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What are the qualities that make a coach effective?
It’s a relatively short question. The answer is nowhere near as concise. The list
is seemingly endless.
It’s like asking what ingredients are used in a good recipe. Strawberries are an
ideal topping for a cheesecake recipe, but useless in four-alarm chili.
It’s like asking what qualities are apparent in a quality actor. What you want in
a Shakespearean actor is significantly different from what Arnold Schwarzenegger provides
so well in his blow-’em-up movies.
So it is with coaching. Nice guys sometimes finish last, but they can also finish
first. The second coming of Attila the Hun can win big in the NFL, but that approach has
also been known to meet with disastrous results.
One size fits all does not work. Different strokes for different folks.
That said, there are certain qualities that keep coming up when NFL coaches, players
and front-office-executives are asked about first-rate coaching. What follows are the
coaching traits that have the greatest correlation with coaching success. You’d be
hard pressed to find a coach who does all of these things supremely well, but the more
characteristics on the list that they excel at the more likely they are to be successful.
Coaches are teachers
To hear NFL insiders tell it, pro football coaches are college professors who tell
their pupils to hit the blocking sled instead of hitting the books.
When asked what makes a good coach, the ability to be an effective teacher was
overwhelmingly the most popular answer.
"Coaching is teaching," Chiefs TE coach Keith Rowen said. "That’s
all it is. It’s teaching. It’s taking what you see on film on to game day. And
that’s teaching. That’s repetitions. It’s practice. It’s meeting
preparation. But when you boil it down, it’s another phase of teaching. That’s
really what we are — teachers."
It is important to note that while teaching is an important quality in a good coach, a
good teacher is not automatically a good coach.
"Probably the most creative, brilliant, close to genius offensive mind in the
history of the game was Clark Shaughnessy," Giants vice president and GM Ernie
Accorsi said. "He basically, if he didn’t invent it, he basically refined the
T-formation. (Yet) they didn’t let him near the field. Ken Kavanaugh, who played on
that team, the Bears team of the ’40s who has just retired as one of our scouts, he
said, ‘He was absolutely brilliant, and (George) Halas just let him completely design
the offense and teach it to us in the classroom. We went to the field, he stayed in the
classroom.’ … He could teach it, but he couldn’t coach it."
When teaching and coaching ability are combined, it makes for a dynamic 1-2 punch. That
combination is why so many different types of coaches can be effective.
It’s why guys who never played in the NFL and guys who did can both do well as
coaches.
"If you’re a teacher, you’re a teacher, whether you played the game or
not," NFL Coaches Association executive director Larry Kennan said.
Personalities big and small can both do well as coaches.
"What it all gets down to is a guy’s competence in his ability to
teach," Rams special-teams coach Bobby April said. "How competent is he? You
have guys that are just outstanding coaches that are low-key, quiet, and then you have
guys that are just the opposite end of the spectrum that are really vociferous in
everything they do. I think equating what’s a good coach is who’s the most
competent teacher."
A love of teaching needs to be a very strong motivation in the coaching profession,
even more than a love of the superficial perks that get much more attention.
"I think that you have to love what you do," Bears defensive coordinator Greg
Blache said. "I don’t think you can be in it for the recognition or the money or
to climb the (coaching) ladder. I think the good coaches are the guys that are the good
teachers. They’re the guys that are unselfish and are willing to commit themselves to
the rest of the staff and to the players."
When NFL coaches talk about themselves as teachers, it is as though they are talking
about a calling instead of a high-profile job.
Rams head coach Mike Martz is highly acclaimed as a strategic genius on the offensive
side of the ball, but when asked if he is more interested in strategy or teaching, he
said, "Teaching. I’m a teacher. The strategy thing, that just kind of happens.
That’s just part of the game. But I really enjoy coaching and teaching on the field.
I enjoy practice as much as I do the games."
Eagles head coach Andy Reid has led a major turnaround in Philadelphia, but there was
no mention of the joy of winning when he said, "The one thing about coaching is that
you love to teach. When you see guys improve and they feel comfortable in a system,
whether it’s offensively, defensively and special teams, that’s the satisfaction
that you get."
Chargers head coach Marty Schottenheimer was the No. 1 guy with the Redskins last
season, and he seemed genuinely sad when training camp — drudgery to most players
— ended.
"I’m a teacher," Schottenheimer said. "That’s my trade. …
That’s why I enjoy training camp, because I get the opportunity to do the thing that
I love to do."
It is this love of teaching that drives so many coaches, no matter the situation. If
their team is winning, they teach. If they are losing, they teach. If they are overseeing
a superstar, they teach. If they are working with the least talented player on the roster,
they teach.
"I don’t believe that you can ever believe that your players know
enough," Falcons RB coach Ollie Wilson said. "I think that you’ve got to
continue to teach them.
"We’re always looking for new ways of teaching different skills and to be
able to get it across, because the bottom line is what comes out (in games). The more you
can get it to them, the better it is. So I think the real good coaches are always able to
find new techniques, new skills and those types of things to be able to relate to
players."
Lions defensive assistant Don Clemons said that there aren’t many places in which
a better teaching environment exists than in the NFL.
"If you look at it, football is probably one of the best taught subjects in
America," Clemons said. "Every day you go in there and you start off by putting
things on a blackboard. Then you talk about it. You discuss it. Then you go out on a field
and you walk through it, and before you even practice you walk through it. Then you come
back in and you meet again, and you talk about it some more, adjust a little bit more.
