Being a head football coach not easy

When it comes to selecting a head football coach for a team, any team, at any level, it is important that person knows how to run a company successfully.

That’s because being the head coach of a football team is exactly like running a company. Makes no difference whether his expertise lies on either side of the football.

All that knowledge goes out the window because the head coach must look at the big picture at all times. He has to think not as a coordinator, but as a chief executive officer. All that other stiff is overrated.

There are those head coaches, however, who are successful because they achieve that delicate balance between the two jobs. It is an art that has eluded way too many coordinators who think they know how to handle an entire team only to find out differently once they get there.

And once they get there, they realize being a head football coach is a whole different animal.

The number of coordinators who fail far outweighs those who achieve success. As someone once told me, there are lieutenants and then there are generals among football coaches. Transitioning from one to the other is extremely challenging.

Perfect example of that is Freddie Kitchens, who was overmatched as the Browns’ head coach the day he accepted the job offer. That and his stubbornness doomed him. He just didn’t it know it at the time.

He believed calling plays for the offense would not be a deterrent to his main job. It got so bad, he eventually went into denial mode midway through the season, when the Browns were 2-6, and never recovered.

For whatever reason, he failed to accept responsibility for the numerous mistakes he made, both tactically and strategically, on game days. He never realized the main reason for that was his inability to look at the big picture.

He concentrated so much on running the offense, he lost sight of the fact there were two other aspects of the team. Too often we heard him in his post-game news conferences admit if he had to do it over again, he’d do it differently.

There were at least three and arguably four games this season the Browns could have – and should have – won with smarter coaching. It ultimately cost Kitchens a job for which he was not nearly qualified.

The role of the head coach basically is to coach his coaches. Then let the coaches coach the players. The head coach’s main responsibility is to look at and control the big picture.

He is the overseer. He brings the whole package together. His role is to establish a culture, make certain everything runs as smoothly as possible and if not, why not. Sort of like a CEO running a company.

e brings the wholepackage together. It’s a fine line to tread for most first-time head coaches, many of whom struggle out of the gate before finding their footing and realizing the big picture is what counts most.

That’s what makes the current situation with the Browns so critical. The Haslams and their selection committee must get it right this time or face yet another barrage of criticism that undoubtedly will be well deserved.