Career-Boosting Qualities of NFL Coaching Legends
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Career-Boosting Qualities of NFL Coaching Legends
With football season almost upon us, we examine how the game's top coaches demonstrate qualities that would translate into success in any organization. -
Detail-Oriented: Bill Belichick
The Patriots' Belichick peppers his players with so many questions about the opposing team—"How long has he been with the team?" and "What's he most likely to do on third down with five yards to go?"—that The Wall Street Journal called him "The NFL's Scary Alex Trebek." -
Disciplined: Tom Coughlin
A stickler for punctuality, Coughlin is legendary for fining players for not showing up for meetings five minutes early when he coached the N,Y. Giants to two Super Bowl victories. -
Innovative: Bill Walsh
The late 49ers coach was so sure about the effectiveness of his intricate offensive game plans, that he'd literally script the first 25 plays and run them in order. -
Focused: Vince Lombardi
By driving his Packers to relentlessly study and practice one single play—the power sweep—Lombardi created a rushing offense that dominated the NFL in the 1960s. -
Talent Maximizer: Joe Gibbs
The former Washington Redskins' coach won three different Super Bowls using three different quarterbacks. -
Risk-Taker: Ron Rivera
He's known for taking so many gambles on the field—like going for it on fourth downs—that the Carolina Panthers' coach earned the nickname "Riverboat Ron." -
Multifaceted: Marv Levy
Levy took the Bills to four Super Bowls in the 1990s, but he's also a war historian and a published author of a book of poetry. He's also read the complete works of Shakespeare, Milton and Keats. -
Enthusiastic: Pete Carroll
The 65-year-old coach is known for his playful exuberance both on and off the field: riding his bike to work, doing impromptu pushups during film sessions, taking the team bowling and starting snowball fights with players.
If you've been feeling the effects of football deprivation for months now, the long wait is almost over: On Sept. 7, the Kansas City Chiefs take on the New England Patriots, the reigning Super Bowl champs, (literally) kicking off the regular NFL season. That game, of course, will feature the man who is widely considered to be the best coach in the game, Bill Belichick of the Patriots. Belichick is obsessive when it comes to preparation, a much-valued trait in business as well as sports. Most celebrated coaches, in fact, command a wide range of characteristics and skills that organizations look for in their executives and managers. With this in mind, we've come up with the following breakdown of essential qualities of top NFL coaches—qualities that are also valued in business and government. They include current coaches such as Belichick, Ron Rivera of the Carolina Panthers and Pete Carroll of the Seattle Seahawks, as well as legendary coaches of the past such as Joe Gibbs of the Washington Redskins, Bill Walsh of the San Francisco 49ers and Vince Lombardi of the Green Bay Packers. The range of decades represented here illustrates how certain leadership strengths—work ethic, people management and a commitment to innovation—have stood the test of time, whether on a football field or in an office building.