Then you take the film and you review your practice, you correct the mistakes, you adjust
it some more. And you do this over the period of the week."
How is a college professor who gets his or her students for an hour a day supposed to
compete with that?
Leadership
One of the most important qualities a coach must have is leadership.
In simplest terms, if "you" lead will "they" follow?
Accorsi made a war reference when he said, "It’s the guy on the beach that
says, ‘Let’s go,’ and you follow him. And there are guys that you
don’t follow."
Moving off the battlefield and onto the football field, Accorsi said, "Obviously
you have to have knowledge. Obviously you have to have an expertise, because if you
don’t the players will see through you and not have confidence in you. … You
can’t bluff your way. But that’s not the difference. The difference is the
mysterious intangible of leadership that people have. They are commanders in the
battlefield. That’s what they are.
"People like that are people that you have to trust, have confidence that they can
lead you to victory, and that’s all part of the personality and persona and character
of the person that goes beyond knowledge.
"I remember a player told me years ago who had (previously) played for (Don) Shula
and no longer was playing for Shula. He was playing for a coach that he felt was not as
good as Shula, and he said to me, ‘When I look at our sideline and then I look over
and see Shula on the other sideline, I know we’ve got a distinct disadvantage.’
That’s the best way I can describe it. And I’ll bet you that his coach knew the
X’s and O’s just as good as Shula did. It’s that rare quality that they
have that they just lift the play of the team."
It’s all about command. Presence. Being bigger than life. It’s the ability to
say the same thing as another coach and have the players’ heads nodding in agreement
instead of their eyes rolling with disdain.
Steelers LB Joey Porter made this point when he spoke of head coach Bill Cowher, who
has led his teams to four AFC title games, including one Super Bowl appearance.
"He’s a great leader," Porter said. "He’s a guy that when he
talks, he has your full attention, and you listen to everything he says, and you want to
go out there and do whatever it is that he asks of you."
The fact that leadership is important in a coach is undeniable. Knowing ahead of time
who has it and who doesn’t, however, can be tricky. It’s like trying to measure
a college player’s heart prior to the draft. You know the quality is critical, but
figuring out how to quantify it definitively is as elusive as trying to succeed in a
greased pig contest.
"It can’t be charisma," wrote former Packers executive vice president
and general manager Ron Wolf in his book "The Packer Way." "Chuck Noll is
not charismatic, but he won four Super Bowls. John Madden’s outgoing personality is
as different from Noll’s as you can imagine, yet John was very successful, too. It
has nothing to do with size or weight or the sound of a voice or education. History’s
great leaders have no common backgrounds, no common traits that are obvious on the surface
— except they have somehow made something happen and inspired others to follow them.
Leaders create a bond that encourages people to believe in them so much they’re
willing to buy into their words."
Handle the dramatic ups and downs
A football season can feel like a roller-coaster ride with all of the ups and downs
a team experiences. It is a coach’s job to make the ride seem more like a
merry-go-round.
For the most part, a team is almost never as good as it thinks it is during good times
and almost never as bad as it thinks it is during bad times. Coaches must keep their
players’ emotions more toward the middle.
Two seasons ago, the Giants reached the Super Bowl. Early this past season, QB Kerry
Collins was asked what message head coach Jim Fassel had been trying to convey to the
team.
"It’s been that last year is last year," Collins said. "It’s
over with. It’s a new year. There are things we can take from last year, but we
can’t rely on last year to get us through this year. It’s a new and different
year."
When the Steelers got off to a surprising 3-1 start this past season, Cowher was asked
what it meant, and he said, "Absolutely nothing, because we’ve got 12 games left
to play."
After another win raised the club’s record to 4-1, Cowher said, "You’ve
got to keep things in perspective. We certainly don’t feel like even at this point
that we’ve really accomplished much of anything."
Like the Steelers, the Bears were a surprise team last season. When Chicago was an
out-of-nowhere 4-1 thanks largely to a defense that came of age faster than expected,
Blache said, "The light’s come on (for) those guys. Now, is it going to stay on?
I don’t know. That’s my biggest job right now — to keep that fire burning,
keep the passion burning so they don’t get satisfied by what’s happening."
When the Raiders beat the Broncos in Week Eight of this past season, it ended an
excruciating seven-game losing streak against their bitter rivals. What then-Raiders head
coach Jon Gruden focused on, however was the bigger picture. The win gave Oakland a 6-1
record and positioned the Raiders, at the time, as the team to beat in the AFC.
"It wasn’t our Super Bowl tonight," Gruden said after the game. "I
realize it was my first time having a chance as a head coach to beat them, but it was not
do or die in terms of what we’re about as a football team and what we have to do to
make the playoffs, to continue to improve as a team. I think we’ve got players that
understand that, and yet at the same time we wanted to win this game bad."
No matter how exciting the win, a team gets credit for only one victory when the clock
strikes 0:00 and it has more points than the opposition. No matter how well the season is
going, the past guarantees nothing in the future.
Browns head coach Butch Davis, whose club made significant strides in 2001, said,
"At the beginning of the season we talked to the players and said we’re not
going to judge success or failure on this football season based upon any one week or any
one set of weeks. That when the season is completely over with and we’ve played all
16 games, or if there’s any after that, once we look back and reflect we’ll say,
‘OK, it was successful. We got better in these areas, and we made this growth.’
And we’ve pretty much tried to get the players and everybody to put blinders on. That
it’s one week at a time."
