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A Winning Combination:
A Vision with a Strong
Game Plan

“Capital isn’t scarce; vision is.”

—SAM WALTON

“Setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with that plan.”

—TOM LANDRY

 

 

Corporate legends abound about CEOs who have a vision assuring future market dominance. I recall that one such mogul, founder of a retail apparel chain, experienced his vision on a mountaintop in Colorado. Another visionary, the wealthy owner of automobile dealerships, was sailing alone at sea amidst a ferocious storm that nearly capsized his boat, when his revelation came. While visions of this nature enhance corporate folklore, I suspect they are dramatically exaggerated. I believe it more likely that a vision begins with a vague idea that slowly evolves over time, repeatedly changing form before fully crystallizing.

When Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart, opened a small Ben Franklin store in Newport, Arkansas, shortly after World War II, his aim was merely to outsell his across-the-street competition. His goal was to be the town’s number one five-and-ten-cent store. When he lost his lease in 1950, he moved to Bentonville where he opened Walton’s Five and Dime. Walton had no plans of grandeur—the thought of becoming the world’s largest retailer had not entered his mind. Walton just wanted the best five-and-dime store in Bentonville. After he opened other small stores, he gradually upgraded his vision to operating the biggest chain store in Arkansas. When one success followed another, Walton refined and elevated his purpose. Sam Walton didn’t start out wanting to be the world’s largest retailer, nor was it his ambition to be the world’s largest company. Yet, at the end of 2003, that’s exactly what Wal-Mart had become.

I have read the biographies of many Fortune 500 CEOs, and I don’t recall a single one who started out with a lofty vision of someday being the top honcho. People who have low entry jobs are more focused on their current position, and only after doing well do they set their sights on advancement. They repeat this process as they advance up the corporate ladder. Having a grand vision of the future is a good thing, but it’s more realistic to establish a series of smaller goals, and as you achieve one, set your sights higher on yet another. Remember too, you can alter your vision as you go along.

So, rarely does one start out with a well-defined, giant-sized vision. More often, an individual begins with an attainable vision followed by a series of still more attainable visions, and continually raises the bar with each achievement along the way. In the beginning stages, their visions are nothing more than abstract thinking. However, with a game plan, men and women implement such visions into something quite concrete. Think about it. Doesn’t every success start in one’s mind? More than 10 million copies have been sold since Napoleon Hill wrote Think and Grow Rich in 1937. In his classic book, Hill stated, “What the mind can conceive, man can achieve.” He espoused that every achievement begins with an idea.

For example, when our forefathers founded our nation in 1776, they didn’t have a vision of America in the 21st century. How could they? They did, however, have a conceptual vision about the freedom that future generations would enjoy. Likewise, when the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company was founded in 1911, a firm that later changed its name to IBM, founder Thomas Watson Sr. could not have possibly envisioned that his business would evolve into today’s multibillion-dollar international computer company.

Certainly having a vision provides direction. The vision by itself, however, must be followed up with a game plan. And it is the game plan that provides a road map for how to move forward to one’s destination. Bear in mind that there is an important difference between a vision and a game plan. Your game plan pertains to the specifics of how to achieve your vision. Hence it is about implementation.

 

 

 

IN MY CASE, THERE WAS no dream in the middle of the night. No light bulb suddenly came on revealing how I could someday be a sports agent for NFL coaches. In fact, nothing in my life remotely suggested this was my calling. I played varsity football for two years at Santa Clara University, making football my number one priority. Then something happened to me in my sophomore year that replaced my thoughts of football. I took a history course taught by Professor George Giacomini, a brilliant educator who made me want to be a historian. That’s right, he made me. He was so excited about history that I figured, “If anyone can be so enthusiastic, so committed, and so passionate about something, I’ve got to know more about it.”

I majored in United States history, and for the next 25 years, I taught history to several thousand high school and junior college students. If I have impacted a single student the way Professor Giacomini influenced my life, I will consider myself to have had a successful teaching career.

 

 

 

I WILL SPARE YOU THE blow-by-blow details of my first years out of college. Let’s fast-forward to my life as a married man with children when I was teaching high school at Santa Teresa High School, a public high school in San Jose, California. At this point, I was also chairman of the history department. Those were very good years for me. I taught history, which I loved, and to supplement my income I also coached football—my second passion. I loved my work. There was only one hitch. With a growing family, we had to budget our money and watch every penny. To make ends meet, I opted to receive my teaching salary over a 10-month period, and I taught history courses at junior college and high school during the summer months to supplement my income. But in 1978, the State of California elected to reduce taxes for homeowners and, as a result, massive budget cuts were made with police and fire departments, libraries, and schools coming out on the short end. While I didn’t lose my full-time teaching job, my summer teaching jobs were eliminated. For a while, I sold real estate, and one year as a part-time agent, my sales commissions were $30,000, nearly equal the $35,000 I was paid for teaching and coaching.

In the mid-1970s, Santa Teresa High School and Oak Grove High School became sister schools, sharing the same building with double sessions. As a consequence, Rich Campbell, a gifted athlete at Oak Grove, became the quarterback at Santa Teresa, where I taught and coached. A football standout, in his senior year he was one of the most sought after high school quarterbacks in the country. As his mentor, I helped him choose the University of California. Rich went on to be an All-American, and in his senior year, he asked me to be his agent. He signed with the Green Bay Packers as the sixth pick in the first round—the first quarterback to be drafted in 1981. He received a contract worth $1.25 million with a half-million-dollar signing bonus. Back then, my commission on this single transaction exceeded my annual teacher’s salary. To my knowledge, no other high school teacher has ever represented anyone who was a first-round NFL draft choice.

While at Santa Clara University, I majored in American history with an emphasis diplomatic history. This education prepared me to understand negotiation, mediation, and arbitration, an ideal background for dealing with sports teams. Plus, all of my life I had played football, coached football, and counseled athletes. My experience as a real estate agent and insurance broker provided a good foundation for contractual work I do today.

Having an athlete like Rich Campbell fall into my lap was truly a blessing. Hundreds of sports agents never in their entire career represent an athlete of this caliber. A lot of people credited it to dumb luck, saying it couldn’t happen again in a hundred years. But it did—two years later in 1983. Dave Stieb, who was a punter at Oak Grove, was also a star baseball player. I coached his older brother Steve at Oak Grove High School. Dave also asked me to be his agent. Dave pitched for the Toronto Blue Jays for 15 years and was a seven-time All-Star—a record for a major-league starting pitcher. During the 1980s, several other athletes approached me to be their agent. I also represented Mervyn Fernandez, a San Jose State football standout named player of the year in the Canadian League. In 1986, I met Al Davis for the first time when Fernandez jumped leagues and received a signing bonus to don an Oakland Raiders uniform. That same year, I represented Nick Vanos, a seven-foot, two-inch center for nearby Santa Clara University. Nick was drafted by the Phoenix Suns but would tragically die in a plane crash.

Later in the ’80s, when I was working with a law firm that reviewed contracts for my sports agency work, one of the paralegals approached me.

“Would you be interested in representing my nephew, Don Beebe, from Chadron State?” she asked. “He’s a wide receiver from the small school in Nebraska. There’s a problem though. I think he may be too small for the NFL. He’s only 5’ 11” and weighs 175. But he’s a real speedster.”

“How fast is he?” I asked.

“He runs the 40 in 4.2.”

“I’d like to meet him, but are you sure it wasn’t 5.2 seconds?”

