First off – what are you up to now?
I just launched my book Perseverance: Life Lessons on Leadership and Teamwork and am focused on getting that out out there. I’m proud of it – it took 18 months to write it with a lot of help from a lot of people. It’s my thank-you note to the game – utilizing the coaches, GMs, players In worked with throughout my career. From Pop Warner to NFL coaches – it teaches the game – including leadership principles. I teach a leadership course at the University of Miami Law School. I started coaching at Miami under Howard Schnellenberger.
What prompted you to write the book?
In 2023 I visited with Jim Harbaugh at Michigan. They did a Teach the Game meeting every night – they taught different aspects of football to the organization each time.
When I was with Jim in Los Angeles he then asked me to out together the Teach the Team program there. It was 30 sessions covering every aspect of football. When I was done I felt like there was a book there. It all starts with the quarterback position – understanding the game from their point of view was the most important thing. How they prepare and what happens in those 40 seconds between plays. It also covers leadership skills they need – players’ skills are developed on the filed – but leadership skills are developed as well. That’s a blindspot for some in sports.
The book is an easy read – I didn’t do it for the money. I did it to help teach other coaches and fans.
What surprised you most about what you found yourself writing about as you put pen to paper?
I realized two things. One – everything is interconnected – everyone in the facility contributes to winning and everyone is dependent on one another. That’s brought up throughout the book.
I also realized that you can teach the game but the game is still 11 on 11 – there are exponential variables. So I wanted the book to be conversational – not just an answer for things. There are a lot of ways to coach – I want the reader to be able to go into their meeting rooms and have conversations. I talk a lot about what goes on in meeting rooms and all of the fundamentals of winning from stiff arms and ball security to how you run practices to make sure players stay safe.
How/why did you get your start in coaching – who were your biggest mentors and why?
I drifted in the wind a lot as a coach – but when I look back Howard Schnellenberger and Bud Grant were the most impactful. Howard hired me as his quarterback ncoach when I was just a kid coming out of law school and Bud hired me when he came back from retirement when I was only 28 – that was young at the time to be an NFL coach.
How important was playing quarterback for you as a coach?
That’s a great question. I was in training camp for two years as a defensive back in Minnesota after playing quarterback in college. I think that helped me as an offensive coach more than anything. The key part for me was understanding how important it is to keep the quarterback safe. You see in a lot of practices defensive players just wanting to rush the passer and get to the quarterback. The defensive coaches have to protect thew quarterback to. But hurting the quarterback just ends your season. As a defensive coach you have to think about it at the macro level.
You backed up Tony Dungy in Minnesota – what did you learn from him then?
Tony was the same guy when I met him as he was when he went to the Hall of Fame. He was smart, even-keeled, competitive and intelligent. He was terribly authentic and was a good quarterback in college. Ironically he and I both were quarterbacks who played as defensive backs in the NFL.
I remember my first day in the locker room – it was Tony and Tom Moore. That’s how it all started for me.
What was Tom Moore like as a coach?
Tom coached hard. The one thing about Tom that was always clear to me – his greatest strength – was that he could make players believe they were better than the coaches thought they were. He could be gruff and coached hard but he was gifted in the way he expressed himself.
You coached in Cleveland (late 80’s) and Baltimore (2015-2016) – and beat the Steelers pretty good as the Chicago head coach – any good Steelers rivalry stories/gameplanning you can share?
The best memory I have was in 2013, when I was with Chicago and we beat the Steelers. I was in our locker room getting dressed when Art Rooney Sr. came in to congratulate me. I don’t know why he did that. It was an incredible feeling – that he took the time to come into our locker room to do that.
We beat the Steelers when I was with the 49ers, then with Chicago and Baltimore and Cleveland.
What was working for you and how you approached those Steelers defenses so successfully?
Dick LeBeau was an incredible coach. The Steelers always had a great run defense – we just felt like we could throw against them, and we did. When I cached with Bill Callahan we just decided we’d spread the defense out and have a better chance for success that way. It was always a great challenge – they were disciplined and tough defenses.
How would you define your approach as an offensive coordinator – what do you stress most?
One word I use is balance – but I define that as running when I want to run it and passing when I want to pass it. It was never about being 50-50 in a game – I wanted to attack a defense’s weaknesses – I didn’t care if it meant running or passing. Our job is to score points to have a specific number of runs or passes.
The first thing I’d do when gameplanning is to study a defense’s blitz reels to get the passing game organized. My job was to give the quarterback the ability to throw the ball and build the gameplan around that. It was about protecting the quarterback. I also liked physical backs who could catch the ball to help in the passing game.
There are a lot of coaches who are set on being physical running teams – like the Steelers for example…
I never cared about 50-50 or running the ball versus passing it – it was always about moving the football. Maybe sometimes you need to run the ball to control the clock – to keep guys like Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes off the field – that plays into it too.
What are the biggest mistakes you see offensive coaches making in the NFL today?
There are great coaches who sometimes only get seven points in a game. It happens. Blindspots for me are when you see playcalls that aren’t tied to pass protection. If you see a quarterback getting hit and sacked a lot unnecessarily that would be it I guess. But it’s the hardest coaching job – I hold those guys in high esteem, so it’s hard to answer that. No fan says after a game I wish they called more Cover 4 – but they’ll all talk about how they would have called plays differently.
As a coach who worked with so many great quarterbacks, what were the key lessons/traits you looked for that many surprise people?
The most important thing is accuracy in chaos. It takes courage, intelligence, elite leadership, vulnerability, empathy, consistency…those are all important. But you can have all of that, and if you aren’t delivering the ball with accuracy, you can’t succeed in the NFL. I speak about that a lot in the book.
Are you looking to coach again?
I’m not looking to coach, no. I failed more than I succeeded probably, but I never saw success as wins and losses. Success for me was serving the players. I knew I had the competency to coach, but competency isn’t leadership. Vulnerability-based leadership is real leadership.
Lastly – do you like the direction of the NFL? What excites and worries you most?
There’s a lot of commentary on where it’s going – but I think it’s still a great game. There are 28 teams with quarterbacks who can win the game in the last two minutes – that makes for really exciting football. I’m buying the NFL – the players are better developed as athletes and they are philanthropic, elite people, for the most part.