The Browns were a stunning 3-1 at the time, and Davis added, "As far as we’re
concerned, our record is 0-0 and there’s only one game. It’s Cincinnati (four
days later). And that’s the only one that really matters. And when that game is over
with, we’ll put it behind us and move on."
The one-week-at-a-time statement sets off the cliché alarm and its blaring sirens,
but, cliché or not, it is a critical aspect of success and failure in sports. And one
week at a time to a good coach means that they don’t let their team get too high in
good times or too low in bad times.
"We lost to Miami in the fourth game of the season," said FB Marc Edwards of
the eventual Super Bowl champion Patriots. "We’re 1-3 and really got blown out
(30-10) by them, and (head coach Bill Belichick) came in the next day and he wasn’t
threatening people with their jobs screaming and hollering. He just came in and said,
‘That game is over with, we’re moving on, we’re moving forward.’
"And at the end of the year when we were winning a bunch of games, won four or
five games in a row, he never let us get too high. At times you would think we were on a
four-game losing streak. He’d point out the negative things. He’d point out some
positive things too. But it was the same as if we had just lost the game.
"His big thing is keeping us on an even keel, keeping us focused week in and week
out."
Although a lot of focus is placed on how a coach tries to keep his team playing
"one week at a time" when it is on a winning streak, Edwards comment points out
the fact that a struggling team must also buy into this cliché. A team facing tough times
must keep its composure. A team on a losing streak must realize it can’t pile up four
makeup wins on a single Sunday.
The Titans had a very disappointing campaign last season because of injuries. Expected
to contend for the Super Bowl, they got out of the gate very slowly and never recovered.
The team may have lost a lot of games, but head coach Jeff Fisher never lost his head.
"I think first and foremost, he doesn’t get panicked or frazzled,"
recently-retired Titans OL Bruce Matthews said. "We’ve been in opportunities
where things have been real good, and we’ve obviously had the down side, and
he’s always had the ability to keep the team on an even keel."
In Week Six of this past season, the Giants suffered a heartbreaking 10-9 loss to the
Eagles. A day later, Fassel said, "Although I’m utterly disappointed right now,
my gut got ripped out as all of ours did, we also did some good things."
The ability to still see the positive amongst the gut-wrenching is crucial for a coach.
Failure to do so can cause the season to slip away, especially if tough times extend
beyond just a week or two.
When the ship is taking on water, when the storm clouds are angry, when the vultures
are circling and when the crew is grumbling, that is when, more than ever, coaches must
stay the course.
Do not panic.
Do not tear up the map that shows where land can be found.
In football terms, a coach must not bail on his core beliefs during the worst of times.
Maybe those core beliefs aren’t working, but to completely change direction in a
frenzy is to risk capsizing the ship.
"If you really believe in what you’re doing, you keep doing it until everyone
does it real well," Chiefs head coach Dick Vermeil said.
Proof that a head coach and his staff should stick to their beliefs, should stay on
that proverbial even keel, is all over the NFL.
Colts head coach Tony Dungy was fired as the Buccaneers’ head coach after this
past season, but it wasn’t because he couldn’t manage a crisis. He was fired
because of his own success at turning around a sorry franchise and then being unable to
take the ultimate Super Bowl step after personally raising the bar so high.
He certainly wasn’t fired because he couldn’t salvage a slow start to a
season. Few coaches deliver as well as Dungy did after his teams got off to slow starts.
In 1998, the Buccaneers started the season 4-7 before winning four of their last five
games.
In 1999, they began 3-4 before winning eight of their last nine regular-season games
and making the playoffs.
In 2000, they were an ordinary 6-5 before winning four of five games to make the
playoffs.
This past season they were an extremely disappointing 4-5 before winning 5-of-7 games
to make the playoffs.
The key to the Buccaneers’ fast finishes was a steady hand and the status quo from
Dungy.
"He didn’t panic," said Buccaneers WR Keyshawn Johnson, who was on the
Tampa Bay roster the past two seasons. "He just basically said, these are the things
that we needed to do, and we basically got them done and went out and won one game at a
time."
Buccaneers DT Warren Sapp said, "You’re not going to get much difference out
of him. None as a matter of fact. None. He’s going to be the same. The schedule never
changes. He tells us what he expects from us, and he expects us to go out and execute.
"It’s the best way to play. Knowing is half the battle. … With the
expectations right in front of me, I know what’s expected of me to go out and play.
So let’s go do it."
Buccaneers GM Rich McKay said, "He handles it the same way as he handles his life,
the same way he handles every day, and that is very calm about it, same approach,
we’re going to practice the same, we’re not going to change anything. We
won’t change our routines. … His approach is, let’s act like we’ve
been here, we know how to handle the situation, let’s go forward. To me, this is when
he’s at his best. In adversity he brings out his best because he’s a very
calming influence in a very uncalm, if there is such a word, league."
Chargers head coach Marty Schottenheimer was fired as the Redskins’ head coach
following last season, but like Dungy, it wasn’t because he failed to make something
out of a terrible start. He was fired after only one season with the team because owner
Daniel Snyder has never been known for patience and because trophy coach Steve Spurrier
became available. The Redskins began 0-5, and if it is possible, it was even worse than
that record sounds. The Redskins weren’t just getting beat, they were getting
pummeled in most of those games, getting outscored by a cumulative score of 144-32.
