How a coach treats his players is essential to team-building and morale maintenance. For the best coaches, there is seemingly no room for preferential treatment, though sometimes there is more to all that than meets the eye.
There are superstars (if you're fortunate), stars, good players, and lower roster types on all NFL teams. Some make more money than normal people could spend in a decade. Others make a good living, called the "league minimum". Whatever they make, they do all right if they make an NFL roster. If they do well or excel, the sky's the limit.
So, how is an NFL coach, or a coach in any other top sports league, supposed to treat his players from the best to the lowest on the ladder? It's an interesting question and one that Mike Vrabel has addressed to some extent recently. It concerned his most highly paid player, free agent signee Milton Williams.
Mike Vrabel proves no player is safe from critique at start of Patriots' tenure
Pro Football Talk discussed an incident at a recent Patriots' practice that brought this situation into focus as it impacts the Patriots.
"The Patriots gave defensive tackle Milton Williams a huge contract in free agency, but that didn’t stop him from catching an earful from head coach Mike Vrabel at a voluntary workout this spring.
Williams shared the story at a Tuesday press conference in New England. Patriots players were doing sprints to a designated point on the field and back when Vrabel saw Williams easing up before reaching the finish line. Williams said that Vrabel told him 'don’t let them catch you' and went on to say that he’s happy to get called on the carpet because he thinks it will benefit himself and the rest of the team."
That's the upfront story, and it's a good one for Vrabel, Williams, and the Patriots team. Everyone is equal, and no one is entitled is the word around Foxborough. That's fine. However, the incident was also linked to Bill Belichick, suggesting that Vrabel took a page from Bill's book.
In a recent appearance on "The Pivot" podcast, Belichick spoke about how he treated every player the same, including Tom Brady. He and the best agreed that Brady had to be part of Bill's critiques. It was an insightful look at the tactic. Belichick also attributed the technique to coach Bobby Knight's treatment of Michael Jordan at the Olympics. But was there another example of that same tactic in Boston sports?
Celtics' great Red Auerbach and Bill Russell had a "gentleman's agreement"
Belichick may have learned the tactic from the great college basketball coach Bobby Knight, but it was employed years earlier by an even greater coach than he. That would be the inimitable coach and general manager, Red Auerbach of the Boston Celtics. The player involved was arguably the best NBA basketball player ever (OK, Michael Jordan is there too), and the inimitable champion was Bill Russell.
Auerbach had a deal with Russell that he'd have to lambast him along with the others to make everything seem equitable for his teammates. Of course, Bill Russell, the most outstanding team winner in American sports history, agreed. The rest, as they say, is history.
Tactics and techniques are seldom as obvious as they seem. Much of what's employed has been done before, but there's always room for innovation. In the case of Mike Vrabel's "calling out Milton Williams", rest assured that it's a tempest in a teapot. Great coaches employed similar tactics for decades, and the best learn from those experiences. Mike Vrabel is just ahead of the curve.
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