With a plain white polo tucked into his tan khakis, a deeply tanned face rich with wisdom, traces of a unforgettable smile, and black square glasses on his face, he wondered ahead to a group of men wearing the green and yellow of Green Bay. In his hands was a brand new football, straight from the package. He simply moseyed to the the men who watched him intently. The veterans were smiling, they knew what was coming. They had heard this before, many times before. The rookies watched in awe, knowing a historic moment was approaching. He smiled, flashing his unforgettable smile. "Gentlemen," he announced, holding the football up before them, "this is a football."
Vince Lombardi started every training camp he coached with those words. How absurd of him! Telling men who have dedicated their lives to the sport and are now in the NFL- the National Football League- where only the best players play, and he's showing them a football.
No, think about that statement for a moment. Do you happen to know off the top of your head what the average sized playbook for any offense was in 1965? 150 pages. All of it typewritten, with diagrams hand-traced into the paper. Yeah, imagine being the one who typed that 50 times. Do you know how big Lombardi's playbook was in 1965? It was actually 81 pages.
Sonny Jergueson, the legendary Redskin quarterback who got the opportunity to play for the legendary coach for a year in Washington, said it well. "Vince knew how to make the game simple." Vince wasn't being a smart mouth, just being annoying and showing him how he was going to hound his players tails for the next 6 months of their lives. He was starting at the very basics, and he intended to lead them through the playbook and the offense from the very start, the very basics, and then just add to that a little bit at a time. What a genius.
Back then, Green Bay was the team to beat. Now, the Seattle Seahawks are the team to beat in the NFL. Imagine, just 5 years ago, anyone who would have suggested something so stupid, so randomly predicted it, would have been slapped in the face- in or outside of a bar.
Last year, before the season started, ESPN ran an article on the coaching methods of Pete Carroll. Pete was a successful coach in USC after an failed attempt at trying to run the New England Patriots. No loosing seasons, but New England let him go after his 3 years, simply due to the loss of a game in the win column each year, and lack of support from his players.
At USC, he bred 3 Heisman winners, and led the team to a couple championships, one of the biggest and most productive dynasties USC has ever run, one of his later projects being AB Matt Leinart, a 2006 first round draft pick to the Arizona Cardinals. When Leinart came back to USC, after his first season, he and Pete had a discussion. Leinart said he felt out of place, and that he had nobody to go to. Nobody to help him with what he felt he needed. That's what made him feel so out of place in the NFL. After a decent and promising rookie season, Leinart lost his starting job to Kurt Warner, and pent the rest of his career bench warming. That's what happens to a lot of high profile rookies coming out of college, and that's why coaches get fired. Players aren't comfortable, and it effects their performance. Coaches get the blame.
Pete hadn't realized that until he talked with Matt, and others like the 1st round QB. Maybe coaches _were_ the people to blame. That started Pete's search for a new revolutionary method of coaching.
Pete's concern first was run something so simple, it's complicated to defend. He worked on building a defense. An offense that can work with a defense. He built the Legion of Boom, and the vamped offence ran by Russell Wilson. But how did he make such an elite group?
First- Dietary concerns. Pete understands that the body needs the proper foods to perform at it's elite level. Dietary balance can make the average player move up in good. So Carroll made it simple. His team chiefs make foods, and players simply eat buffet style. They need to pick things like, so many items with some green vegetable in it a day, so many bread items a day, so many meat items a day, etc.
Second- Personality concerns. Matt Leinart came back really upset. Pete hires coaches for more then just their superior football knowledge. He doesn't want his coaches to be ass-hounders. He wants his coaches to be mentors to the players- on and off the field. Pete understands that to build a team, they need to be a family. And to be a family, they share their personal lives, and offer each other support. He gives players the opportunity to do so with coaches and anyone else they choose.
Third- Balance. Pete requires that his players take yoga at least 15 minutes a day. Yoga not for the spiritual mentality, but for the relaxing and soothing sensations and attitude it brings. Have you noticed how Seattle plays with a calm nature, even when they're running a 2 minute drill? There you have it, that's why.
Four- Simplify. Only true geniuses can simplify things to where other people understand it, and make it come across as simple. Pete is one of those, very much like Lombardi. The playbook is simple, the plays are simple, yet they're so hard to stop. Pete doesn't even need talent all over the board, he simply makes it easy to understand so that his players understand it.
Five- Fun. Football is a sport, for people to enjoy it, it needs to be fun.
Pete is the next Lombardi. All he needs now is a decade of destiny, and everyone else in the world will agree with me. But only people who simplify the sport can be compared to Lombardi. Winning meant everything to Lombardi, but he understood that it takes more then just the determination to win. It requires an understanding of what you're doing. And Pete is like that. Pete knows that it's easy to make things more complicated, just like Lombardi. And Pete knows how to make it easy, just like Lombardi. Only a true genius can do that.
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