Amazingly, the Redskins rebounded to win eight of their last 11 games, in large part
because Schottenheimer never strayed from what he believed would work.
At a time when the Redskins had won five straight games, Schottenheimer was asked if
changes were the reason for the team’s turnaround.
"We have not made any significant change, because to do that would have
invalidated what we started out talking about, and we were not going to do that,"
Schottenheimer said. "We have made some modification in scheduling, but we believe
very strongly in what we do. I would feel that if you were in fact to change, you would
probably run the risk of going downhill, because there would be no credibility in the
things that you believed in the first place."
Schottenheimer went on to say that in some ways the slow start was understandable
because of all of the changes in personnel and coaches that had been made.
"I just continued to stay the course, because I had every reason to believe that
it would resolve itself," Schottenheimer said.
Falcons head coach Dan Reeves showed similar conviction in 1997 despite mounting losses
that might have caused a less confident man to waver in his beliefs. Reeves did not so
much as blink.
His team was 1-7 at the time.
WR Terance Mathis, who was with the Falcons at the time, said. "He came to us and
said, ‘Guys, I’m not going to change anything from what we’ve been doing
from Day One. I believe in you, and I want you to believe in me. We’re going to make
this thing work together. It’s all about us right now turning this thing around. Once
you turn this thing around, you are going to witness some things you’ve never seen
before.’ "
The Falcons won six of their last eight games that season. That wasn’t enough to
make the playoffs, but it paved the way for the following season when they went 14-2 in
the regular season and then reached the Super Bowl.
Obviously it takes a whole lot more than a coach simply saying he’s sticking to
his guns to turn a bad situation around. Certainly many coaches have done just that and
seen the bleeding continue.
Nonetheless, this approach accompanies so many turnarounds that it seems apparent that
it is the way to go.
Heading into the 2001 season, one of the few things that the so-called experts could
agree upon was that the Bears weren’t very good and that head coach Dick Jauron was
certain to be fired at the end of the year.
Cancel the fire sale. The only thing on fire was the Bears’ victory total, which
changed so rapidly that smoke practically could be seen billowing out of that column in
their win-loss record. After compiling an uninspiring 11-21 record in Jauron’s first
two seasons as head coach, the Bears went an astonishing 13-3 in the regular season.
"Coach Jauron hasn’t changed," Bears C Olin Kreutz said. "Even when
we were losing, he didn’t change. (In 2001) he came in, and his job was on the line,
and he didn’t change. We took that key from him. And we play for him.
"He’s a great coach. He instills confidence in you. He’s got a quiet
confidence about him, and that’s what we take from him."
It is important to clarify that maintaining core beliefs during tough times does not
mean a coach should be completely rigid. Changes can be made, but typically they are of
the subtle kind rather than a total overhaul of philosophy.
After experiencing tremendous success in his first six seasons as the Steelers’
head coach, Cowher failed to reach the playoffs in the three seasons prior to this past
season when Pittsburgh reached the AFC title game.
This past season the Steelers still used the power running game and strong defense that
Cowher embraces, but he also acknowledged that he was open to change.
"I’ve tried to keep my eyes and ears open for new thoughts and new
ideas," Cowher said. "I’ve always said that the day you think you’ve
got all the answers, the game has passed you by — and you didn’t even know
it."
All for one, one for all
An important role for coaches, especially head coaches, is to take 53 individual
players and turn it into one team.
Individually, five fingers are not dangerous, but when working together as a fist
… pow! It’s the same concept with molding a football team.
"A certain element of your team is going to change every year," Browns head
coach Butch Davis said. "It appears, just listening from the outside the last couple
of years, anywhere from 18 to maybe as much as 30 percent of your team may turn over.
Because of the salary cap, it’s so important that you build team chemistry. That you
add, whether it’s free agents or whether it’s draft choices, you’ve got to
add the right kinds of guys that build chemistry in the locker room, and we’ve worked
so hard to try to build that.
"We’ve done a ton of things to try to accelerate the feeling of unity.
We’ve done swimming parties. We’ve done barbecues. We’ve done assigned
seats. We did a rookie night deal where we had a big rookie night party here during
training camp, and hopefully all of those things are paying some dividends."
When asked what he thinks makes a good head coach, Rams administrator of pro personnel
Jack Faulkner, who was a longtime coach before moving to the front office, said, "I
think his ability to get the players to play together, to like each other and that type of
thing. The motivational type of stuff to bring them together. That’s going to be the
biggest factor. The X’s and O’s will all come. Everybody knows all of that
stuff, because football is a copycat game.
"A coach has got to be able to handle his coaching staff as well as the players.
And the trainers. And the equipment guys. He’s got to be able to get them all in the
same line, get them looking the same way and putting the same amount of effort together.
That’s the biggest thing."
The phrase, "There is no ‘I’ in team" has been used so often
through the years that it should probably be retired, but coaches probably will never stop
using it because it is so critically important to team success.
"They’ve got to sacrifice and work together as a team, and every once in a
while you get someone that wants to work outside the box, and they’ve got to know
that the team comes first," Broncos head coach Mike Shanahan said.
It’s not just players who must be selfless instead of self-absorbed. Assistant
coaches must understand that team success is more important than personal glory. For
example, when an assistant coach’s unit has played great but the team has lost the
game, there’d better not be any champagne corks popping in celebration.
"You feel like your team has lost," Rowen said. "The only thing that
matters is the team. You have to separate the two. You have to separate what you’re
doing at that particular time and the corrections you can make, but the only thing that
matters is team."
