Rod Marinelli

Defensive coordinator and defensive line coach Rod Marinelli was born in Rosemead, California on July 13, 1949. A native California, Marinelli and his wife Barbara have two daughters, Christine and Gina, and four grandchildren. He began his football career playing offensive tackle, first starting at Utah the finishing at California Lutheran University. Despite his collegiate career being split due to a tour of duty in Vietnam, Marinelli still earned All-America honors at Cal-Lutheran in 1972. Marinelli spent the next 20 years coaching at the collegiate level. He spent time coaching the defensive line at Southern California, Arizona State, University of California, and Utah State. Marinelli made his jump to the NFL in 1996 when he joined the Tampa Bay Buccaneers where he served as the defensive line coach from 1996-2005. During his tenure, Marinelli guided a successful defensive line that accounted for 328.5 sacks- one of the top numbers in the league during that time period. Marinelli moved to Detroit for three seasons where he was the head coach of the Lions, then he made his way to the windy city of Chicago where he became the assistant coach/defensive line coach and then eventually defensive coordinator. As Chicago's defensive coordinator, Marinelli's unit forced the most fumbles (59), intercepted the third most passes (65), and scored the most defensive tackles in a three season period. With a wide berth of experience, Marinelli joined the Dallas Cowboys in January of 2013 as the team's defensive lines coach. His first season in Dallas got off to a rough start as many players in his unit were limited in their game play due to injury. However, under Marinelli's leadership and his new position as defensive coordinator, the defense made major improvements during the 2014 season as the team finished second in the league with 31 takeaways, moving from 32nd to 19th. The 2016 Cowboys defense procured major developments as the team led the league in rushing yards allowed (83.5 per game) and finished sixth in plays of 20 or more yards allowed (51). Marinelli continues to guide Dallas' defensive line and foster heavy defensive hitters such as Sean Lee and DeMarcus Lawrence.