it will take some time – but the man has a unique talent to keep a job unlike any other coach in football history. That’s undeniable. In college football, coaches are canned after two losing seasons, let alone two decades of losing seasons. In the NFL, Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis is supposedly on the hot seat at all times because he can’t get his team over the hump with a playoff win. Fisher’s team doesn’t even get near the hump. In fact, if they saw the hump, Fisher would decide it was too big and have his quarterback check down three times before punting out of bounds away from the hump. Yet Lewis won 52 games from 2011 to 2015. Fisher won 33 over his last five seasons. (Perhaps he made the case to Rams ownership that he was undefeated in the playoffs over that span?) Those are not comparable resumes. Lewis does not deserve to sit on the same hot seat as Fisher.

While some pin Fisher’s continued employment on bumbling Rams owner Stan Kroenke not knowing any better, Fisher isn’t simply the benefactor of good luck. He’s playing failure chess, setting up future undeserved paychecks far in advance. Taking Goff No1 overall and then letting him sit for half the season was a master stroke in job preservation. At the end of the season, Fisher can make the case that he needs more time to develop a new QB. He can say that when Goff gets up to speed – be that in 2017 or much later – the Rams will win. He can make the claim that changing coaches on Goff would be bad for the young QB’s development. He can make the case that he needs another contract extension so the team and its young quarterback knows there is stability. And he can say all that because he will have only let Goff play a few games. Had he started him Week 1 and it was a disaster, Fisher could have been blamed for making a bad pick. Now there won’t be enough of a sample size to truly evaluate the supposed franchise QB. It’s a no-lose situation for Jeff Fisher. Unlike most every football game he has ever coached.

Yes, Fisher will likely be back in LA next season. And the season after that and long after we are all dead, putting up 7-9 seasons for the Mexico City Ubers of the National Robot Football League. I know that all sounds far-fetched. But remember that Jeff Fisher is still allowed to be a head coach in the NFL. Nothing is more absurd than that.