Kennan said, "Coaches are about the team more so than anybody is about the
team."
Winning the players over
It’s difficult to win a battle if the troops are split over whether to attack
the enemy or the commanding officer.
A good coach understands this. This doesn’t mean the coach has to be the
players’ best friend. It does mean the coach has to get the players to want to fight
for the cause. It does mean the coach has to have the respect of his men.
Dictatorships are a tough sell to players. The coach’s mind, and perhaps even his
door, must be open. At the other end of the spectrum, pure democracies don’t work in
football either. The coach can’t be a rubber stamp for player anarchy. Somewhere in
the middle resides the good coach.
"I think the best thing our coach does is listen," Dolphins LB Zach Thomas
said of head coach Dave Wannstedt. "He’s a guy that won’t change his mind
on some of the things he does, but we have 10 leaders on our team that he puts in a room
and asks if there’s any problems throughout the team, what we’re doing, even
when it comes down to what we’re eating on the road. Things like that, he listens. I
tell you what, that’s the best thing a coach can have, because when you listen you
have guys behind you. If you’re a guy that says it’s my way or the highway, it
kind of pushes guys away."
One of the things Herman Edwards did as head coach of the Jets was create a players
committee.
"These guys have earned the right to ask me questions," Edwards said.
"The players have to have ownership of this football team. I am making them
understand they are going to be held accountable not only for how they play, but for
ownership of the team.
"They have the right to ask. Will they get everything they want? No. But I will be
fair with them.
"And the great part is when I say no, it is no. The powers that be go back into
the locker room and tell them, ‘We didn’t get that one, boys.’ But if it is
important to them and I feel it is the right thing to do, I am going to do it."
Before rebounding to finish 8-8 last season, the Redskins got off to a horrendous
start. When Schottenheimer was first hired, he added a lot of rules and really put his
strong imprint on the team. This is not an uncommon tactic for new head coaches when they
take over a team that has not lived up to expectations. What got Schottenheimer in trouble
with his players was the way he communicated his strong changes. Or, more specifically,
the way he didn’t communicate. Several games into the season, Redskins DE Bruce Smith
said the problem could only be fixed by treating the players like men rather than as
though they were delinquent teenagers.
"There was a communication lapse on my part, and I readily accept that,"
Schottenheimer said when the team was 0-3. "There were some things I asked to be
done, and I never told them why, and that’s not good. It’s just like your kid.
You tell your child or your spouse what you want, if you explain why, you’ve probably
got a chance to get it done."
With the team 0-3, Schottenheimer spent almost an hour asking his players for
suggestions on what needed to be done to turn the season around. Understand this, though:
this was not democracy. It wasn’t one man, one vote. Call it a poll rather than a
vote.
FB Donnell Bennett said Schottenheimer was still a disciplinarian, but he was now a
disciplinarian who was reaching out for ideas on how to win.
Players won’t always like a coach’s message. That said, they don’t need
to be treated with kid gloves. Tough messages need not be sugar-coated. Just tell it
straight. No twists, no turns. No lies, no deceit.
"I like someone who’s straightforward, who’s not going to give you any
bullcrap or try to lie to you," Keyshawn Johnson says.
Rams head coach Martz said, "The biggest thing to me with players is you want to
treat players the way that you want to be treated — with respect and dignity and
trust. I guess that’s probably the measure for me in terms of dealing with players.
And be as consistent and honest about this stuff as you can."
Lions assistant coach Clemons said, "I really think your communication and your
honesty is probably the biggest thing you really have to understand about your
player-coach relationship.
"All of the coaches who are successful do have the ability to tell the guys
what’s going on rather than try to keep it from them. … It’s hard to be
honest sometimes, because this profession is kind of brutal. During training camp you have
to tell some guys, ‘Hey, you’re not good enough to play.’ And that’s a
hard thing when that person’s been doing it their whole life. But it’s better to
tell them that way than to tell them, ‘Well, I think you’re going to be OK,
yeah.’ And then all of a sudden, ‘Well, you know, sorry, we just can’t keep
you.’ You’re better off telling them, ‘Look, this is what you need to do to
get better.’
"And you correct them each week and you try to help them get better. But sometimes
they’re just not going to be good enough, and as long as they understand that
you’re trying to help them and you’re being honest with them, I think
they’ll respond as positively as they can in any situation you put them in."
Of course, how a coach delivers a message doesn’t mean a thing if nobody is
listening. A coach must have his team’s respect for his message to be heard.
"Reputation, I think it precedes you, but you have to live up to it," Jets
head coach Edwards said. "I think that’s the thing you have to do as a coach;
you have to say things and you want your players to believe it. It’s easy to talk it,
but then you have to walk it. I told the players that when I first arrived here that I
wanted to earn their trust, and the way you do that is go about your work and you treat
players fairly, I think, and you treat them like men. If you go about doing it that way, I
think you gain their respect a lot quicker."
One way to lose players’ support is when a coach delivers consistent
self-inflicted wounds to his own club. Players hate when a coaching staff pulverizes them
in practice during the week, causing them to limp into the actual games.
"(A coach should be) player friendly," Chargers DE Marcellus Wiley said.
"And that doesn’t mean easy. That just means a guy who listens to us and feels
the pulse of the team and our desires and puts us in the best situations and good work
conditions (in) practice. Don’t have three games a week — Wednesday, Thursday
and Sunday. Kind of take it easy on the guys so we can save our bodies for Sundays and
explode.