I knew his size hurt his chances of getting into the NFL, but I had to be in Chicago anyway, and Don agreed to meet me there with his wife, Diana.

“You’re really that fast?” I asked him.

“Do you want me to prove it to you?”

“I believe you, but yes, I’d like some confirmation.”

He entered, unattached, the Kansas Relays, and sure enough, he ran in near world-record time. The Buffalo Bills drafted him in the third round, and he enjoyed a 10-year career in the NFL. Beebe is one of only three players to have played in six Super Bowls.

I also represented Robin White, who won the U.S. Open doubles for women in 1988. So there I was, a history teacher moonlighting as a sports agent to make extra money. And there I was, representing world class athletes: a first-round quarterback draft choice in the NFL, an All-Star baseball pitcher, an MVP of the Canadian Football League, a starting center in the NBA, and a doubles champion in the U.S. Open. It was incredible—if you read it in a novel, it wouldn’t seem believable.

 

 

 

THE NEXT STEP IN MY budding sports agenting career occurred, however, when I met another high school teacher who also taught history and coached football. I previously knew Mike Holmgren only by reputation. Three years my junior, he was a star quarterback at Lincoln High School in San Francisco, the “Prep Player of the Year” in 1965. A 3,592-yard passer in his senior year, he was one of the most highly recruited football players in the country. Holmgren received a full ride at the University of Southern California.

With O. J. Simpson in the backfield, the Trojans were a running team; as a result the six-foot-five Holmgren spent most of his college days warming the bench while Coach John McKay used quicker, smaller quarterbacks. He was also cursed with a dislocated thumb, sprained ankle, and a shoulder injury during his senior year. Even so, in 1970, he was an eighth-round draft choice of the then St. Louis Cardinals. His pro career as a player was short-lived, lasting only one year. He then returned to his alma mater, Lincoln High School, to teach history and coach football. In 1975, he took a teaching and coaching job at Oak Grove High School. I was teaching at Santa Teresa High School, and at the time, we were on double session with Oak Grove because my school’s building was under construction. The two schools shared the same facilities; from 7:00 A.M. to noon, our football team practiced while Oak Grove students attended classes. Then we reversed it—our students attended classes from 1:00 to 5:00 P.M. and their team practiced. During this period, Mike Holmgren and I became good friends.

In 1980, five years after his arrival at Oak Grove, he said to me over lunch, “I’ve been offered a job as the offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach at San Francisco State. Everyone I’ve talked to so far tells me I’d be out of my mind to take it. Still I wanted your opinion, Bob. Should I take it?”

At the time, Mike and Kathy had twin daughters and she was pregnant with a third child. Taking the new job would mean taking a hefty cut in pay.

“Mike, football is your passion,” I said. “Take a leave, and if it’s not for you, then you can get your job back.”

“Everyone else tells me not to do it. You’re the only one who thinks differently. They tell me to stick with my present high school job.”

“You’re a brilliant coach, Mike,” I assured him. “The best I’ve ever seen. Take the opportunity and run with it. If you pass it up, you may regret it the rest of your life.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” he replied. “I needed that.”

“While we’re at it, Mike, I’d like your opinion on something,” I said. “I’ve been thinking about becoming a sports agent. The Campbell family talked to me about representing their son. What do you think?”

“Go for it,” he answered. “You’re a natural. You have their trust, and in my opinion that’s everything.”

Holmgren took the job, and one year later moved on to coach quarterbacks at Brigham Young University. During his four-year stint at BYU, he worked under the great head coach Lavell Edwards. He also worked with Cougars quarterback Steve Young, the future All-Pro who played with the San Francisco ’49ers. In 1984, Brigham Young had a 13-0 record and was the top-ranked college football team in the country.

In 1986, Holmgren signed on with the ’49ers as quarterbacks coach, where he worked with Joe Montana, one of the all-time best NFL passers. He also had the good fortune to work under legendary head coach Bill Walsh, the man credited with being the innovator of the West Coast offense, a strategy that calls for a strong passing game, with many quick, short passes geared to result in long runs by receivers. In 1989, Holmgren was named the team’s offensive coordinator. That same year, Holmgren’s unit led the NFL in total offense. He was a hot property and other teams pursued him with head coach offers. Up until this point, I had been advising him strictly as a friend because in those days few head coaches—much less, assistant coaches—were represented by an agent.

At this point in his career, he asked me to be his agent and I agreed. I got him a richer contract with the ’49ers as an offensive coordinator than many NFL head coaches received. I realized it was a good time to represent NFL coaches, because players’ salaries had begun to escalate and coaches’ salaries were lagging behind. They would, I figured, have to balance out eventually because, as I recognized, head coaches were undervalued. As a consequence, I decided to specialize in representing coaches rather than players.

During Holmgren’s tenure with the team, the ’49ers posted a 71-23-1 record, and were in postseason games for five consecutive years. San Francisco beat Cincinnati in Super Bowl XXIII and the following year beat Denver in Super Bowl XXIV.

As the ’49ers’ offensive coordinator, Holmgren earned such a sterling reputation that he was better known than most NFL head coaches. It was just a matter of time before he would be tapped for a head coach position. Predictably, in 1992, he left San Francisco to coach the Green Bay Packers. He did it without ever having been a head coach at the high school or college level.

It wasn’t long after the new year 1992 had began when Mike Holmgren stood in the lobby of the Packers’ reception area waiting to be interviewed for his first job as a head coach. A large mural, a collage of the all-time great Packers players and coaches, instantly caught his attention. His eyes focused on the team’s celebrated head coach, Vince Lombardi. In the nine years that Lombardi had been in Green Bay, starting in 1959, the team amassed a phenomenal 98-30-4 record, including an unprecedented winning streak of nine playoff games. Under Lombardi, the team had won five world championship titles (1961, ’62, ’65, ’66, and ’67). No wonder the Super Bowl winner is the recipient of the Vince Lombardi Trophy, the highest honor in professional football. A quarter of a century had passed at the time of Holmgren’s arrival in Green Bay, and no Packers coach had come close to filling Lombardi’s shoes. The great coach died in 1970 at age 57; over the years, Lombardi has been lionized. Millions of football aficionados hail him as the game’s greatest head coach ever.

“Standing there, I thought about some of the coaches that followed Lombardi,” Holmgren recalls, “Dan Devine, Bart Starr, and Forrest Gregg. None had a career coaching record that exceeded .500. Lombardi’s was an amazing .758. Starr and Gregg had played under Lombardi, and had been close to him. It was natural they’d try to emulate him, but he set an almost impossible standard. So when I came for my interview, I thought to myself that I was not a part of the old Green Bay Packers. In fact, I had never met Coach Lombardi.

“Even as a high school coach,” Holmgren continues, “I always believed that it was more important to be who you are than to try to be someone else. This way, you’re not going to con anybody. You are who you are, and if that works, fine, and if it doesn’t, that’s fine too. The important thing is to be true to yourself. This was my thinking going into the interview. While the standard was set, and the Packers’ tradition was in place, I made a conscious decision that I couldn’t be anyone else. And certainly not Coach Lombardi. Those coaches that followed him were fine men, but I think they tried to do it like Coach Lombardi did it. There’s only one Coach Lombardi. In his era, there was a group of players that played for him, and it was a special thing that worked. But to try to do it exactly the same way, I believed, couldn’t work.”

