The Fifth Down

The Third Down

Certainly a great degree of athletic success depends upon the quality of the athletes involved. That aside, the glue and continuity of a program is the coaching staff. Technical knowledge and the ability to communicate it isn t of any value if the coach is disruptive to the staff and program.

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Be careful whom you hire. Through many years of coaching, my criteria for staff was to hire 'good people', the 'good' not being directly related to football expertise. I have been in situations, however, where this requirement couldn t be the primary priority. There are people I have employed, always believing they would help the program, but on occasion it has been to assist a coach who needed a new opportunity. On occasion I have brought vipers into the fold, men who have lacked loyalty and support and who undermined me with staff and players. What is interesting is that in no situation I can recall has the viper gained. He may have damaged me, but he has not gained for himself.

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Don t tolerate the viper. I have and I have paid for it. On one occasion I hired a coach unwanted by most because of age and with a reputation of one who disrupts staffs. He was a long-time acquaintance and I knew his reputation as a malcontent, but I thought he was old enough to have outgrown that phase. I knew football-wise he would contribute to the program and in return I could provide him with a needed feeling of self-worth and continued contribution. I was wrong. . .time hadn t tempered the viper. I learned this lesson too late in my career to recoup. Beware the viper!

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Careful dealing with the fanatic. In armed terrorist activity the carnage among the innocent isn t a cause for remorse, rather it is jubilation for the havoc. However, in less violent environs the same attitude prevails. In that arena it is reputation and livelihoods destroyed maybe by fact or maybe by allegation. (That dirty word again).

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Coaching is a profession where you don t get a return from the direct result of your effort. It goes through kids, who are all different, playing against a team trying to destroy what you have been working to do. Beyond this, you are then affected by the weather, referees and injuries.

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Coaching isn t like selling. That is competition in personality and comparisons. Football is a direct, physical and violent encounter.

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You are in a profession in which being fired is considered normal and acceptable conduct.. When fired you feel betrayed. You feel diminished as a person.. Why? Because you may have done a great job, but one injury to one player can mean defeat and dismissal. You don t deserve to be fired based on competence and effort.

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Firing coaches is a carryover from human sacrifices to pagan gods, not only pagans, but burning the witches. . .in this case the coach is a warlock.

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The latest term in what seems an Orwellian system of management is now referred to as the management of human resources. It seems to be another step in dehumanization. We are reducing the human condition to one of commodity, an inanimate object to be treated as a commodity or resource to be discarded like a desk or chair.

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When minority coaches began to break the barrier and were hired on the staffs of what had been traditionally all white staffs, many of the coaches made the mistake of hiring the minority as an avenue to recruit minority kids or to serve as a role model for minority kids on the team. That was an error. You hired the minority coach for two reasons, at least I did. One, to coach and recruit as any other coach on the staff with a responsibility and a territory. The second reason was less sophisticated; it was to create opportunities for a group of coaches who had been denied for no professional reason.

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(209 pages)