"What don’t we like? Practicing too hard. This is not basketball. This is not
tennis. You can’t have all these car crashes on Wednesday and Thursday and then
expect to go out there Sunday excited about it."
When asked what players don’t like that some coaches do, Jets DE John Abraham
said, "Probably keeping us on the practice field too long and doing things like that.
I think that’s my biggest thing. Whenever we do things, just do them. Don’t just
keep repeating and repeating and repeating, because in a game you’re only going to do
it once. A lot of times my coaches will say, ‘Coach in the meeting room, don’t
coach on the field.’
"I think that’s the main thing, because everybody wants to be real
well-rested for the game. You can sit here and coach us and tell us to do something on the
field, but let’s say we do the play and we mess it up. If you go in the meeting room
and just sit there and tell us in the meeting room, I guarantee you we’ll get it
right there. I know on the field they feel like if you’re not doing it on the field,
you’re not going to be able to do it if we tell you. But if you tell us in the
meeting room, we’ll be able to do it."
Before you write these comments off as millionaire athletes whining about having to
earn their money, consider this comment from Jets head coach Edwards: "That is the
secret for a coach. What are you doing to keep them fresh?"
Keeping them fresh does not have to mean taking it easy.
"It’s a fun, relaxed, yet very, very hard working environment," Jets RB
Curtis Martin said of the environment Edwards has implemented. "I believe you get out
of something what you put into it. Just the work ethic that he’s instilled upon the
team, I think that’s what you’re seeing out on the field."
Fun and hard work might not sound like they would hold hands blissfully during a
football practice, but Martin said Edwards has shown the team the two do not have to be at
odds.
"I think that it’s more of showing us how fun it is when our hard work pays
off," Martin said. "That’s sort of his theme. That’s sort of his way.
And we’ve caught on to it, and everyone, they’re enjoying it. It’s one of
the funniest things. I was talking to him (in November when the Jets had a 7-3 record),
and I said, ‘What’s so good about everything, besides the fact that we’ve
been winning, is that when we’re out at practice, everyone is lively. Everyone is
enjoying practice.’ It’s like our bye week, it (seemed) as if people
couldn’t wait to get back to practice."
Sometimes a coach has to make life less than fun for a player. Sometimes criticism is
needed. Human nature is such that no one likes to be criticized, but if a coach bites his
tongue when a player is not getting the job done, it hurts the team. That is no way to
earn the players’ trust.
"I love a disciplinarian in the sense that he doesn’t allow any fat on the
table," Wiley said. "And that’s what I don’t like, when we go out
there and make mental errors, and we’re not reprimanded for them."
Sometimes, hold your ears, the criticism can get loud.
"We don’t have guys in here who are too big to get yelled at, who are too big
to get screamed at," Steelers S Lee Flowers said. "Sometimes that’s what
you need; sometimes you need to treat a grown man like a child."
Abraham said, "I think most screaming is during the game. You see a lot of
screaming in practice, but most of it’s in a game when they get really serious. In
practice they might just tell you that you need to do this, you need to do that. But in a
game, it’s serious then. If you mess up in a game they’re really going to get on
you."
One size does not fit all when it comes to yelling. It’s only logical that yelling
every time a player makes a mistake will be counterproductive. Coaches must determine when
to be constructive with their criticism and when to turn the volume way up.
"I coach the team like I raise my family," Blache said. "I always try to
do what I think is right. I try to do what I think they need at that time. As a parent,
your kid comes in sometimes and they need a hug and they need some understanding and they
need some loving, and you give it to them. There’s (other) times when they need a
stiff kick in the butt, and you give it to them. You give them tough love, but you always
give them love, and you always be there for them. And honestly, I try to coach my players
the same ways I raise my family."
Clemons said, "Screaming (is) ineffective over the length of a season. … I
don’t know very many successful coaches who can constantly do that, because what
happens is your players, just like if they’re your kids at home, if you’re on
them all the time eventually they turn you off."
Sometimes quiet sarcasm is more effective than a raised voice.
Wiley has developed into a star in the NFL, but earlier in his career when he played
for the Bills, Buffalo assistant coach Ted Cottrell used to call him "camel
legs."
Cottrell’s message was that Wiley needed to do something about his weak legs,
which were preventing him from holding up against the run.
The message was received loud and clear.
"(It said) you’re accountable and you don’t want to be laughed at,"
Wiley said. "It’s just like anything. If you get the test question wrong in
front of the class, you feel ashamed and next time you’re going to study harder to
answer it and be prepared. My whole key to it is never to get called out in front of
everybody for the wrong reasons."
Although Wiley does not believe a coach should deliver verbal bombs to a player in
public, he did not mind the jabs Cottrell landed when calling him "camel legs."
"Don’t treat us like cheerleaders," Wiley said. "We are the
players. We can take it. We have shells on, and we can handle some blows."
Earlier this season, the Jets running backs had gone through a three-game scoring
drought, prompting Edwards to say to Martin that the running backs seemed to have
"allergies to the end zone." Martin scored three touchdowns the next game.
Criticism need not be humorous to be quiet and effective.
When asked about playing for defensive coordinator Lovie Smith, Rams DT Tyoka Jackson
said, "He’s not a yeller, screamer, curser anything like that. He’s
demanding in the sense that if you let him down, he’ll say, ‘Man, you let me
down.’ "
If a player has any pride and respects his coach, that comment — even if said
quietly — has got to sting.
