Samanthas Mom
My Lil Samantha
Member since 12/01 14111 total posts
Wedding Date:
8/25/2002 12:00 AM
Wed. Location:
fox hollow
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Re: FOOTBALL PEOPLE, DION WANTS TO BE A COACH!
ill try
its long
Deion Sanders's desire to become the coach of the Atlanta Falcons — which became known 10 days ago — has become a most amusing aspect of CBS's show "The NFL Today." Sanders isn't wishy-washy. He believes that despite his lack of coaching experience, he can do a better job than Dan Reeves.
Dan Reeves
"I'll guarantee you Deion Sanders cannot walk in and
start coaching the Atlanta
Falcons anywhere close to
the way I can."
Deion Sanders
"Dan, Dan, I didn't want to
do this... Atlanta's 50-58
since you've been in Atlanta...
You're right. I can't do it the way you can."
So far, Sanders said, his dream of coaching, which first became known in a Nov. 1 article on ESPN.com, has led to spontaneous support from fans and from players like Warren Sapp. "People in airports tell me, 'Coach, coach, they should give you a shot!' " he said in a telephone interview yesterday.
And he has a staff in mind. "Most of them are employed now, and I know their contract situations," he said. "I would say I could divulge a staff that has 15 to 20 Super Bowl rings and 150 years of experience. I've spoken to these people. They're very excited." He didn't divulge their identities.
So is this all a show? Sanders seems to be mixing a civil rights platform with a tongue-in-cheek poke at the league. And he is pursuing his quest in a brazen way. Some have ventured to say that he is insulting Reeves, a pillar of the National Football League for 38 years.
Who Gets Your Vote?
On Sunday's show, Reeves said in a taped interview, "Deion certainly doesn't understand what coaching is all about."
"I'll guarantee you Deion Sanders cannot walk in and start coaching the Atlanta Falcons anywhere close to the way I can," Reeves added. "Now he may think he can. But he can't do it."
Sanders countered by saying: "Dan, Dan, I didn't want to do this. You're talking about coaching the way you can. Atlanta's 50-58 since you've been in Atlanta. And the last 10 years you're 82-92. You're right. I can't do it the way you can."
This is no way to behave on a studio show! Lobbying for a coaching job is unseemly. Denial or subterfuge is the strategy. The prototype was Bill Parcells, who, while working for NBC after he left the Giants, was the Michelangelo of saying he did not interview with clubs he had clearly interviewed with. On Fox's pregame show, before Jimmy Johnson left to coach the Miami Dolphins, he wore a cap with the names of two teams he was said to be talking to or being pursued by.
Who knows how Sanders would respond if he actually had an offer from Arthur Blank, the Falcons' owner. Deion might also do the denial boogie, but he would be more amusing at it.
No one in the N.F.L.'s public relations office can recall a head coach who was hired without a coaching background. Some have ascended to head coach with only a year as an assistant. Matt Millen is the closest contemporary precedent: Millen, a former linebacker turned CBS and Fox analyst, went directly from TV to the Lions' front office, but he has had a checkered record.
"It would be fun to coach," Sanders said. "I don't demean or underestimate the job coaches do. I speak to 15 or 20 coaches a week and I understand their dilemma to come up with schemes and encourage players to complete week after week and go through injuries. I'm not minimizing their job, but I'm just raising a question: Who put this system in place?"
Sanders is simply asking why he cannot change the way coaches are hired, which would let him leapfrog the N.F.L. mandate that minority coaching candidates be guaranteed interviews for job vacancies they often are not asked to fill. Why, he wonders, can't he advance directly from his "NFL Today" regimen of preparation, on-air analysis and antics to the sideline?
"Is that a tradition?" he said, referring to the taboo against hiring coaches who lack a coaching background. "Where was that written? Are they afraid that I'm the person who could circumvent the system? When was this system implemented? It's not in basketball or baseball, so where did the system come from?
"It's like saying a coach can't coach me because he didn't play. If you know your stuff, you know your stuff. I was hired by CBS because of my knowledge of the game. So how can you hire me for my knowledge of the game, then say I'm not qualified to coach?"
He confessed that it would be helpful to have been an assistant coach, but he wouldn't want to be one; he also noted that Magic Johnson, Isiah Thomas and Larry Bird coached N.B.A. teams without first having been an assistant, and Pete Rose was a player-manager.
Sanders's role model is Bobby Bowden, his coach at Florida State, who delegated authority. "I get disturbed when someone in his right mind tells me a person can't do it," he said. "Don't tell me I can't do it. Tell me you won't let me do it, but don't tell someone who played a high level like I did that I can't."
Who would make a better Falcons coach?
Dan Reeves 73%
Deion Sanders 27%
Who dresses better?
Deion Sanders 62%
Dan Reeves 38%
Which other former player would make the best coach?
Steve Young 31%
Troy Aikman 27%
Phil Simms 26%
Cris Carter 7%
Tony Siragusa 5%
Michael Irvin 4%
Total Votes: 97,775
TROY HAS MY VOTE
 I have read two of his books, he is quite smart
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