Coaches are my favorite people in sports.
And it’s not even close.
Please understand this for simplicity sake: When I reference “coaches”, I’m using the generic term for “the man or woman who runs the team”, so a baseball manager, for example, would obviously be included even though the title is “manager”, not coach.
In the spirit of transparency, I’ll let you know I’m a coach. I’ve been coaching high school golf in Baltimore for the last four years and I’m currently the head golf coach at Calvert Hall High School. I mention this only to ward off any of you who might have known about my role at Calvert Hall and then reply with, “Of course you like coaches, you ARE one!”
Well, yes, I am, but I’m a high school golf coach. It’s fun. And I love golf and Calvert Hall and all that it represents. But, the NFL it isn’t.
I love coaches because they’re routinely among the very few participants in sports who have a won/loss record attached to their name.
Baseball pitchers have wins and losses as part of their statistical record. So, too, do hockey and soccer goalkeepers. It’s no coincidence, then, that I love pitchers and hockey and soccer goalies. That said, those positions have other stats to support their play. Pitchers have earned run average, WHIP, strikeouts, etc. Hockey and soccer goalies have saves, save percentage, etc.
Coaches, though, are ONLY known for one statistical number. Their win-loss record.
John Harbaugh’s record in the regular season since taking over in Baltimore is 68-35.
Quick, what’s Terrell Suggs’s win-loss record as a member of the Ravens? Don’t know? Well, do what everyone else does and “Google it”. Never mind, you won’t find it there, either.
Coaches have no way to escape the overwhelming burden of having the team’s fortunes tied to them and them only.
If Suggs has three sacks and a fumble recovery against the Browns this Sunday but the Ravens lose 20-17, the only discussion generated on Suggs will be his terrific individual play.
If the Ravens lose 20-17 on Sunday, John Harbaugh would fall to 68-36 as a coach in the NFL.
The other pro coach in town, Buck Showalter, is proof positive — like Harbaugh has been for the Ravens — that a quality person in charge can make an immense difference in your team’s performance. The Orioles have lost Wieters, Machado and now, Davis, for large stretches of time this season, yet they’ve battled on and hardly skipped a beat while closing in on the American League East title.
They wouldn’t be doing that if Buck Showalter wasn’t around, I promise you that.
Just pretend for one second that some sort of health scare would have sidelined Buck in mid-June this season. Would the Orioles have an 11.5 game lead in the East without Showalter for 100 of the 162 game schedule?
No way.
I love coaches because their standards are always higher than the players.
I love coaches because losing hurts them far, far more than it hurts the players.
And I love coaches because they know if they don’t prepare their team well enough, the coach they’re facing in the next game won’t make the same mistake.
Back in 2006, I would do a Monday morning radio segment with then Ravens defensive coordinator Rex Ryan. He would hop on the show with me at 9:05 am and we’d do a ten-minute Q and A about Sunday’s game. I remember this scenario distinctly and it always served as a great reminder for me of why coaches are the best people in sports.
The Ravens beat the Titans in a wild game in Nashville in mid-November. That night at roughly 10pm, I sent Rex an e-mail to remind him that due to a scheduling issue with a national guest, we had to move his segment to 9:30 am the next morning.
A few minutes after I sent that e-mail to Rex, my inbox showed a (1) next to the new messages icon. It was a reply from Rex. “Got it. I’ll call at 9:30.”
Amused and curious, I sent him a quick reply to his reply. “You’re answering e-mails at 10:15 pm? You need a secretary!”
He shot an e-mail right back. “Need to figure out a way to stop Vick next Sunday. Had to get in here and get going.”
The Ravens game in Nashville ended at 4:15, give or take a few. By the time the plane left for Baltimore, it was probably 7pm. My guess was the team landed at BWI shortly after 8:30 pm.
It was just after 10pm and Rex was back in his office, watching tape, trying to figure out a way to beat Michael Vick the following Sunday.
By the way, the final score of that one: Baltimore 24 – Atlanta 10
While the players headed out to Fells Point or D.C. or wherever they went to blow off some steam after a big road win, the team’s defensive coordinator went to the facility to get ready for the Falcons.
That’s why I love coaches.
I’m not at all afraid to admit I’m an unabashed John Harbaugh fan. I think he’s a very good coach and an even better man. Is he a “great” coach? Some people throw that word “great” around a lot. I don’t. I’m not sure a “great” coach exists these days in the NFL. They’re all flawed in some way. Lots of people contend Bill Belichick is a great coach, yet the likes of Tom Coughlin (twice), Sean Payton, Mike Tomlin, John Harbaugh and Pete Carroll have won Super Bowls since the last time Belichick won one.
I had (and still have) a very good relationship with John during my radio tenure when I was actively covering the team. We had the occasional flare-up when I asked something he didn’t like. We probably differed on Monday mornings when I would say something like “that was a dumb challenge from Harbaugh yesterday” and John didn’t think it was (or else, he wouldn’t have challenged it in the first place.)
I remember during training camp in 2010 when the team picked up T.J. Houshmandzadeh…I went on the air and blasted the signing, saying, “All you need to know about him is Seattle gave Houshmandzadeh $8 million to leave…no one does that with their players in a salary cap era.”
John saw me the next day and said, “I heard you yesterday morning talking about us signing T.J….what, you don’t trust Ozzie?” I said, “Ozzie’s not perfect, Coach. Remember, he wanted Jason Garrett before he wanted you.” He laughed and gave me a playful fist bump before saying, “That’s a good one…”
But, one thing for certain regarding John Harbaugh: He was always fair to me. He would answer what he could, dodge what he couldn’t, and challenge me to figure out which of those two he was doing on any given day. That doesn’t mean I gave in, either. He and I had several “interesting” discussions on Monday during his weekly press conference. In the end, though, I appreciated him for the job he was tasked to do and I believe he reciprocated that appreciation for my job.
Coaches are my favorite people because a small piece of them dies off every time they lose a game.
You can bet after that Sunday loss to the Bengals two weeks ago that John and his staff immediately retreated to a well-lit room at M&T Bank Stadium and had an “emergency” sit down to discuss what the hell happened in that 23-16 loss to Cincinnati.
For coaches, there’s no post-game dinner after a loss. No bottles of wine get opened. A loss, in a coach’s mind, means they failed, individually.
And why shouldn’t they look at a loss as personal failure?
After all, it’s on their record for everyone to see.