And then, of course, there is the quietest coaching response of all — silence.
Sometimes a struggling team needs to be told things aren’t so bad.
The 49ers were one of the major surprises this past season, and head coach Steve
Mariucci earned high marks from his players for the way he navigated the choppy waters of
the prior seasons.
"Through highs and lows he finds a way to be positive," 49ers QB Jeff Garcia
said. "I think that has started to really carry over into the team’s attitude
and the atmosphere in the locker room. And I think that has helped us breed a better
situation here with the 49ers and be able to overcome some of the negative things we (had)
gone through."
Nonetheless, sometimes a dramatic tirade serves a purpose in the NFL, but there’s
a right way and a wrong way to do it.
To hear players tell it, the wrong way is to go public with the media.
In the Colts’ 40-21 loss to the 49ers this past season, Indianapolis star QB
Peyton Manning threw four interceptions.
During his postgame press conference, head coach Jim Mora tore into his squad. when he
said, "When you turn over the ball five times — four interceptions, one for a
touchdown, three others in field position to set up touchdowns — you ain’t going
to beat anybody. That was a disgraceful performance."
Mora did not mention Manning by name, but the quarterback did not appreciate what he
felt was Mora "speaking to me directly."
Manning responded by saying he was fully responsible for the loss, but he was bothered
by being "called out" in a press conference that was clearly going to be played
over and over again via the national media. Mora’s choice of the word
"disgraceful" seemed to really strike a sensitive nerve. So did the arena in
which it was delivered.
If criticism is deserved, players believe it should take place behind closed doors.
"It’s the same way as if your friend has some holes in their socks,"
Wiley said. "Do you say, ‘(in a loud voice) Hey, you’ve got holes in your
socks’ in front of everyone, or do you kind of say privately, ‘(in a quiet
voice) Hey, man, you need to change your socks.’ I think we much more respect when a
coach pulls you to the side and talks to you man to man. That’s what you want."
Have a feel for the team
As much as coaches would like to get their teams to become well-oiled machines, the
fact of the matter is that players are not made up of computer chips and hard drives.
Players are flesh and blood. They are human, which means a coach must stay on his toes.
If players were robots, coaches could program them and then sit back and watch
perfectly desired results. Since players are not machines, though, anything can happen.
What works one week may fail miserably the next. A good coach must have the pulse of his
team.
For example, should the team be given a lot of latitude or kept on a short leash on a
given issue?
"We respect (head coach Brian Billick) so much because he knows when to tighten
the reins, and he knows when to let us go," TE Shannon Sharpe said when he was still
with the Ravens. "I think the biggest thing that people don’t understand is that
… we never have bed check. Because he doesn’t feel that you need to check grown
men’s rooms. We’re grown men, and we’re paid a damn good salary to do a
job. If you’re going to put not only yourself but put the other 52 guys and the
coaching staff at risk because you want to go out and see the town, we don’t feel
that we have those type of guys on the team. He respects us enough and trusts our judgment
that we’ll do the right thing."
The key here is that Billick determined that his team, which won Super Bowl XXXV, was
mature enough to handle this freedom, because as Sharpe went on to add, "Every team
can’t handle that."
A coach must also have the pulse of his team when deciding what kind of message to
send. Patriots head coach Bill Belichick recognized this when asked a couple days before
this year’s Super Bowl what he would say to his squad in his pregame speech.
"Sometimes I talk to them before the game; Sometimes I don’t," Belichick
said. "I think a lot of times, depending on how the week has gone, and how much
I’ve talked to them during the week, sometimes they’ve heard enough from me, and
I’ve said what I have to say three or four times, and maybe saying it that fifth time
isn’t going to mean much."
In other words, know when the team is about to tune out a stale message.
Billick faced this last season after his club had won the previous Super Bowl.
"You don’t just come back and say, ‘Well, gee, let’s just do it
again. I’ll give the same speeches. We’ll run the same plays. We’ll go
about everything the same way,’ " Billick said. "You have to recognize that
there are different pressures, there are different perspectives that are going to come in
with this team that has now been through that baptism of fire, so to speak. You’ve
got to find different ways to motivate them, different ways to make sure they understand
what the situation is and what’s going on around them, not the least of which is
there is a different chemistry on the team."
Having the pulse of the team also means a coach knows how much different players can
handle on the field. Seeing the game the same way the player does is crucial.
"You’ve got to look through their eyes," Chiefs assistant coach Rowen
said. "You’ve got to see what they’re capable of doing and what information
they can gather and what information is going to help them play better on Sunday."
Jaguars LB Hardy Nickerson said of Lovie Smith, his former position coach when he
played for the Buccaneers: "During a game or in practice or watching film, whatever
we were doing, we just had a good understanding of what each other was thinking. Almost in
everything. So it was very, very easy to relate to what he was trying to get across to me
and what I was trying to get across to him."
Having the pulse of the team means knowing how to motivate. And this doesn’t mean
the ability to give a fiery pregame speech.
"I think motivation lasts about as long as (it takes you to get) ear-holed on that
first kickoff, then all that motivational win-one-for-the-Gipper stuff goes right out the
window," Billick said.
Motivational tactics that really pay off for a coach are those that inspire the club to
do what it takes to win every day, every week, every month of the season, not just in the
moments before kickoff.
"I think of myself more as a facilitator," Billick said. " … A
facilitator in the sense of making sure they are aware of their circumstances, their
environment, what it is going to take to win the game, what our expectations are, what
their responsibilities are."