The 1992 football season coincided with the beginning of my 25th year as a high school teacher. Brian, the youngest of our brood, was also entering his senior year. With the last of our children out of the house, my wife Lynn and I decided the timing was right for me to retire from the field of education and become a full-time sports agent. Lynn, a stay-at-home mom, had worked the past ten years helping me build my agency. With the children out of the house, she would be able to devote more time to our company. I felt I had enough experience as a sports agent that it was now time to leave teaching altogether. Considering what I had achieved as a part-time agent, I could envision a successful full-time career. Why not? I’d have an extra 40 hours a week to put into it. Giving it my undivided attention, I was confident, I would succeed.

Holmgren coached the Packers from 1992 to 1998, having a 75-37 (.670) regular season record, a 9-5 postseason mark, and two Super Bowl appearances, including a 35-21 victory over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXI. His streak of winning at least one postseason game for five consecutive years (1993–97) tied him with John Madden (1973–77) for an NFL record. When Holmgren’s Packers won the Super Bowl at the end of the 1996 season, they were the NFL’s leader in scoring with a team record of 456 points, as well as the League’s leader in defensive scoring, a feat that had not been accomplished since 1972. The city of Green Bay was so delighted, a street was named after him—Holmgren Way. The immortal Vince Lombardi is the only other Green Bay coach to have such an honor. Appropriately, the two streets intersect.

In 1999, the Seattle Seahawks, owned by Paul Allen, America’s third wealthiest individual, made an offer to Holmgren that he couldn’t refuse. We negotiated a contract specifying that Holmgren would hold the position of executive vice president of football operations/general manager and Head Coach. It was an eight-year deal, the richest coach’s contract in the history of football. So there we were, 20 years later, two good buddies and former high school teachers—Mike Holmgren had become one of the most respected head coaches in the NFL, and I, the owner of a thriving sports agency.

 

 

 

“UPON ARRIVING IN SEATTLE, I talked to the entire organization,” Mike Holmgren says. “Everybody. The players, the coaches, the front office people. I had a vision of where I wanted the team to be in the future, and it was important that I share my vision with them. With an eight-year contract, I had some time to build, which is somewhat of a luxury for an NFL head coach. With a short-term contract, you’re under the gun to get immediate results. You’ve got to produce quickly in order to keep your job, and that forces you to make short-term decisions that can come back to haunt you in the long run.

“I talked about how we were going to build our team, and what we could anticipate that would happen along the way. I explained how we were going to get through the tough times that lie ahead. ‘If we stay the course,’ I said, ‘this should eventually work.’ I had a vision of what I hoped we would be in the future, and it was important to have everyone believing we were going to do it.”

With his success at Green Bay, Holmgren had established a reputation as one of the most knowledgeable head coaches in football. This gave him a lot of creditability when he became head coach at Seattle in 1999. When Holmgren talked, people listened—and most important, they believed.

“ ‘We’re going to turn this team around like we did at Green Bay,’ ” Holmgren explained to his new team. “To do that, I made clear how much I needed them. ‘We must depend on everyone in this room to make a contribution to our ultimate success,’ I said. ‘Our vision is to win the Super Bowl, and with everyone doing his best, we will do it. At Green Bay, it wasn’t about me. It wasn’t about Brett Favre. It was about everybody. We will deal with some tough things together. And we are going to share in the wonderful win at the end together. Every one of you must be a part of the team. We can only succeed by doing it together.’ ”

In his first season, the Seahawks finished the regular season with a 9-7 record, the team’s best since 1990. The season also marked the Seahawks’ first playoff game since 1988. It meant Holmgren coached games in seven consecutive postseasons, putting him behind only Tom Landry (nine years and eight years) and Chuck Noll (eight years). In 2000, his second season at Seattle, Holmgren endured his first losing season as a head coach, posting a 6-10 record. He chalked it up to a year of molding a young team that had an NFL record-high 17 rookie or first-year players. In 2003, Holmgren led the Seahawks to a 9-7 season; however, the team lost to Green Bay 33-27 in an overtime playoff game. Sometimes it is necessary to take a step backward in order to go forward to realize your vision. The Seahawks are now strong contenders for a Super Bowl title.

 

 

 

LIKE HOLMGREN, MIKE SHERMAN, WHO took over as head coach at Green Bay in 2000, had never been a head coach. He had spent two years with the Packers in ’97 and ’98 as the tight ends and assistant offensive line coach before heading west to Seattle with Holmgren. In Seattle, Sherman was an offensive coordinator and tight ends coach. In 2000, he returned to Green Bay as the team’s new head coach and led the Packers to a 9-7 record. One year later, his title was changed to executive vice president/general manager/head coach. In 2001 and 2002, he had back-to-back 12-4 records during the regular seasons. Although he worked under Holmgren for three years, Sherman’s philosophy about having a vision differed from that of his mentor.

“The ultimate prize in the National Football League is the Vince Lombardi Trophy given to the team that wins the Super Bowl,” Sherman states. “Its namesake is a product of the Green Bay Packers, or the Packers are a product of him—whatever way you want to look at it. The local citizenry call Green Bay, ‘Title Town.’ This tells you how important football is to the community. The people who work in this organization—a coach, player, trainer, administrator, or maintenance person—understand what this means. Around here, it’s not winning games that you’re measured by—you’re measured by winning championships. There is a very high expectation level. When you come into our facility, you can feel the high level of achievement that drives us. I think people will jump to the level that you make them jump to. In Green Bay, we jump very high.

“So it doesn’t require any effort on my part to get anyone to buy into a vision of winning the Super Bowl,” Sherman continues, “because in Green Bay, it’s a built-in vision. We’re expected to win. More importantly, it is imperative that I get everyone to buy into my concept of success and the principles that apply to success. I want to share the actual process of what it takes to win on a daily basis. It takes discipline, day in and day out, and that discipline has to last. At summer camp, we’re doing things organizationally the way I want, but 16 games into the season, things can get a little sloppy, that is, if you don’t demand the same thing every day from your people and yourself. This is what I mean by ‘a concept of success,’ which to me is a process. So you might say I’m more into sharing a process versus sharing a vision. And the process we share is reiterated. You cannot repeat that process to the people involved too many times. It needs to become a part of them.

“I think it’s difficult for the players to think very far down the road,” Sherman adds. “I want them to think in the present. One practice at a time. One play at a time. One game at a time. Don’t concern yourself with what happened before or what you think will happen next. Stay in the present and deal with that because that is all that matters. At the risk of using a worn cliché, I believe you have to take it one step at a time. These step-by-step processes are the concepts I talk about to my people that I believe apply to winning.”

 

 

 

WHEN ANDY REID BECAME HEAD coach with the Philadelphia Eagles in 1999, he inherited a team with a 3-13 record, the worst in the NFL that season. “The team was as low as you can get,” he says. “The only team that picked higher than us in the draft was the Cleveland Browns and they were an expansion team.

“I had a vision of what I thought this team could be,” Reid says, “and I made it crystal-clear to everyone in this organization what it was. I let them know I believed we could win football games, in spite of the previous year’s poor showing. I emphasized that we had fine athletes, and with some changes that I planned to make, we could win football games. I think that’s important because it provided direction. People like direction. I’m not just talking about the guy in the NFL, this is true from the guy in business to the guy who’s unemployed. When people have an opportunity to see that direction and work through it, I think they’re likely to succeed. Around here, everyone knows how I plan to do the things that must be done to succeed. I’ve brought them in to share my vision during the beginning stages, and they’ve taken ownership in it. It became their vision too.”

