Diner Morning News: Cowboys and Coordinators

National Football Post

QUOTE: “It is dangerous to be right in matters where established men are wrong.” 

— François-Marie Arouet

It’s less than a week before the opening bell of the NFL season, and there were 13 games played Thursday night, ending the preseason for 26 teams.

As we enter the Labor Day weekend, many of you will take advantage of the last few days of summer, but you’ll want to keep the National Football Post in mind.

Today, cuts will begin and trade talks will heat up around the league. We’ll keep you posted on everything we hear will happen, what we think might happen and what we know will happen. So keep coming back this weekend.

Even Joey “The Tipper” Fortenbaugh will put down his golf clubs and save some money by not having to replenish his Titleist inventory so he can work the phones.

What does Willie Nelson think about the NFL's biggest buzz—the axing of the Chiefs' Chan Gailey and the Buccaneers' Jeff Jagodzinski?

"Mama don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys,
Don't let 'em pick guitars and drive them old trucks,
Make 'em be doctors and lawyers and such."

Willie Nelson wrote that song about cowboys, but you could easily replace the word “cowboys” with “NFL assistant coaches.” What’s happened to the coaching profession when we see two high-priced offensive coordinators fired before the season starts? How can this happen?

It happens because NFL owners are hiring head coaches who are not ready to handle the magnitude of the job. Some may say it’s best to cut their losses early and not be afraid to make changes. But what about the Catholic school motto of “stick-to-it-iveness”? What happened to the leader being able to cultivate, motivate, prepare and demand results?

What has happened in the NFL is that owners have lost the sense of value that comes with experience. We know from reading Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell that no matter how talented an individual is, he still requires 10,000 hours of training/experience to reach the highest level. Therefore, when owners hire young head coaches without that experience, the coaches run the risk of making mistakes, some of which are hard to overcome.

I’m not suggesting that Raheem Morris or Todd Haley should not have replaced their offensive coordinators.

What I am suggesting is that they should not have hired either man in the first place. The interview process should have alerted both coaches of potential problems.

But since both men have never really been in a position to interview coaches, they ran the risk of making mistakes. Had Bill Walsh been in the building in Kansas City, he would have told Haley that when building his staff—particularly on the side of the ball where his expertise resides—he should hire people who will follow his orders, follow his command and follow his philosophy, not someone who will bring in his own ideas and beliefs. You can’t mix systems or ideologies.

Older coaches, such as Gailey in K.C., have their own way of doing things, their own beliefs, and it’s hard for many to change. Those differences should come out in the interview process. The critical aspect to building a staff is to hire coaches who will teach the players exactly what you want, not what they think is best.

Morris, according to sources, was not happy with Jagodzinski’s ability to prepare the team, his overall attention to detail and his willingness to seemingly allow other coaches on the staff do his work as if he were the head coach.

What would worry me most if I were a Bucs fan is that the word going around was that while players and coaches were not happy with Jagodzinski, Morris in fact got along with him—but felt he needed to make the change to make peace with everyone. That doesn’t sound like the work of the leader, but rather the work of a committee.

All these problems should have been handled in the interview process, but, in fairness to Morris, he probably hasn’t interviewed many coaches.

Again, the experience card comes into play. The ability to solve this problem before reaching the firing stage should have occurred, but with very little experience in these situations, the easy route is to just make a change. This ends up costing the owner money he thought he was saving when he hired a young coach.

Owners might want to start evaluating experience, or at least make sure there’s experience in the building, because it’s very important.

Have a great Labor Day. The Sunday Post will be in its usual spot, with a shorter version for the holiday. And keep checking back for updates.

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Follow me on Twitter: michaelombardi.

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