Talking about Jets head coach Edwards’ motivational style, QB Vinny Testaverde
said, "Just the way he talks to you, the speeches he gives to our team talking about
committing to the team and talking about how to go about winning a championship. It’s
just the way he presents his speeches and the way he talks to you. He’s very
energetic, very uplifting, and I think that’s rubbed off on our football team."
Having the pulse of the team means knowing what makes players tick.
"All coaches should have some kind of a psychology degree," Faulkner said.
Knowledge is power
Although the ability to handle, to motivate, to lead players is important, none of
that matters if a football coach doesn’t have knowledge of the game.
In explaining what he looked for in his assistant coaches, one of the things former
49ers head coach Bill Walsh wrote in "Building a Champion" was, "He must
have a complete working knowledge of the game, because the players respect that above
everything else. Athletes can be coached in almost any style if they’re confident
that the coach really knows what he’s doing. The players must know that the coach is
up to date and contemporary in his approach and able to adjust quickly to the tactics of
different opponents."
The final point Walsh made about a coach having the knowledge to adapt quickly to what
the opposition is doing is worth more comment.
Wiley said it drives players crazy if "we run the ball 10 times and we don’t
get any yards, but we’re sticking to the run. No, no, no. Switch it up, baby. Erase
the game plan that week and let’s just go throw the ball."
Knowledge can go to waste if a coach isn’t willing to use it. Sometimes a coach
must be willing to climb out on a limb.
Belichick said of Patriots offensive coordinator Charlie Weis, "He’s not
afraid. He’s not afraid to take a chance. He’s not afraid to roll the dice.
I’m not talking about just blind luck, but here’s a situation that we’ve
got a pretty good chance to be successful on. Yeah, there’s some risk involved, but
we’re going to do it. And he does it with confidence, and most of them work out.
… He’s not afraid to call the game. And I think as a coordinator, I think
that’s an important quality."
Knowledge can be cutting-edge innovation.
It’s what you see when watching Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Johnson’s
players in action.
"Jim Johnson is a guy who can think up some things that you have never seen,"
Rams RB Marshall Faulk said. "He can do things out of a regular scheme that you have
just never seen before."
It’s what you see when watching Belichick’s defenses in action.
"He’s innovative with his schemes and how he attacks you," Steelers TE
coach Ken Whisenhunt said. "He’s innovative with his schemes and how he attacks
you. He gives you a lot of looks that you have to prepare for. He’s all about trying
to get matchups in his favor."
It’s what you see when watching Martz’s Rams offense in action.
"I think Mike does as good a job offensively as any coach that I’ve coached
against," Belichick said. "He has a tremendous system to begin with, and when
you watch St. Louis play on film you’re very impressed with their execution, their
timing, their precision and just the way they can run his offense. And then on top of that
you take the game planning that goes into it and Mike’s ability to pick out defensive
weaknesses, maneuver his personnel to give you bad mismatches, put his scheme up against
the weaker points of your scheme and really put stress on areas that defensively you
don’t really want to see stressed, and he does a great job of that. He does a good
job of game planning going into the game, and then as you watch the games on tape, as the
games unfold you see defenses or even in our game we tried to make adjustments to move
things a little bit to address problems that we felt like we were having, and he’s
already moved on to something else, and he’s made the next jump, and he’s
attacking you in areas that were strong but now are weak because you’ve shifted your
defense, and he’s now back at those weak points again."
Of course, innovation is not mandatory. The wheel can only be invented once. Ditto for
the Internet. There are only so many inventions to go around. More than a league of mad
scientists each creating wildly different creations, the NFL is a copycat league in which
coaches are knowledgeable enough to recreate each other’s ideas.
"Football coaches, probably like in any other business, they’re great at
stealing each other’s ideas," Lions assistant coach Clemons said. "You see
something on film, the next week you’re doing it. Or you do something successfully,
and now a different team is running it."
Work ethic
The NFL is not a 9-to-5 profession, unless you happen to mean 9 a.m. to 5 a.m.
Coaching in professional football is not for the lazy.
"(What makes a good coach is) love of the game and drive and competitiveness,
because it’s tough with regard to the workload involved and the time-consuming kind
of a job it is," Broncos director of football administration Neal Dahlen said.
"If you’re not a highly competitive person then you’re not going to be
successful at it."
The simplest explanation
You can talk all you want about coaches being teachers, possessing leadership,
handling ups and downs, creating team unity and winning over players, and having knowledge
and work ethic and a hundred other things, but they are ingredients in the recipe, not the
final result.
When you bake a cake, nobody cares what ingredients you used unless what comes out of
the oven tastes good.
What makes a good coach?
Cowher hit upon the ultimate answer during this past season’s playoffs as he was
reminded of the many times his teams have lost in the AFC title game.
After being asked if those setbacks made him a better coach, Cowher said,
"I’ll be a better coach if we win Sunday."
Just win, baby. When all is said and done, this old Al Davis battle cry still best
explains how top coaches are determined.
Part 12: Life and death battle
Part 11: Standing tall
Part 10: Mistaken identity
Part 9: Amazing transformation
Part 8: Commitment
Part 7: Variety is the spice of life
Part 6: The hiring game
Part 5: The glass is half full
Part 4: Difficulties of the profession
Part 3: Coping with defeat
Part 2: The player-coach relationship
Part
1: Setting the tone
Series index
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