Philadelphia’s Brad Childress, offensive coordinator, says, “From the very beginning when Andy came here for a job interview, he sold his vision to Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie. Andy took a thick binder to that first meeting. The binder contained hundreds, maybe even thousands, of notes he’d written down and accumulated ever since he started his coaching career. The notes he wrote weren’t about the X’s and O’s. They covered everything from listening to suggestions by players and coaches, travel tips for team trips, marketing ideas, and so on. You name it, and Andy had it filed in his binder. At the interview, Andy laid out a plan about what he would do to make the vision he had for the team become a reality. Lurie was so impressed, he still talks about it.

“It’s nice to have a vision,” Childress adds, “and I agree on the value in sharing it with your people. But Andy took it to the next level because he had the plan to make his vision happen. If you have only a vision but no plan, you’ll have a lot of people thinking that it’s just a sales job. They’ll say, ‘Of course, I’d like that, but how are you going to do that?’

“When Andy first got here, he assembled a coaching staff—a group of individuals who believed in his vision. Then he recruited the kind of players he believed could fulfill his mission,” Childress continues. “Sure, he wanted players with great athleticism, but he mainly sought out character guys. This is a tough business. He wanted the kind of guys that he knew would buy into his vision, and in the hard times, they would do it his way. He didn’t want to be seduced by somebody’s sheer athleticism who had bad character. That individual wouldn’t fit in. He wanted good people, guys who are outstanding citizens—guys who are going to follow the way we do business.”

 

 

 

AS THE SON OF A Notre Dame assistant coach, Jon Gruden says, “I grew up knowing exactly what I wanted to do. The thrill of victory, the agony of defeat were a big part of my upbringing. When I was in high school, I realized how big, how fast, how strong you had to be to play at a school like Notre Dame. Being there at the front end of the stick, I knew I would never be good enough to play for a living, but I loved football and I wanted to be a coach. My dad was my role model, and I started to apply myself in every way I could to learn from the best possible people. Early on, I never envisioned myself as a head coach. My vision was to someday be a quarterback coach. To make my vision happen, I knew I’d have to be around the smartest and the best guys. I was blessed to work under great coaches like Mike Holmgren, Walt Harris, and Johnny Majors. I learned everything I could from them. I knew that if I worked hard, I would someday get the opportunity to interview for a bigger job. Well, some opportunities eventually came my way, and I was always trying my best to take advantage of them.”

Upon his arrival in Tampa, Gruden didn’t talk a lot about his vision of the Buccaneers of the future. This surprised many people in the organization because it was widely believed that the one reason Gruden was brought to Tampa Bay was to win the Super Bowl. That was his assignment. Take the team to the next level. But instead of embellishing on the vision of team owners—Malcom Glazer and his three sons, Bryan, Joel, and Edward—Gruden accentuated the basics, repeatedly stating, “We win as a team. We are in this together.” He was incessantly challenging every player, every coach, every person in the entire Tampa Bay organization, to “be the best you can be.”

It’s interesting that Gruden didn’t share a vision about winning the Lombardi Trophy. Instead he presented a vision of how an organization would be built in which everyone performed at his or her highest level in a coordinated effort. He stressed that the synergy of everyone pulling together in the same direction would get maximum results. Gruden didn’t have to talk about a championship season for the Buccaneers. That would be the end result of peak performances by every individual.

It was only after the team won Super Bowl XXXVII in 2003 that Gruden started talking about a grand vision of the future. This is when he started talking about making Tampa Bay a global franchise. After winning the Lombardi Trophy, Gruden has since preached to the team, “We want to become global. We want this flag, this little logo right here to be recognized by everyone, everywhere.” He points to the team flag on his cap. “I want everyone in the world to know what it is. You won’t even have to write ‘Tampa Bay Buccaneers.’ The instant they see this logo, they’ll know what is. That’s the vision I see for all of us. They’ll instantly think about excellence. That’s what the Buccaneers’ logo stands for. The very best.”

When Gruden gets going in front of his team, they share his enthusiasm, and they share his vision. They are fired up when he tells them, “We are going to take it all the way. We are going to win the world championship and we’re not going to look back. We are going to blaze a new trail. We are going to keep blazing. We are going to keep getting better. Guys, let me tell you something . . . it’s going to get scary.”

 

 

 

“COACHING FOOTBALL IS A COMPETITIVE profession,” John Fox explains, “so I think most of us strive to be at the top. However, I think it’s dangerous to have your sights set on a head coach’s job before you’re ready for it. I never had a vision of someday being a head coach when I first started out. I was content taking it one step at a time and enjoying what I was doing at the time. Besides, what I enjoyed the most about coaching were things that head coaches did only on a limited basis.

“Meanwhile, I was blessed to be around some great coaches such as Al Davis and Chuck Noll. At San Diego State, I played under Ernie Zampese who is considered an offense guru today, but back then he was a defense guru. As a graduate assistant at San Diego, I learned a lot from him. It’s interesting because Zampese never wanted to be a head coach. Later in 1989, when I interviewed for my first NFL job as a secondary coach position with the Steelers, head coach Chuck Noll asked me what my coaching goals were. I answered, ‘Number one, I want to be in the National Football League, and second, I have a vision to someday be a coordinator.’

“ ‘What about an NFL head coach?’ Noll asked.

“ ‘No, I’d like to be a coordinator.’ I answered, remembering how content Zampese was, who could have had a head coach job had he desired one.

“Then, after banging around as a defensive backfield coach, and spending seven years as a defensive coordinator, I was seeing a lot of my friends becoming head coaches. So being a head coach became a challenge to me. I looked back to all the successes and failures of individuals that I grew up with, and suddenly I had a desire to be an NFL head coach. Interestingly, I had never been a head coach, not even in high school.”

Fox’s coaching career started in 1978 as a graduate assistant at San Diego State, where he had played as an Aztec defensive back. He spent the next 24 years working his way up the ranks, making stops at such remote places as Boise, Idaho; Ames, Iowa; and Lawrence, Kansas, before getting an assignment with the Pittsburgh Steelers as a secondary coach in 1989. There were four more career moves before he was named defensive coordinator for the New York Giants in 1997.

With a first-things-first approach, upon his arrival in Charlotte in 2002, Fox didn’t talk about a Super Bowl vision for the Panthers. “Wins and losses are hard to predict,” Fox explains, “and I didn’t want to talk pie-in-the-sky with the players, particularly following a 1-15 season. Instead, I spent time talking about how we could improve—the methods that we’d incorporate to make us better.”

Fox focused on a more realistic vision in which the Panthers would make many improvements during the 2002 season and build for the future. After a dispiriting season, Fox knew that his first task was to instill self-respect in his players. The Panthers were a young team. With patience, they would have their day in the sun.

“I told my coaching staff,” concludes Fox, “ ‘I am the head coach, and in this position, I’ve got to create an environment for you to be better coaches and for us to have better players.’ ” Fox made it very clear to them—he simply told them what a good leader does.

 

 

*  *  *

 

 

SOME GAMES YOU NEVER FORGET. One that comes to my mind is the Eagles/Cowboys game on Sunday, October 3, 1999, at the old Veterans Stadium. It was the fifth game of Andy Reid’s first season as head coach and he was winless. Down 10-0 when the half ended, Philadelphia looked as if they were about to lose five in a row. The Eagles had not made a first down in the entire first half.

“This is our game,” Reid told the team during halftime. “They can’t beat us. The Cowboys played their best football, and they’re only up by 10.”

Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love, is reputed to have the toughest fans in professional sports. They can be so mean-spirited, they’d boo Santa Claus. The crowd gets so out of control that police constantly make arrests. To save the city the time and cost of running paddy wagons back and forth to the slammer in downtown Philly, “Eagles Court” had been set up within the bowels of the stadium. With this unique court, unruly fans can be arrested, tried, and convicted, all conveniently on the premises! Nowhere else in the world does a courtroom exist inside a sports arena. In this hostile environment, Andy Reid began his first job as an NFL head coach.

As a side note, Lincoln Financial Field, the new home for the Eagles, opened at the beginning of the 2003 season. Acoustically, the stadium was designed to retain loud noise. Its winglike roof structures were constructed to actually amplify the sound of the crowd. Why increase rather than reduce noise? The louder the crowd, the more home field advantage. Its objective is to intimidate visiting teams. But wait a minute! During a losing season, can’t this advantage backfire? Yes, indeed! Philadelphia fans also boo their own players and coaches!

So here was where Andy Reid inherited a team with a 3-13 record. Hard-nosed Eagle fans were not about to tolerate another losing season. There was no prior indication that Reid was the man to turn the team around. Fans opposed team owner Jeffrey Lurie’s hiring of Reid because they wanted a high-profile, experienced head coach with a winning record. Furthermore, one of the first things Reid did as head coach was to select Syracuse’s quarterback Donovan McNabb as the Eagles’ second pick in the first round of the 1999 draft. Nobody doubted McNabb was a potential starting NFL quarterback—they just didn’t think he should have gone so high in the draft. The general consensus in Philadelphia was that the Eagles should have picked Ricky Williams, college football’s current Heisman Trophy winner.

But what drove fans raving mad on this particular Sunday afternoon was that Reid had McNabb sitting on the bench when starting quarterback Doug Peterson was playing atrociously. Peterson had been a backup quarterback at Green Bay when Reid was the Packers’ quarterback coach for two years prior to coming to Philadelphia. Reid was a big proponent of the West Coast offense, which Peterson knew—and McNabb did not. So Reid took Peterson with him to help break in McNabb. Peterson came to town knowing it would only be a matter of time before McNabb would be the starting quarterback. He was the future “franchise” player. That was the understanding among Reid, Peterson, and McNabb. Fans fuming in the stadium, however, were not privy to this arrangement.

Doug Peterson was an average NFL quarterback, and when an average quarterback is having a bad day, it gets ugly in Veterans Stadium. No first downs for an entire first half is real ugly! I must confess I shared the same thoughts as everyone else in the packed stadium. I was also thinking, “Why does Reid have his multimillion-dollar quarterback Donovan McNabb sitting on the bench?” The fans were chanting, “McNabb! McNabb!” They were vicious, shouting, “F——Reid,” and other obscenities.

When 68,000 people boo and scream like raving maniacs, you can believe a head coach is having a bad day. Call that a horrendous day when you’re a rookie head coach in Philadelphia. “Why isn’t Reid playing McNabb?” I kept thinking. I’m Reid’s agent and I felt like booing him too. He has to play McNabb. I say to myself, “Andy must know his job is on the line. The people of Philadelphia will demand his head on a plate.” I’m sitting there, and I’m doing my best to restrain myself from joining the shout, “Play McNabb! Play McNabb!”

By the time I was convinced that no coach in the NFL would have kept McNabb out of the game, the whistle blew to start the second half. I was wrong. Andy Reid refused to put him in the game. As the game progressed, to the amazement of the hostile crowd, the Philadelphia defense came alive, forcing three turnovers with two interceptions and a fumble. They applied pressure on All-Pro quarterback Troy Aikman and they held in check the Cowboys’ all-time greatest running back, Emmitt Smith. The Eagles turned the game around and won 13-10. This was the day that Andy Reid won the respect of Philadelphia fans. With John Madden and Pat Summeral announcing the game on national television and seeing the Eagles come from behind to beat the Cowboys, Reid also won the admiration of football fans across America.

After the Dallas game, Reid informed the media why he hadn’t played McNabb. He explained that his long-term plan was to wait until McNabb was ready to be the starting quarterback and that’s when he’d start him. In Reid’s opinion, the Eagles’ offensive line wasn’t settled. He determined that playing McNabb too soon would possibly dampen the young quarterback’s confidence and risk a potential injury. Reid also made it clear that his objective was to have a championship team in Philadelphia and that he would stick to his plan.

Why didn’t he play McNabb? Reid was a man with a plan—and he stuck to his plan. It didn’t matter what anyone else thought. He was the head coach and it was his call. He adhered to the advice inscribed on a plaque that sits on his desk. It reads: “The important thing is to lay a plan, and then follow it step by step no matter how small or large each one by itself may seem.” The quote was from Charles A. Lindbergh, a man who had also followed a plan.

Then the same mean-spirited crowd who’d booed and jeered Reid earlier in the game did a complete flip-flop. In the final minutes of the final quarter, they were on their feet chanting, “Eagles! Eagles!” Andy Reid won their respect that day and has had it ever since. The Eagles finished with a 5-11 record in his first season, a marked improvement over the previous season.

In 2000, Reid lead the team to an 11-5 season, earning a trip to the NFC Divisional Playoffs, and again in 2001, went 11-5 and improved the Eagles’ postseason play by winning two playoff games. In 2002, the Eagles tied a franchise record for most wins in a season (12). Most amazingly, Eagles Pro Bowl quarterback Donovan McNabb, as well as his backup Koy Detmer, was on the disability list for the final five games of the regular 2002 season. Using third-stringer A. J. Feeley, the Eagles were 4-1 and captured home field advantage in the NFC playoffs. With four years of NFL head coaching under his belt, Reid had the highest winning percentage (.606) in team history. Most noteworthy, he captured back-to-back division titles—a first for the franchise—and has the most postseason wins (4) of any coach in the franchise’s history.

“You’re going to go through some rough times,” Reid explains. “If all of a sudden you flip the switch to the other direction and change offenses or defenses or philosophies midway through, you’re in trouble. You lose your people. You’ve got to stick to your plan.”

Brad Childress, the Eagles’ offensive coordinator, says, “When Reid came here, he met with owner Jeffrey Lurie and president Joe Banner, and he informed them he planned to bring Doug Peterson in. ‘We’re going to acquire this guy,’ he said, ‘and he’s going to teach McNabb some things he has to know. There will be a point when Donovan is ready. But not right away.’ Management bought into Andy’s plan.”

 

 

 

AS MENTIONED EARLIER, MIKE HOLMGREN’S first job as head coach was with Green Bay in 1992. He had never been head coach in either college or high school! Neither had Fox, Gruden, Reid, or Sherman, who can all thank Holmgren for dispelling the idea that head coaching experience is an absolute résumé requirement for a head coach job in the NFL—the highest level in the football coaching profession. I presently represent 12 NFL coordinators and one college head coach, and it’s only a matter of time before some of them will be NFL head coaches. With only 32 such positions available, grabbing hold of this elusive brass ring is an uncommon and coveted accomplishment. As their agent, I render an important service by preparing them for their job interviews.

Over a period of time, I developed a job interview process designed to show my clients at their best specifically when applying for an NFL head coach position. Remember now, since there are only a handful or so of these job openings each year, the process is infrequently used. Having said this, I modestly add that our placement ratio for clients has been quite high. Because it is proprietary information for the exclusive use of my clients, I can’t go into specific details. But what I will reveal is that the process is designed to prepare my client to present himself most favorably during the entire interviewing process. It covers the smallest of details, from proper attire to what to bring to the interview. Most significant, I coach my clients on questions they should ask, as well as how to respond to questions asked. For example, they must be thoroughly abreast of everything that has been going on in the franchise, down to minute details about players, coaches, franchise history, and team performance during the most recent season.

