The Value Of Patience

Yesterday, I commented on two “one and done” NFL coaches.  After I posted that rant, I got to thinking about how lots of coaches are less than outstanding in their first year on the job and I wondered how some coaches who turned out to be top-shelf NFL coaches after a while would have fared in today’s environment of “instant success” or “see ya later”.  The results are not pretty:

• Bill Belichick:  First year in Cleveland he was 6-10.  First year in New England he was 5-11.  However, his overall record turned out to be 302-165 with 7 Super Bowl appearances and 5 Super Bowl victories.
• Pete Carroll:  First year in Seattle he was 7-9 which was one game worse than the Seahawks had been the year before.  However, he “hung on” in Seattle for 14 seasons posting a 137-89-1 record there with 2 Super Bowl appearances and 1 Super Bowl victory.
• Tom Landry:  His Cowboys were an expansion team, so his record for the first four years in Dallas was a meager 13-38-3.  He was the head coach for the Cowboys for 29 seasons with an overall record of 250-162-6.  His teams went to the Super Bowl or the NFL Championship Game 7 times and won the Super Bowl twice.
• Chuck Noll:  His Steelers went 1-13 in his first year in Pittsburgh; they posted losing records in Noll’s first three seasons there.  He proceeded to stay with the Steelers for 23 seasons winning 4 Super Bowl Games along the way and posting a career record of 193-148-1.
• Bill Parcels:  The Giants were 3-12-1 in his first year at the helm.  Nevertheless, he had the chance to hang onto the job and lasted 8 years with the Giants and then 11 more seasons with other teams.  His overall record was 172-130-1 and he won 1 Super Bowl Game.
• Andy Reid:  The Eagles were 5-11 in his first year in Philly; that was 1999 and Reid has been coaching in the NFL continuously since then.  His career record is 273-147-1 and his teams have been to the Super Bowl 5 times and won the Super Bowl 3 times.
• Bill Walsh:  His first year with the Niners produced a record of 2-14, but he survived to stay with the team for 10 years earning a career record of 92-59-1.  His teams also won 3 Super Bowl Games along the way.

I think you get the idea here.  Even men who proved to be outstanding head coaches in the NFL stumbled in their first year or so on the job.  In the seven cases listed here, team owners were rewarded for patience in staying with these coaches for more than a single season of disappointment.  Four of the coaches above are in the Hall of Fame now; the other three are still “active” in the coaching profession; Carroll is seeking a new job in this hiring cycle; Belichick is at UNC and Reid is still wearing that humongous red coat on the Chiefs’ sideline this year.  It would not surprise me in the least to see those three “still active” head coaches join the other four in the Hall of Fame one of these days.

Moving on …  I want to say something about football coaches at a lower level of the game here.  A few years ago, Deion Sanders came out of nowhere to take the head coaching job as Jackson St.  He just happened to bring his two sons and Travis Hunter along with him to Jackson St. and they quickly dominated the SWAC.  Sanders moved on to Colorado and has done quite well there to the point that he is now rumored to be a potential NFL head coach sometime soon.

That success seems to have opened a door for other NFL alumni to take jobs at small HBCUs as the head football coach.  Eddie George was the first person to follow the “Deion Sanders Route” to the head coaching ranks when he took over the Tennessee St. program and led the team to the Division 1-AA championship tournament this season.

Now, former NFL WR, DeSean Jackson has been hired to run the football program as Delaware St.  The Hornets are members of the MEAC; it is an HBCU institution.  Football has not been overly successful for Delaware St. over the years, the school’s cumulative record is 370-458-11.  Jackson is not walking into a long tradition of winning football at Delaware St.; the last winning record for a season I can find is back in 2007.  I hope he gets at least a few years to try to turn things around.

Recently, Michael Vick was hired to take over the football program at Norfolk St.  The Spartans also play in the MEAC and Norfolk St. is also an HBCU.  The similarities extend to the fact that Norfolk St. is also not a perennial powerhouse in that league and there is no real “winning tradition” there.

Vick and Jackson were teammates with the Eagles; now they will be rivals trying to put unsuccessful football programs on a positive vector heading.  Vick would seem to have one advantage over Jackson simply based on geography.  Michael Vick is from Newport News, VA which is right next door to Norfolk VA in the Tidewater region of the state.  Vick went to high school there and is well known in local sports circles having gone to Va Tech about 25 years ago.  Jackson, on the other hand, is from Los Angeles and went to school at Long Beach St in California.  In terms of recruiting “locally” it would appear that Vick has an edge – – but they play the games on the field and not on paper.

Finally, with regard to the rewards for patience in new coaching hires, let me close with this from Julius Caesar”

“It is easier to find men who will volunteer to die, than to find those who are willing to endure pain with patience.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………