Fists flew and tempers flared. As Phillip Daniels stepped in front of the punches his Seattle Seahawks teammates threw one Sunday in 1998, he found himself trying to break up a fight in the most unlikely of venues–the Seahawks’ huddle.
“We had guys fighting on the field during the game over missed assignments, grabbing each other’s face masks, going at one another,” the Bears’ defensive end recalled of coach Dennis Erickson’s tumultuous final season in Seattle.
The Seahawks had started 3-0 but then lost six of eight as Erickson lost control on the way to an 8-8 season.
“You had to pause during games to break stuff up with your teammates instead of concentrating on what your opponent was doing,” said Daniels, a Seahawk from 1996-99. “A lot of things happened that last year, and he got fired for it. Erickson definitely lost that team.”
Erickson wasn’t the first NFL coach to find out how losing control and respect among players can create job jeopardy as quickly as a losing streak. He won’t be the last either. In this era of escalating salaries and expanding media scrutiny, keeping order in the locker room has become nearly as important as putting points on the scoreboard for many coaches and franchises.
“The possibility has increased that when things do go wrong, a coach will have a harder time than he used to getting through to his players,” said Hall of Fame coach Marv Levy. “It’s a complex task but an extremely important part of the job. As much as anything, a coach has to connect with his players. They will respond to that most.”
The Bears continue to respond to Dick Jauron, and sources close to the situation don’t underestimate how much the team’s owners, the McCaskeys, value Jauron’s ability to keep the players focused this season after a 1-5 start. It’s a conundrum that confounds Jauron’s critics and encourages his supporters. Many Bears fans look at Jauron as the face of mediocrity defined by a 33-45 record, while his players look past that and see the most respected guy in the room.
Quarterback Chris Chandler, for example, spoke last week of how much Jauron “inspires us,” and Chandler is more prone to injury than hyperbole.
“Coach Jauron is a [heck] of a coach, and us not winning games, it’s not his fault, he’s not the problem,” Daniels said. “It’s us. He always told us we’re going to get things turned around, even when we were 1-5. He just moves on in daily life and tells us to keep your head up, stay strong and stay together as a team, and so far there has been no finger-pointing.”
As much as insurrection, even the best of coaches also can lose teams to indifference, as Bears fullback Stanley Pritchett can attest. Pritchett was a Miami Dolphin playing for coach Jimmy Johnson in 1999 when a midseason Super Bowl buzz lulled the Dolphins into a false sense of security.
Johnson, whose grip on players was tighter in Dallas, got the Dolphins off to an 8-2 start, but they limped into the AFC playoffs losing five of their final six games. As the losses mounted, Pritchett recalled motivation being harder to come by than execution and Johnson reaching the boiling point more often than he reached his players.
“Once we started losing there was a lack of focus, guys going through the motions, and you could tell by body language we weren’t into games,” Pritchett said. “We’d get behind and players’ heads would start going down. A lot of players quit in some games and [felt] like they didn’t want to play anymore. Believe me, it’s a bad feeling to be on a team like that.”
Pritchett said he’s relieved the Bears aren’t a team like that. He credited Jauron for making subtle changes to increase the tempo and intensity of practices after the 1-5 start as monotony loomed. Players responded with energy, not lethargy, with more determination than dissension.
“A lot of guys could have gone in the tank, but that hasn’t happened,” Pritchett said. “It had a lot to do with Dick starting to do different things at practice to keep the team’s approach fresh and guys interested.”
Now Pritchett and his teammates have their interest piqued by what will happen to Jauron if the Bears don’t win all four of their remaining games. For a coach who has had only one winning season in five years, Jauron has won over his players convincingly.
“A guy who has been in the war before knows what it takes to win,” Pritchett said. “That’s important. He hasn’t forgotten what it’s like, and we appreciate that. It’s all about respecting the guy you’re playing for.”
To gain that respect, it’s all about the way a coach communicates, Levy says. He evaluates coaches on their ability to teach, to work well within the organization and to be honest. When it comes to keeping a team focused through adversity, Levy says honesty matters most of all.
“You can’t [deceive] your players,” said Levy, the winningest coach in Buffalo Bills history, who now lives in Chicago. “Don’t say to a right guard, `We’re bringing you in to be the starting right guard.’ Say, `We need a right guard and we’re bringing you in to compete for that job.’ It’s about being upfront. Players respect that.”
Levy’s 47 years of coaching experience taught him players don’t respect emotional rants, messages sent through the media or rulebooks thicker than playbooks. When Levy began coaching he had rules that included, he said with a chuckle, “nitpicking things, like having only one pat of butter at dinner.” Eventually, Levy adopted the more hands-off approach that makes Jauron so popular.
“I developed only two rules: Be on time, and be a good citizen,” Levy said.
He acknowledges how fine the line is in the NFL between trusting players enough to give them freedom and holding them accountable as professionals.
To wit, do Bears players respect Jauron so much because of his integrity or because he gives them an extra day off after wins and traditionally doesn’t run training camp like boot camp? Have the Bears lost an edge at the expense of Jauron not losing the team?
Running back Anthony Thomas doesn’t see it.
“Guys are bouncing around [at Halas Hall] and it’s not guys with their heads down, trying to get through practice or get through meetings because it’s the same old, same old,” Thomas said. “Now, guys have that taste in their mouths and want to finish the season right.”
Obviously, the Bears still believe they have a fighting chance, and Daniels knows that beats infighting any day.
“The sign of a good coach is one who can keep the team together in good or bad. Everybody in this locker room is in this together because that’s what Dick stresses,” Daniels said. “That’s what coaches always stress, but players don’t always listen. We do.”
