What skills do football managers and coaches need to build a successful franchise? Originally answered on Feb. 16, 2016.
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Answer by Bart Loews, who listens to way too much sports radio:
So much goes into running a football team. Football — sports in general — is a visceral escape from reality, but it's also a profession swimming in money and derivative markets. At its root, it's a business. Of course, the stakes are different than those of a normal business. Losing in football does not result in a franchise going bankrupt. In some cases, in fact, a lack of on-field success can make franchises more money. Even the losers can be winners off the field, as Redskins general manager Bruce Allen famously said of his team after it finished the season 5-11.
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What does it take, then, to build a successful franchise? There are many layers to the football business.
Start with a franchise's football operations staff:
- General manager
- Scouts
- Coaches
- Trainers
- Players
- Equipment managers
- Field management
- Stadium maintenance
- Creative "fan experience" designers (people who can jump on a trend, like Redskins QB Kirk Cousins's "You like that!" rant, for example.
- Security
- Contracts for concessions personnel
There also is the public relations crew, the people who manage schedules for interviews, work to present the best public face of the franchise, and maintain an in-house media operation. The people in the sales department sell tickets, premium seats and advertising. There is also a layer of executive-level staff.
I'm sure I've left off a lot of people, but a franchise is a complicated beast. The best-run organizations are run like highly successful businesses. There is communication from top to bottom. There's a reasonable bureaucracy in place that isn't insurmountable and moves quickly. Employees respect the employer and, more importantly, the employer respects the employees.
As we discuss what it takes to be a successful football franchise, we'll first focus on the football operations side. The first aspect is personnel management. The structure varies from team to team, but generally, the general manager is in charge. The coach, team owner and other executives have input in this area.
Scouting. This element is essential. Teams need quality talent to win, and they need to be able to identify that talent. The scouting department needs to accurately evaluate college players and project their futures based on everything scouts have available to them. It also needs to properly evaluate players on other NFL teams so that the right free agents can be signed and good trades can be made, among other moves. Finally, it needs to assess the current roster (including the practice squad) and objectively rank the players.
Cap management. The NFL employs a salary-cap system based on league revenue from previous seasons. Teams cannot go above the figure set at the beginning of the league year in March. Teams need to balance their scouting priorities and roster makeup. A team can't be full of high-priced, high-quality talent because the accompanying salaries won't all fit under the cap.
Roster management. NFL teams are limited to 53 players on the active roster (only 46 of them can be active on game day) and 10 players on the practice squad (other teams can "steal" practice squad players during the season by claiming them). That doesn't include players on injured reserve or other inactive lists.
In general, the way to build a roster is to acquire as much young talent as possible. Young players are generally less expensive than veterans because of the rookie salary scale. The approach allows teams to build depth economically. The most talented ones will stay, and teams will sign veteran free agents who can patch holes and provide leadership.
Training staff. There are a number of different areas in training: strength and conditioning coaches, medical trainers (local orthopedists are often used — trainers sometimes pay to be associated with the team).
Coaching staff. The head coach and coordinators focus on scheme. Position coaches tend to focus on skills. For example, a tight ends coach will teach a tight end how to block or run a pattern, and try to eliminate bad tendencies.
Game planning and scheme. This is the biggest area of all. The coaching staff has to devise a plan that's tailored to its team's strengths and can attack the opposition's weaknesses. Coaches use video of previous games (team staffers do the editing) to help make players aware of tendencies and keys that can be exploited during the next game. Much of a coach's time is taken up by watching film of his own team and the opposition and then planning accordingly. As the saying goes: Luck is 80 percent preparation, 20 percent opportunity. Even mediocre talent can produce decent seasons through superb preparation.
The coaches install the game plan on Wednesday if the game is on Sunday. The players are given plays to memorize and then practice them repeatedly until game day. The coach must make sure players are comfortable with the plan and understand the goal and vision for each game.
These particulars are unique to football, but in general, a sports organization is no different from any other business. Things work well when people feel good about their jobs, when there is open communication between all levels of management, there is no favoritism, and the right behaviors are rewarded. When people feel like they're contributing and moving in the right direction, everyone is more productive. This is a huge question and I hope I did it justice.