People Who Play Sport

When asked about Bill Belichick’s coaching success, analyst Chris Schultz said that New England’s coach understood the difference between football players and people who play football. When asked about Sam Cassell’s potential as a coach, Sam Mitchell said that Los Angeles’ point guard must learn what to do when players don’t see what he sees.

Major-General Isaac Brock was appreciated for the charisma he employed while commanding British forces in Upper Canada. Colonel Roger Sheaffe was equally disliked for his aloofness and occasionally cruel management style. The critical trait was to treating the 49th Regiment of Foot as a group of people, not mindless soldiers.

Criticism of the Phoenix-Miami trade ignores that the Suns are people who play basketball. What if the Marion-Stoudamire rift was destroying team chemistry? Or what about Phoenix’s increased confidence playing with Shaq? Opponent reluctance to attack the basket? And Shaq’s drive to prove doubters wrong? All personal factors that cannot be easily measured.

Shawn Marion’s steals on the wing and finishes on the break can be measured, as can the disappearance of easy baskets in the playoffs. Boards mean more than strips because of the opportunities they provide. Teams can win games with 85 points in the postseason if they allow only 80. Halfcourt sets must generate high-percentage shots. All areas where Shaq succeeds and Marion does not.

Shawn Marion brought multiple positives to the Suns but the positive reaction of the people involved in the trade is a prominent reason why it might push the team to new heights. Nevertheless, Steve Kerr should sign the best wing defender in the C.B.A. in case Phoenix must stop Kobe Bryant in the second round.

Tom Coughlin changed his philosophy after New York started the N.F.L. season with two losses. Self-assurance and poise defined the Giants’ championship run. Execution improved on both sides of the ball, not because of fear of discipline but due to increased focus and reduced stress.

In the Superbowl, New England proved fallible after all. Tom Brady - the person, not the image - was pressured throughout the game and made mistakes. The Patriots faced tremendous adversity; New York’s awareness of this fact supplemented the confidence that the Giant’s gained from their Week 17 experience against the Pats.

People are not perfect and it is consequently extremely difficult for teams to do likewise. Had Belichick followed Schultz’s characterization more closely, he would have done more to eliminate outside influcences on the Patriots and coached more actively. New England seemed to need more external motivation to energize the older and tired team whose intrinsic motivation had faded after eighteen consecutive wins.

Players from the intramural to the professional levels are always affected by emotions which are as difficult to master as elite sport. Accepting that players are fallible individuals is an essential criterion for successful coaches.

Education of a Coach (not me)

David Halberstam’s Education of a Coach explores the path that Bill Belichick took to reach his position as head coach of the New England Patriots, winners of three Superbowl titles. Influenced by his father, long-time Navy coach Steve Belichick, Bill began breaking down film at a young age -- though he never played football professionally or at a major college, he continued to study the game diligently under coaches such as Ted Marchibroda, Ray Perkins, and Bill Parcells.

An unsuccessful stint coaching the Cleveland Browns interrupted and delayed a meticulously planned rise to the top of his field. Coaching suggestions evidently appear throughout the book - Halberstam chronicles Belichick’s work ethic, the roles technology and innovation have played in the coach’s success, and the personal toll that coaches pay for their careers - but it is in the Cleveland failure where the most salient lessons emerge.

Belichick arrived in town with a detailed plan and a record of achievements as an assistant coach but during his stay with the Browns he was repeatedly thwarted by a meddling Art Moddell. After dealing with Moddell himself, Paul Brown insisted that the other members of the Cincinnati Bengals’ ownership group schedule appointments to meet with him, in order to assert his independence as a coach.

Owners, general managers, athletic directors, and university presidents have all disrupted the best laid plans of coaches over the years, a control that is often present throughout sport. For his second stint as a head coach, it was imperative to Belichick that he seek out an ideal situation, like the one that he found in New England with supportive owner Bob Kraft. Managers who insist that the spotlight focus on themselves or their deeds and believe that they know it all will succeed. Throughout the years, football has remained a team sport and team sports - by name - require that various talents amongst different people blend together to create a respectful, winning, environment.

The initial failure reveals the value of adaptability and the ability to adapt at the at the right time. Quarterback Bernie Kosar was ill-suited to the offensive systems Belichick wished to install and the coach suffered through the poor match for many years. Kosar should have been cut earlier or the system altered from the beginning.

A coach should identify his/her core principles and stick by them. Everything else should be modified according to the situation. Once rules are established, any bending or breaking undermines the coach’s authority. Truly great players, like Lawrence Taylor or Tom Brady, are so rare that Belichick has only encountered two on all the teams he has coached. Devising special rules for every other athlete is simply not worth the cost.

Lastly, Belichick’s career proves that those who receive a second chance can become successful, even after the most spectacular failures. However, whether they are athletes, coaches, or regular people must learn from their mistakes and cannot dare repeat them.

After his dismissal in Cleveland, Belichick waited five year for the ideal head coaching post to become open, even coaching the New York Jets for a day before resigning to take the Patriots job. Once he was hired in Foxboro, he knew it was his last kick at the heat coaching can. Fortunately, Belichick was confident in his abilities, staying true to himself, learning from past mistakes, and ultimately creating a football dynasty.