Stories abound of candidates who bombed in an interview because they came prepared to talk only about the X’s and O’s, when it’s already a given that they excel in this area. Besides, job interviews at this level involve meetings with team owners, who don’t have a lot of interest, or, for that matter, expertise, about the X’s and O’s. More meaningful to franchise owners are the prospective head coach’s vision and game plan. They’re not interested in just a single season but instead seek insight into what to expect in the future. So while football expertise is a requisite, strong leadership skills are paramount. Our job is to make sure we put a pretty dress on a pretty girl.

A common denominator of all head coaches I represent is their preparedness and attention to detail. In short, each of them is meticulously organized. This patented quality accurately describes all five men. Having said this, I’ll also state that no one has ever epitomized a man who came totally prepared to present his plan to his interviewers more than Andy Reid. In fact, the degree to which he did it has become so legendary throughout the Philadelphia Eagles organization, it is now referred to as “the Plan.”

Andy Reid didn’t rush to put together the Plan only after Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie and president Joe Banner expressed interest in hiring him. Reid had begun to assemble the Plan back in 1982 as a graduate assistant at Brigham Young University when he worked under Lavell Edwards. He fastidiously took notes on everything he admired about Edwards—his wonderful human qualities that included treating everyone with respect, regardless of stature, his disciplinary skills, and his ability to keep his cool under pressure. While assembling his notes at San Francisco State University, Reid observed that head coach Vic Rowan would call a high school or college coach to inquire about an interesting play he saw during a televised game. (“To this day, I’ll call an NFL, college, or high school coach about unusual plays I see on TV,” tells Reid.) What he learned about unusual plays also found its way into his journal.

In 1992, by the time Reid came to the Packers to work under Mike Holmgren, he had amassed an extensive collection of thoughts and ideas he intended for use when he would be an NFL head coach. Starting first as the Packers’ tight ends and assistant offensive line coach, Reid was later named quarterback coach. Under head coach Mike Holmgren, Reid’s note-taking became even more intense. Longtime staff people recall Reid always asking questions and writing notes to himself. “I remember him as quiet, but with a good sense of humor,” one staff member tells. “I’d describe him as a quiet observer. He wanted to know about everything so he could understand the big picture.”

There was so much to learn from a man like Holmgren, whom Reid considered among the best in the profession. With back-to-back visits to the Super Bowl in 1997 and 1998, Reid knew that the time was near when he would have the opportunity to lead a team of his own. His tenure at Green Bay was highlighted when he was given the assignment to coach Brett Favre, football’s premier quarterback. Reid, a former BYU player who played tackle and guard, had come a long way since his days on the line. Incidentally, Reid had been a two-way lineman in high school and, in addition, the team’s punter and kicker, so he had personally experienced some offense play during his playing days. All in all, Andy Reid had a lot of exposure to the game of football. And he had tens of thousands of jotted-down notes to prove it.

His volumes of note-taking included what he liked and didn’t like about all that he’d witnessed during his 16-year apprenticeship at various college and pro levels. He had accumulated information that went far beyond the X’s and O’s of the game. Sure, Reid had compiled hundreds and hundreds of plays, but it went much further. His notes covered the subjects of leadership; training; conditioning; travel arrangements via air, bus, and limousine; lodging; food services; public relations; slant plays; pep talks; lectures; administrative duties—name it and it appeared in Reid’s head coach notebook. His notes were meticulously organized in three-ring binders. Everything was prepared and at his fingertips, ready for the day he became an NFL head coach.

When Reid sat down to discuss the job opening for a head coach’s position with Philadelphia, he brought with him the Plan, a blueprint that would serve as the foundation of the Eagles’ resurgence. Team owner Lurie was deeply impressed with Reid’s game plan and long-term vision. Lurie described him as “a CEO on the field who understands the big picture and the short-term picture. You have to always balance the two. Disciplined. Prepared. Smart. It’s an awfully good combination.”

Reid got the job and he stuck to his Plan. It called for the team to have a franchise quarterback. “Doug Peterson was an important part of the puzzle,” says Brad Childress, offensive coordinator for the Eagles. “Although Doug didn’t have much success as an NFL quarterback, Andy brought him in because he did know the system. Of course, Andy had to sell Lurie and Banner on the importance of bringing Peterson in. It wasn’t an easy sale. First, he had to convince them to go with McNabb as the team’s first draft choice and, after that, to keep him on the bench until he was comfortable with the West Coast Offense. Andy stuck to his Plan. He refused to throw McNabb to the wolves.”

All the pressure put on Reid didn’t sway him from sticking to his conviction. Losing his first four games would have convinced a lesser coach to alter his game plan. Reid, however, never gave in to pressure. He kept his cool and stayed the course. McNabb would play only when Reid determined he was ready. It took ten games before Reid finally gave the green light to McNabb to go in as quarterback.

With several seasons under Reid’s belt as head coach, the Eagles’ turnaround has been one of the most remarkable in NFL history. Since his arrival, Philadelphia has become one of football’s most dominating teams and most respected franchises. Still, Reid continues to work on the Plan, habitually tweaking it, always working to improve it. He continues to track thoughts and ideas in journals and notebooks. He keeps a daily schedule on an index card that’s always in his hand. Still more index cards are scattered on his desk. Eventually, his secretary files each of them so he can draw on them at an opportune time. To Andy Reid, the Plan is a work in progress.

Come game time and there stands Andy Reid on the sidelines, always with his sideline sheets in hand. From these 11-by-17-inch sheets, he calls each play. They contain no diagrams—each play is a typewritten narrative. “The plays are on cardstock,” tells Carol Wilson, Reid’s administrative assistant, “and last season we switched to a cardstock made by another company. I couldn’t believe he would notice the difference, but he said, ‘Hey, this isn’t the same. I need it to be exactly like it was.’

“ ‘I think it is, Coach. It’s just a different company.’

“ ‘I’m telling you this is different. Please check it out, Carol.’

“Sure enough, the new cardstock was a couple of milliliters off, so I placed an order with the previous company.”

 

 

 

MIKE HOLMGREN IS ONE OF the most organized men I have ever met. This is evident by the way he prepares his game plan prior to training camp. A man who believes that football games are won by the amount of preparation exerted prior to game time, Holmgren leaves no stone unturned during those long, hot summer weeks when the Seahawks get ready for the upcoming season. The Seahawks migrate to Cheney, a tiny town just south of Spokane where they take over the athletic facilities at Eastern Washington University.

“At summer camp,” explains Holmgren, “we’re in what I call our ‘robot mode.’ Every minute is accounted for during the entire six weeks we’re in Cheney. I’m talking about every practice, every meeting, every workout in the weight room, everything. This gives everyone the freedom to do his job without any distractions. It’s a very disciplined environment. And believe me, while you hear the comments that professional athletes lack discipline, they really do want it. Sure, they may grouse about it now and then. There’s nothing wrong with having them complain. But they truly welcome the discipline. They know what to expect when they’re at our training camp. They want to know when we are going to do this, when we are going to do that, when meals will be served, and so on.”

When I first visited the Seahawks training camp in Cheney, it reminded me of a television special where producers and directors have every second accounted for in a prepared script. I compare Holmgren’s training camp to putting on a six-week television special. It takes a tremendous amount of thought and effort to organize a marathon event that involves so many people. The manner in which Holmgren organizes training camp sets the stage for the entire 16-week season. Summer camp is only the beginning. Once the season is under way, Holmgren increases the pace and intensifies the game plan.

