Is Being An NFL Coach What It Used to Be?

All my life growing up, I wanted to be an NFL coach. My best friend and I spent countless hours playing Madden in what can only be considered an unhealthy fashion. From playing complete dynasties, limiting ourselves to only fair trades and spending entire Summer mornings, afternoons and evenings lodged between the couch and Playstation, we took the playing of Madden to a level beyond that of kids just out to have fun. We wanted to learn the game of football in a way that would make us bona fide candidates for NFL coaching positions some where down the line.

In my friend’s defense, he is out coaching football right now. He’s a wide receiver coach down in Texas, where football means more to people than energy and oil. He’s got dreams of moving up the ranks, coaching in college then in the pros, and I am as sure as day that he will one day achieve his—our—dreams.

But here I am, writing about football instead of coaching it. While I love the aspect of coaching, leading and being around the game of football all day and everyday, writing, content and business were things I loved to do well before I ever picked up that first game of Madden or strapped on my first set of shoulder pads. So even though coaching has long been one of my dreams, I do not regret where it is that I sit today.

And I’ve been offered the chance to coach, but over the years of playing college football and being behind the scenes of the NFL at CBS Sports, my adulation of the coaching profession isn’t what it once was. Again, I assure, I love it, and there aren’t many things I would put before a career as an NFL head coach, but it doesn’t stand where it used to for me. The profession just doesn’t seem to be what it once was.

I take it that Jon Gruden feels the same way. He took yet another extension from ESPN, one that is said to keep him alongside “everybody’s favorite” Mike Tirico and the rest of the Monday Night Football crew for the next five years. Now, Gruden’s decision to take the money is not all that surprising given his track record. But if freaking Gruden is willing to stay out of the game for five years, or at least verbally agree to do so, what does that say about the luster of the head coaching career in the NFL?

Perhaps it’s the roster of coaches that has taken away from what it means to be a head coach in the league. Several teams have gone the route of hiring lesser-known, lesser-accomplished head coaches to head their football squads as a way to save money. Now, I’m the last guy to say that paying the high-profile, big-name head coach is the way to go, but I’m certainly not advocating not hiring the high-profile guy for the sole purpose of saving money.

But that’s what’s happening in today’s league. Teams do not want to relinquish the money and/or power it takes to get a proven head coach. That probably has a lot do with why guys like Jon Gruden, Bill Billick, Bill Cowher and Marty Schottenheimer are sitting on the sideline. Instead, those big names have been replaced by guys we have never heard of, such as Jim Schwartz, Raheem Morris and Tony Sparano. Those guys have had and are having varying degrees of success that in no way can be correlated with their level of “prestige,” but one still has to wonder that if a preponderance of no-names are getting jobs, will the profession hold its current level of stature? Or is it too late?

Who are the biggest names in coaching right now?

You have the Super Bowl winners in Bill Belichick, Mike Shanahan, Mike Tomlin, Tom Coughlin and Sean Payton. You have the long-tenured guys like Andy Reid and Lovie Smith. Then after that, you have a bunch of guys out of left field, which for all intents and purposes, are as good as the aforementioned names, but their lack of proven success certainly does take away from the cache of the profession.

Fans don’t respect a guy who has never won before. Fans don’t buy tickets and watch games for a coach they have never heard of. It’s a fact, and its why some big name franchises are always willing to pay for the big name. Take the San Francisco 49ers. They could have easily saved money by going with a young, unproven head coach, but instead, they made Jim Harbaugh, successful in college but not in the NFL, one of the highest paid coaches in football. Proven? No. Big name? Yes. And it’s those kinds of signings that, if not productive, at least keep the NFL head coaching phenomenon interesting.

Cache aside, who needs the trouble? Part of reasoning behind not moving towards the head coaching profession at this time in my life is that it requires taking on a lot of unneeded stress. Call me crazy, but there’s no reason that anyone should have to lock themselves up in a film room for 6 nights of the week. That to me is going way past the tipping point, where one will only see diminishing results. I’m sure Gruden would agree that the stress and work load was way too high for a profession that really doesn’t have as much control over the outcome as one would come to think.

And that brings me to my last point, how much control does a head coach really have over a game? Don’t get me wrong, I still respect the coaching profession enough to say that coaching has a say in who wins and loses an NFL football game, but it is not as big of a “say” as it once seemed to be.

In the late 90’s and early part of this century, it would seem that a coach who put in place a sound defense and a an offense that took care of the ball could bludgeon his way to a 10 to 14-win season and compete for a Super Bowl. But that’s not the case in today’s NFL. If you don’t have Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers or one of the Mannings at quarterback, good night and good luck. Yeah, you could get away with a young Ben Roethlisberger in 2006, but just 5 years later, even Big Ben was tossing the ball all over the field to get his team to the Super Bowl—and naturally, he lost to the more talented quarterback with a lesser team.

My point is that talent prevails in this league. As much as I still want to believe the old say, “He’ll take his and beat yours, and take yours and beat his,” I don’t know how true that is. Even Bill Belichick hasn’t won a damn playoff game five seasons, and he is supposed to be the best head coach out there. What does that say about the overall effect of the position?

Do I, and millions of others, still dream of the day when they can be a head coach in the NFL? Sure. But is it as enticing as it once was. I don’t think so. We’re losing talented individuals like Gruden and Cowher to television, and I don’t see how one can say the profession is at its highest levels when that is the case. Just imagine, if we’re losing enthusiasts like Gruden, imagine all of the smart minds out there with options that are choosing different routes.

While a loss in coaching capital isn’t exactly like having a shortage of public school teachers, the NFL could suffer is all we have left is the cookie-cutter guys that are afraid to challenge the norms, be different and pioneer new ways of coaching in the same manner that the greats did before them.

So be weary. With a new agreement with ESPN, today we lost Gruden. Maybe tomorrow we lose Cowher and Schottenheimer forever. Then in the days, weeks, months and years that follow, perhaps we lose the next Belichick, Madden, or Jimmy Johnson. Then where will be. Sure, the nature of the NFL is such that much like there will some day be another Peyton Manning or Tom Brady; there will also be another Jimmy Johnson or Belichick. But how many of those and how often they come by is important, and if the decisions of Gruden, Cowher and Johnson say anything about the state of NFL coaching, perhaps our talent pools has shrunk beyond belief.

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