Just Win Baby

Struggling to keep up with all the latest cheating news and unsure about how my coaching philosophy places all of this in context, I used Al Davis’ motto as a title. From Tim Donaghy to HGH to the New England Patriots, I’m not sure whether the rules should be black and white or shades or grey. How does one define bending the rules to gain an advantage and how is this different from outright rule-breaking by a coach or athlete? Is sport more like professional wrestling - where Hulk Hogan must overcome not only the Iron Shiek but his blatant cheating as well - than a true competition?

There has been no shortage of scandals in recent months (dubbed Cheatwave ’07 by ESPN.com). In order of severity:

Tim Donaghy

Obviously, this is the most serious example of cheating. Referees influencing the outcome or nature of games and players betting against their own teams should not be tolerated. Even those who are tempted to bet for their own teams or gamble on other sports because it can give organized crime leverage over a coach, player, or official.

I’m mildly surprised that the basketball officiating scandal had been limited to Tim Donaghy, who was involved with two of the five most badly officiated games that I watched this year, including a game in the Phoenix-San Antonio season that could have determined the championship. It would make a lot of sense for Association referees to become caught up in gambling; weak calls could be blamed on an interest in the game’s outcome instead of lack of ability, poor position, favoritism towards stars, home court advantage, politics, and the innumerable other factors required to create such inconsistency.

Due to the severity of gambling and the consequences, including threats and violence, infractions should be swiftly and strictly punished.

Performance Enhancing Drugs

One on hand, I believe that professional sport is for entertainment only and athletes should be allowed to do whatever they need to put on the best show. On the other hand, I don’t want sport to get to the point where athletes must endanger their health in order to compete. At some levels, I think that society doesn’t care to have pervasive cheating so it’s necessary to define the murky area of performance enhancing supplements, like steroids and H.G.H..

The scale of the B.A.L.C.O. scandal proves that this is no easy task. As science uncovers more ill effects of controlled substances, it seems more obvious that they should be banned, perhaps at the behest of a health committee comprised of athletes and doctors. Any restrictions on substances should also be standard across all sports, not unique to particular sports and countries.

Espionage in F1 Racing

McLaren-Mercedes’ F1 team was fined one hundred million dollars for attempting to photocopy some of Ferrari’s designs. This malicious attempt to cheat was punished harshly, with good reason. It’s known that auto racing teams often tamper with opposing staff members, poaching pit crew members and engineers in order to gain knowledge about their competitors but this is worse because it laws and rules were consciously broken.

Scouting, noting tendencies, and analyzing signals are part of the subterfuge that occurs in all sports. But like attempts to injure a competitor, teams should not be able to actively sabotage each other or tamper with another organizer in a way that unjustly rewards the team with greater resources.

Using Technology to Cheat in the N.F.L.

It’s tremendously difficult to identify everyone who cheats throughout sport and often the exercise involves splitting hairs: is stealing signals in the N.F.L. different from stealing signs in baseball? I think that it becomes different when technology is involved. I don’t think one thing should lead to another so that game preparation becomes more Spy vs. Spy than us vs. them.

Conceivably, a home team with more staff on hand or a large-market team with more money to spend could make use of video technology unavailable to the visiting team. Coaches covering their faces to prevent lip-reading or scouts in the stands with binoculars is a throwback to yesterday; when excessive technology is employed, it changes the nature of the game.

Questions to Ask

How do gamesmanship and sportsmanship co-exist? Some cases of cheating are clearly over the line and should be banned because they comprise the integrity of sport. Other examples are less clear-cut and difficult to define. I’d set the rules based on protecting players’ health and preventing the home team from having an undue advantage but there would be a fair amount of anything goes, so to speak.

Professional sport owns an auspicious history of players and coaches doing whatever it takes to get an edge: altering the field of play to suit the home team (As Buck Showalter said: “One of the best relationships you need to have is with your home groundskeeper. Whether it’s length of grass or the texture of the dirt, there are a lot of things teams try to do to accentuate their strengths and minimize their weaknesses.”), telephoning the visiting players late at night in their hotel room, making the opposing locker rooms tremendously uncomfortable, and more.

Many fans look back on “old-time” cheating with nostalgia. I think there is a place for this, as it rewards those who use their head and think creatively. Accurate knowledge of the rulebook from cover to cover is part of a coach’s responsibilities. Referee interpretations of different cases is part of the rulebook so when a player recognizes when an official isn’t watching their area and understands the freedoms that they have during these times, they are still playing within the rules.

No to gambling, pressuring players to compromise their health, and intending to injure an opponent. Likewise, situations that provide the home team an advantage should be eliminated. But in the other situations, it’s so difficult to nitpick and allow one action while preventing something similar. Rules should be fair and even-handed, not subjective.

Fundamentally, sport is a vehicle for self-actualization. Athletes and coaches play the game in order to make the most of themselves. People must also follow a set of morals that satisfies their own needs, most of all. But if someone is performing and winning by compromising principles like fairness and respect for the opponent, are they truly reaching their potential?

“A gold medal is a wonderful thing. But if you’re not enough without one, you’ll never be enough with one.”
- Irv Blitzer