Bernie Parmalee


Bernard "Bernie" Parmalee is an American football coach and former running back. He currently serves as the running backs coach for the Atlanta Falcons of the National Football League.

Playing career

Parmalee played high school football at Lincoln High School in Jersey City, New Jersey. Parmalee's played in college at Ball State University, where he is the 3rd leading rusher all-time.
Parmalee played running back for the Miami Dolphins and the New York Jets from 1992 to 2000. Parmalee's professional opportunity came when he tried out for the Miami Dolphins after working for UPS. He played seven seasons with the Dolphins in 104 games, scoring fifteen rushing touchdowns and three receiving touchdowns while rushing for 1,959 yards and amassing 1,306 receiving yards. In 1999, he went to the Jets and played two seasons in 30 games with two rushing touchdowns, 220 rushing yards, and 179 receiving yards.

Coaching career

Miami Dolphins

Parmalee coached both special teams and tight ends for the Miami Dolphins from 2002 to 2004.

Notre Dame Fighting Irish

Parmalee coached both special teams and tight ends for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish from 2005 to 2009. Irish tight ends did well under Parmalee's tutelage having produced multiple John Mackey Award finalists during his tenure.

Kansas City Chiefs

The Chiefs announced him as their Tight Ends coach on February 1, 2010.

Oakland Raiders

He was hired by the Raiders as their new running backs coach on January 25, 2015. In Parmalee's first season in Oakland, Latavius Murray made the Pro Bowl, running for 1066 yards — the team’s first 1000-yard rusher in five years. In Parmalee’s second season in Oakland, the Raiders had the league’s 6th ranked rushing attack. As Jon Gruden took over as head coach of the Raiders after the 2017 season, Parmalee was ousted with most of the Raiders coaching staff.

Atlanta Falcons

In 2018, Parmalee was hired to be the running backs coach for the Falcons. He coached Ito Smith in his first season where he tallied four running touchdowns, the most rushing touchdowns by a Falcons rookie since 2002. After working as an offensive assistant and assistant special teams coach to start the 2019 season, he returned to being the running backs coach on November 4.