Mike Finger: Cowboys no longer live in fear
San Antonio Express-News
Wade Phillips says NFL coaches can't use fear as a motivator anymore. One of his players wonders why they ever even tried.
"Why should players be scared of a football coach?" Dallas Cowboys linebacker Bobby Carpenter said Tuesday. "It's not like we're living in Russia in the 1970s."
But even Carpenter knows it's not always that simple. He never lived in the shadow of the KGB, but he did play under the iron fist of Bill Parcells. And Carpenter admits there were a couple of times, in his weaker moments, when the Tuna made him waver.
For the Cowboys of the past four seasons, that's just how life was.
"Every day," tight end Jason Witten said, "Bill put fear in me."
Now the Cowboys are led by a guy who doesn't strike fear in the heart of any man, save for maybe the manager of an all-you-can-eat onion rings joint. Phillips doesn't threaten players, he doesn't berate them, and he hardly even finds the need to raise his voice.
He's laid back, he's completely unimposing, and can appear so mind-numbingly dull that he joked Tuesday evening that his press conferences could be nicknamed "Wade Phillips and the Crickets."
But to hear his team tell it, he's also exactly what the Cowboys needed.
Coaching personalities often come in extremes, and one is usually followed by the other. In any sport at just about any level, a team that fires a "players' coach" who has lost control of the locker room looks to replace him with a disciplinarian. And in turn, the control freaks accused of sucking the life out of their teams always end up getting replaced by guys like Phillips. That's just the way it works.
The last time the Cowboys held training camp in San Antonio, Parcells was so infuriated by the antics of the team mascot on the sidelines that he banished "Rowdy" from the building indefinitely. Now the mascot is back, and you get the feeling that if push came to shove this time, the cartoon cowboy would be the one booting Phillips out the door.
Some of his players laugh at the perception of Phillips as an unassuming pushover, but they all say they respect him, and there's already evidence to support that. When the team checked in for camp last week, every player did so at or under the weight Phillips had mandated for them. Parcells never was able to make that claim in Dallas, even with his well-chronicled ability to make players' lives a living hell.
A change can also be noticed on the Cowboys' daily injury report, which is growing to lengths that wouldn't have been tolerated by the previous regime. Under Parcells and his constant reminders that "football players play football," missing a practice due to anything less than a severed leg was one of the most grievous offenses a player could commit. Under Phillips, players rest minor injuries knowing they won't be forever banished to the doghouse for failing to suck it up.
That doesn't mean the players feel as though they can walk all over their new coach. It's just that they now know they have a longer leash.
"Every coach has a line you're not supposed to cross," said nose tackle Jason Ferguson, who played for Parcells with the Jets and the Cowboys. "But with Bill, it was a circle. And he kept us all inside."
And after a while, that wore on players, even the ones who once considered themselves Parcells supporters. Witten said he knew he was going to enjoy playing for Phillips when the new coach told him his philosophy was to have the players be accountable for each other, not to Phillips. According to Witten, "that wasn't the case on this team the last few years."
"I know when I mess up," Witten said. "I don't need to be yelled at to know it. So being able to be appreciated, and treated like a man and an adult out here, is good."
That's exactly what Phillips was talking about last week, when he reminisced about his father's heyday. Back then, a coach knew he could keep a player in line by threatening to cut him, so discipline was easier to come by. Now in the era of guaranteed contracts, Phillips says the key is "trying to convince them to do something instead of (using) fear."
That's not exactly something a KGB agent would say. But for Wade and the Crickets?
It works just fine.
Wade Phillips says NFL coaches can't use fear as a motivator anymore. One of his players wonders why they ever even tried.
"Why should players be scared of a football coach?" Dallas Cowboys linebacker Bobby Carpenter said Tuesday. "It's not like we're living in Russia in the 1970s."
But even Carpenter knows it's not always that simple. He never lived in the shadow of the KGB, but he did play under the iron fist of Bill Parcells. And Carpenter admits there were a couple of times, in his weaker moments, when the Tuna made him waver.
For the Cowboys of the past four seasons, that's just how life was.
"Every day," tight end Jason Witten said, "Bill put fear in me."
Now the Cowboys are led by a guy who doesn't strike fear in the heart of any man, save for maybe the manager of an all-you-can-eat onion rings joint. Phillips doesn't threaten players, he doesn't berate them, and he hardly even finds the need to raise his voice.
He's laid back, he's completely unimposing, and can appear so mind-numbingly dull that he joked Tuesday evening that his press conferences could be nicknamed "Wade Phillips and the Crickets."
But to hear his team tell it, he's also exactly what the Cowboys needed.
Coaching personalities often come in extremes, and one is usually followed by the other. In any sport at just about any level, a team that fires a "players' coach" who has lost control of the locker room looks to replace him with a disciplinarian. And in turn, the control freaks accused of sucking the life out of their teams always end up getting replaced by guys like Phillips. That's just the way it works.
The last time the Cowboys held training camp in San Antonio, Parcells was so infuriated by the antics of the team mascot on the sidelines that he banished "Rowdy" from the building indefinitely. Now the mascot is back, and you get the feeling that if push came to shove this time, the cartoon cowboy would be the one booting Phillips out the door.
Some of his players laugh at the perception of Phillips as an unassuming pushover, but they all say they respect him, and there's already evidence to support that. When the team checked in for camp last week, every player did so at or under the weight Phillips had mandated for them. Parcells never was able to make that claim in Dallas, even with his well-chronicled ability to make players' lives a living hell.
A change can also be noticed on the Cowboys' daily injury report, which is growing to lengths that wouldn't have been tolerated by the previous regime. Under Parcells and his constant reminders that "football players play football," missing a practice due to anything less than a severed leg was one of the most grievous offenses a player could commit. Under Phillips, players rest minor injuries knowing they won't be forever banished to the doghouse for failing to suck it up.
That doesn't mean the players feel as though they can walk all over their new coach. It's just that they now know they have a longer leash.
"Every coach has a line you're not supposed to cross," said nose tackle Jason Ferguson, who played for Parcells with the Jets and the Cowboys. "But with Bill, it was a circle. And he kept us all inside."
And after a while, that wore on players, even the ones who once considered themselves Parcells supporters. Witten said he knew he was going to enjoy playing for Phillips when the new coach told him his philosophy was to have the players be accountable for each other, not to Phillips. According to Witten, "that wasn't the case on this team the last few years."
"I know when I mess up," Witten said. "I don't need to be yelled at to know it. So being able to be appreciated, and treated like a man and an adult out here, is good."
That's exactly what Phillips was talking about last week, when he reminisced about his father's heyday. Back then, a coach knew he could keep a player in line by threatening to cut him, so discipline was easier to come by. Now in the era of guaranteed contracts, Phillips says the key is "trying to convince them to do something instead of (using) fear."
That's not exactly something a KGB agent would say. But for Wade and the Crickets?
It works just fine.
posted by The Gryphon at 6:30 PM
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