Susan Broberg was Mike Holmgren’s administrative assistant during his years in Green Bay. Following Holmgren’s departure to Seattle, Ray Rhodes served as the Packers’ head coach for the 1999 season that ended with eight wins and eight losses. When Mike Sherman replaced Rhodes in 2000, he inherited Broberg as his administrative assistant—or, depending on your point of view, she inherited him. “Getting a new boss is a difficult transition,” Broberg explains, “so I was somewhat apprehensive when Coach Rhodes was fired and I heard Coach Sherman was coming in to be interviewed. I’m sure everyone here was a little uptight. You don’t know what your future will be because you’re thinking, ‘What if he doesn’t like me? What if our personalities clash?’ Even though Coach Sherman had previously been here as a tight ends coach, I hardly knew him in those days. Coach is so unassuming and humble that back then, he just went about doing his job and stayed in the background.

“Out of the clear blue sky, Coach Sherman called me before coming in for his interview,” Broberg says. “He said he’d like to ask me some questions. It turned out he had many, many questions, mainly focused on what I thought about how the Packers could do things better. ‘What’s your read on so-and-so?’ he asked. ‘And how about so-and-so?’ He asked questions about the structure of the coaching staff. How were the players treated in the training room? What about in the equipment room? How did I think it could be better? What was my interpretation on this? On that? We talked for 90 minutes, and at the end of our conversation he graciously thanked me.

“When I hung up the phone, I called my husband because we had talked about some of the big-name coaches under consideration for the job, and Coach Sherman was relatively unknown. ‘He’s going to get that job,’ I said. ‘I know he’s going to get that job. And I hope he’s my new boss. I hope he wants to keep me.’ I was so impressed with how prepared he was, and I couldn’t get over that he took his time to call somebody like me in the organization to ask my advice. That was my first encounter with him. Well, he did get the job, and ever since that first conversation, he’s made me feel so useful to him. And trusted—I feel so trusted by him.”

Broberg says that in addition to working closely with Holmgren, Rhodes, and Sherman, she also got to know Gruden and Reid during their days as assistant coaches at Green Bay. Broberg concurs that they are all highly organized individuals, a trait she attributes to their dedication to their careers. In her opinion, Sherman is the most focused on his game plan. “He leaves no stone unturned,” she states. “It starts with the way the team practices, and the same intensity permeates the organization. Coach Sherman is so detail-driven, even every road trip is planned in advance for the entire season, in fact, to such a degree that to an outsider, it would seem nonsensical. For instance, when the team travels, the coach has a seating chart prepared that determines who sits next to whom on an airplane. Why does he do this? He might want one of the doctors nearby so he can talk to him.”

Sherman explains that a good game plan is all about discipline. “We have everything planned for the entire season,” he states, “and we’ve got to stick to our agenda on a day-by-day basis. With a 16-game season, things can get a little sloppy if you don’t demand the same thing from your players and yourself. Before we play our first exhibition game, I lay out the practice schedule for the entire season. Every trip is planned in detail in advance and coordinated with our game schedule. For instance, in our 2003 season we had three Monday night games and a Sunday night game. We played Thanksgiving Day, and at the end of the season, we had two back-to-back trips on the West Coast.

Every day is planned in advance, and this allows us to stay focused, making sure nothing distracts us. There are so many things that can throw a team off track. More significant than the game on Sunday is what happens during the week preceding the game. The media can sometimes be a bigger opponent than the Minnesota Vikings or the Chicago Bears. Newspeople say many negative things and even cause divisiveness in the locker room. For instance, they might say things about a player that causes problems with his teammates. They can tackle you before you hit the field.”

 

 

 

“WHEN I FIRST ARRIVED IN Charlotte in 2002, this thing was in bad shape,” tells John Fox. “At the time, there were 31 NFL teams, and the Panthers ranked last on both sides of the ball with the worst offense and worst defense in the League. Financially, the team had maxed out on the salary caps, so we were a 1-15 team that was paying salaries like a team with a 15-1 record. The team was hurting so bad, the players’ wives were embarrassed to go to the shopping malls. The players were so ashamed, they didn’t want to be seen in public. You have to remember now that when you do badly in this business, the whole world knows it.

“Having lost 15 games straight, everyone in the organization was acting like they just found out they’ve got three months to live. Immediately upon coming here, my game plan was to build a positive environment. So I put the emphasis on the positive and looked at all the good things we had going for us. “ ‘We have excellent facilities,’ I stressed to the organization. ‘And this is a great city for recruiting purposes. Our owner-founder, Jerry Richardson, is a former All-American player and was a member of the 1959 world championship Baltimore Colts team, so we have great ownership. Now it’s true there’s been some poor decisions made, but there is absolutely no reason why we shouldn’t win here.’

“The first thing I tried to create was a winning attitude from the top down,” Fox continues. “I began with getting the owner fired up, the general manager fired up and then the team fired up. I talked a lot about how, with the right plan, hard work, and good decision-making, there was no reason why we couldn’t win here.

“My plan was to win with smart, tough, better-conditioned people than the people we compete against. I announced exactly what I was looking for to win, and I set high expectations. I’m a big believer that people live up or they live down to your expectations of them. In a leadership position, you get what you expect out of people. If you don’t expect much, you don’t get much. However, if you expect a lot and you’re consistent about expecting it, you will get a lot. The trouble is that people give themselves limitations and they build up walls that limit them. To turn the program around, I had to eliminate the losing mentality. Now and then, I brought in new personnel; for example, I changed trainers. Why? Because I wanted to be surrounded with people who shared my enthusiasm, and trainers spend a lot of time with players. I brought in several high-energy people I had worked with or knew in the past, and, most importantly, they were people with the same passion for the game that I have.”

Fox made extensive changes in the Panthers coaching staff during his first few months with the team. Prior to the opening of the 2002 season, for example, he brought in Dan Henning, offensive coordinator/quarterbacks; Mike Trgovac, defensive coordinator; Rod Perry, secondary coach; Jim Skipper, running backs coach; and Sal Sunseri, defensive line coach. He continued making changes in 2003, bringing in Danny Crossman, special teams assistant and assistant strength and conditioning coach; Ken Flajole, defensive assistant; Dave Magazu, tight ends coach; and Mike Maser, offensive line coach. “I recruited people with expertise and enthusiasm,” he states. “I wanted people who would share my passion and excitement so it would spread throughout the organization.”

Although he had never been a head coach, Fox had an impressive record, having served as New York Giants defensive coordinator for five years prior to joining the Panthers. During that period, he built one of the greatest defensive teams in the NFL and had been honored by Pro Football Weekly as the 2001 Assistant Coach of the Year. His excellent track record gave him instant credibility, which, in turn, helped him sell his game plan.

At the onset of Fox’s turnaround program for the Panthers, he made the bold decision to select Julius Peppers, a defensive end, as the second player to be drafted in the 2002 draft. The Panthers had made a lot of foolish mistakes that got them to the basement of the NFL. And to many, when a team with second draft choice rights takes a lineman, it’s a move that adds to an already dumb and dumber reputation.

So why did Fox take Peppers?

“There was some speculation that the decision was based on Peppers coming from up the road in Chapel Hill. Believe me, taking a North Carolina player had nothing to do with anything. It was just a coincidence. We had a choice of picking a lot of people, and my philosophy on taking a quarterback is different from other coaches. Personally, I feel that you have to pay this guy like a future Hall of Famer because that’s what it’s going to cost. And he’s yet to have played a single down in this League. Believe me, I did a lot of research before taking Peppers, more so than I’ve ever done in my career. With my defensive background, I could have succumbed and taken a quarterback. That would have appeased everyone as the right way to go. Had I done that, there would have been no criticism. However, when a defense guy takes a defensive lineman as his pick, it’s not a popular thing to do. And had Peppers been a bust, there would have been all hell for me to pay.”

As it turned out, Julius Peppers was named NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2002 by the Associated Press, so a year later Fox was hailed as a genius. Incidentally, in 2003, he took Jordan Gross, an offensive tackle from Utah, as the eighth pick in the first round. “Peppers and Gross are not sexy picks,” Fox says, “but I know this—you can’t play offense without blocking. And you can’t play defense without tackling. This is not rocket science. You can’t throw the ball if you can’t block. You can’t run the ball if you can’t block. So to me, that’s where you go. Remember now, we are a work in progress. We have not arrived by any stretch.”

Fox believes the only way a game plan can be executed is through preparation. “I liken it to school,” he explains. “When you didn’t go to class, take notes, or read your material, you knew when you went to take your test that you’d do terribly. You just knew it because you weren’t prepared. You have no confidence. Now in college, you can look over the person’s paper next to you and copy off it. Well, you can’t do that in the National Football League. The whole world sees you. Your wife and kids see you. That big eye in the sky tells it like it is. So I’m constantly selling the team on preparation. It’s all part of the game plan.”

One of Fox’s constant reminders to his players is: “It’s a production world. Those who produce will succeed. And those who don’t will fall on their face.” Again, it goes back to preparation. He claims a lot of little things add up to make people prepared or unprepared. “Like taping yourself,” he explains, “making sure you go to practice with nothing else on your mind, watching the films, and so on. You have to focus on what you have to do. It’s not easy to stay focused in football because there are so many things going on around you to distract you. To be productive, you must be prepared. Football games aren’t won on Sunday afternoons. You win them by what you do during the week.”

Carolina’s defensive line coach Sal Sunseri says, “Fox keeps repeating, ‘If you prepare, if you are mentally tough, and you are ready, you will produce.’ When it comes to feeling the heat, Coach says, ‘You will either feel it, or you will apply it.’

“It’s like the other day, I heard Foxy say to a player, ‘The bottom line is,’ he said, ‘that when I’m on the practice range, man, I hit that golf ball beautifully. When I step up to the tee, I don’t drive the ball the same way. Well, we’ve got to get to where we do it the same out on the field as we do during practice. Where it doesn’t matter if we’re on the practice range or the real tee. We hit that ball the same over and over again. Only through preparation does that happen.”

 

 

*  *  *

 

 

JON GRUDEN CONCURS. “FOOTBALL ISN’T just games,” he says. “It’s about planning. We don’t just twiddle our thumbs at meetings all week, we’re constantly reviewing facts and putting together Sunday’s game plan. I’m here at the office at four in the morning, and I’ll put together a 12- to 14-page tip sheet for our quarterbacks. It presents seven or eight critical points—information about opposing players and the defenses they play. It’s well documented and precise. I’ll seek input from our players, more so than most other coaches. If they don’t like something, I’ll take it out of our game plan. If they don’t buy into it, no matter how good I think it is, it isn’t going to work.

“It’s a long season, probably too long,” Gruden continues. “A lot of these guys don’t want to be here practicing on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, for 16, 18, 24 weeks. Some of them would rather sit in that cool chair, that cushy chair in the air-conditioning. They’d like to sit there telling stories, watching game film, and not come out here in this heat. I’ve got to motivate them. I’ve got to push them and tell them how important it is. I’ve got to make sure they know it’s a great winning edge to know you’re prepared to win. Let them know that they’re going to sleep good the night before the game knowing that the plan is in place and we can execute it. Let them know, ‘You have to continue to pound the rock and develop mental toughness.’ ”

 

 

 

BUSINESSPEOPLE REFER TO THEIR COMPANY strategies so frequently as their game plan that we tend to forget that the term “game plan” is sports lingo.

Unlike a vision that I distinguish as abstract thinking, a game plan is an explicit strategy that can be either short-term or long-term. Obviously, a game plan in the NFL on any given Sunday falls into the short-term category.

In the Eagles-Cowboys game played on October 3, 1999, Andy Reid’s refusal to deviate from his game plan exemplifies strong leadership. Although Reid had lost his first four games as a head coach and was being unmercifully booed by a hostile Philadelphia crowd, he stuck by his game plan, refusing to cave in to the demands of the fans. As Reid pointed out, people are apt to lose confidence in a leader who changes horses midstream.

Certainly, it takes strong conviction and courage for a visionary CEO to stick to his marketing strategy while losing market share during the early stages of his game plan. Likewise, a business leader may be censured for discharging large numbers of people, closing plants, and reducing inventories in order to stop the organization’s flow of red ink. There are many similarly turbulent and troubled times in the life of a business, such as the one Reid endured, that cause lesser managers to stray from their game plan. These are times when strong leaders must show their mettle and inspire their people to push on. Conversely, weak leaders act indecisively, thereby creating an atmosphere of doubt and confusion.

When Reid and Fox first presented their game plans, neither was well received. Reid’s decision to pick Donovan McNabb as his first draft choice, as part of a plan to build the Eagles’ offensive unit around him was disparaged by Philadelphia fans. Similarly, Fox’s choice of Julius Peppers, a defensive end, as his number one draft choice was unpopular with Panthers fans. Business leaders must remember that radical change that introduces a new game plan is likely to be met with resistance. Simply put, you can expect people to resist change.

To reverse people’s resistance to change, it’s important to invite them to share your vision and then participate during the early planning stages of your game plan. This gives them a sense of ownership. Your vision becomes their vision. People will support a game plan that they helped to create. On the other hand, when a game plan is thrust upon people whose input was not solicited, it’s probable that you will run into resistance.

I am fascinated by the degree of preparation exhibited by all of the head coaches I represent. Each is so thorough in his preparation, paying close attention to detail, leaving no stone unturned. This, too, generates confidence and inspires others to follow. Meticulous, painstaking preparation is a sign of purposefulness. In business, successful leaders are always well prepared at committee and board meetings. We’ve all attended meetings at which some members—even the committee chairperson—came unprepared. They talk about their grand visions—but without a detailed game plan to back it up, it’s just talk.

A detailed, well-conceived game plan augments the probability that it will be supported by others. People are impressed you did your homework and consequently feel secure with your recommendations. In contrast, a haphazard, inadequately organized game plan is doomed to have poor reception, even though it may be conceptually correct. It fails to win people’s confidence.

Here too, top leaders rely on strong communication skills to sell their visions. A first-rate presentation of their game plan stimulates people to buy into it. Over the years, I’ve seen good game plans bomb due to weak presentations. You have to sell it. After they have spent so much time preparing a game plan, I’m perplexed why people fail to allocate adequate time practicing their presenting of it. A poor presentation discourages people from supporting an otherwise excellent game plan.

Attention to details is a sign of a well-prepared game plan. A word of caution: Know your audience. Don’t get so wrapped up in the X’s and O’s that you lose sight of the big picture. This is why I advise my clients to think long term when they present their vision during a job interview. I tell them to back it up with a detailed presentation on how their game plan will turn their vision into reality. Another word of caution: Don’t overwhelm people with excessive detail that makes their heads swim. Remember, sometimes less is more.