The Madden Curse: It is Contagious?

The Madden Curse. Those who have appeared on the cover of Madden NFL games have had to fight off the curse that comes with it, be it injury or a disappointing season. It's real right? And highly contagious? I didn't catch the main strain, but a brand-new hybrid - the fan curse. I am a walking agent of losing.

Symptoms? Whoever I pull for loses. That's tough enough. However, the losses only start to pile up when I turn on the tube to watch my team. If they do not lose, then they take a dive as soon as I tune in. It has a devastating effect, for whatever reason. Sometimes, I don't even have to watch the game, just keep tabs on it and the team tanks. Highly infectious.

Peyton and Co. blew a 24-0 lead they had to lose to the Pats. That's when I turned the game on. Tennessee lost to Georgia, blowing their shot only after I began checking in, immediately following a wedding. On the hardwood, the only loss Duke has suffered this year is the one that I sat down to watch. Oh yeah, sorry Cardinals.

Rationally, I know that there is no way that tuning into a game can affect the team and their outcome, yet the correlation and reach of this diseased curse is staggering.

There are only two possible solutions to assist my team. First, never watch a game or check the scores until the clock hits zeroes. Second, become a rogue agent of athletics, and pull for teams that I never would before in order for them to tank and my teams turn things around.

The first option is almost impossible as I am a self-proclaimed sports nut that loves to watch. I would even watch a Browns/Raiders game because I love to watch that much. So avoiding a game that my team is in would be infinitely impossible.

Go Ducks! Just practicing as it seems that pulling for teams that I loathe in order to put the hex on them is a more viable option. Attempting to put the curse on the opposite team is my only recourse, right?

Competition is unpredictable. One fan tuning in can't change the outcome of a contest. I don't get in the head of a QB when I am sitting on my couch. It's hard to get past it, but here is no fan curse.

It comes down to preparation and execution. Positive plays and turnovers. Coaches versus coaches. It comes down to the decisions that everyone involved with the team makes, not me.

My doctor just recommended this - Go Buckeyes - just to be safe.

Play 'Em All: Allowing Kids to Play Multiple Sports

As a coach, let kids decide which sports they are going to play.
Don't make them pick.

Some coaches have rules against it. If it isn't directly stated, it is usually implied. Schedules are made so that there isn't room for anything else. You make kids choose. 

If you are like most coaches, your team isn't brimming with D1 talent that you can easily recognize in the seventh or eighth grade. A kid doesn't come into your office, or classroom, and say, "Coach, I want to dedicate myself only to (insert sport here) because I know I am that talented or dedicated that it will be my future." While some of you may have had this happen, most of us can't relate. 

The reality is that there are millions of kids who play ball who don't make it past high school.

Why make kids give up a sport sooner than they have to?

Don't!

High school and junior high especially are training grounds. It isn't until then that they can really give it an honest shot to choose one sport anyone. Just think, a kid playing youth ball that is voluntarily coached by a dad, you know, the one whose son is actually a guard, but somehow is the best QB on the team. How many times have you either seen or heard something like this happening. It's not until kids get an honest coaching shot, that they should even consider one sport over another. 

Let kids play 'em all. 

Kids should play everything. Not only does athletics build many of the character traits they will need for the rest of their lifetime, but it makes kids better athletes. A certain skill in one sport, can hone another skill in a different sport. Baseball requires that kids learn to see the ball and focus on it. Doesn't that help your wide receivers? Aren't good pitchers usually good QBs? A post player on the basketball team works one-on-one, using their hands all the time. Don't your defensive ends do this too? 

Have you ever heard a coach say, “I can't wait for my guys to come into summer camp out of shape? Lying on the couch all summer will surely give us an edge?" Of course not. Football coaches should want kids coming into camp that have been playing ball all summer, who are conditioned, and have been competing. Basketball coaches should want the same thing when the winter rolls around, right?

The only issue that could arise is other-sport practices while your sport is in season. Work this out with the coaches of the other sport. Create a cooperative system that benefits you both. It will benefit you both.

This shouldn't even apply to junior high. Let kids go to basketball practice on days when you don't have football. Let kids be kids and play them all. We have the opportunity to have summer workouts and conditioning early in the summer. The problem is that's the heart of baseball season in our area. I will hold off the beginning of my practices because I know that so many kids are playing baseball. Those that can make it, will. Those that have practices or games, they are excused as they are still in season.

Be telling a kid to pick a sport, they may be deciding between two things, or more, they already love. Let them decide when it is time to choose. In the mean time, tell them to, "Play 'Em All!"

Essential "P"hilosphy

If you don't have one, then you need one. If you haven't thought it out, then it's something that you need to. Your coaching philosophy - it's what should guide you along your coaching career.

Whether you have one written out and saved away deep in a computer folder, or you have never given your personal philosophy a thought, let me help you shape it.

Coaching is a balancing act. Sometime we have to play the good guy and the bad guy. Both are necessary. Ultimately, however, you have to decide if you are the good guy or the bad guy in your coaching identity. A good guy can't be negative with his guys all of the time, while a bad guy can't be positive all of the time. You are what you are, and will you will be what you decide to be. The choice you make will determine your coaching course. 

I am a good guy. I don't try to hide that. I am a players first, hyper-positive coach, who will rarely yell, yet have found success. I pride myself in having great relationships with former players years after they leave my practice field. To me, this game is more than just a game. It's a life-lesson, and when I have kids who tell me they loved playing the game with me as their coach it makes every why-in-the-world-do-I-coach-football kind of day worth it. If a coach tells you they haven't had those days, they either are lying or have just started.

From that experience, I believe that there are three essentials that need to be added; three things that you need to be.

Be Positive. Be Proactive. Be Proud.

Be Positive.

Simple. Say positive things. Do positive things.

When you are a hammer, everything looks like a nail. If you take the stance that everything is wrong in the world except you, then, yeah, everything looks that way. We can't perpetually see things this way. It's bad for football. It's bad for your health. If all you do is tell a player what they are doing wrong, that's a self-esteem killer. While it may build you up, it breaks them down.

To be positive, you have to work to find good things sometimes. And that's great because it means you are looking, that you are analyzing. Football can be messy and ugly. It's easy to jump a kid because he missed a block. It's easy to make him feel like the worst football player ever. But can you make him feel like the best player ever. Can you take a negative, and build it into a positive. He may have missed the block, but he fires off the line. Then coach him up. Don't just jump bad habits or plays. See the positives, pull them out, and then correct the negatives. That's why we are in this, right? It's called coaching, not showing kids up.

Let kids know when they are doing well. It will save everyone grief down the road because they will be more receptive to what you are saying to them, and they won't develop some complex, constantly worrying if they are good enough. They are.

Be Proactive.

When calling a good football game, you have to be one play (if not more) ahead of the guy on the other sideline. Try taking this approach with your players like you do your practices. 

To prevent fumbles, you work on exchanges and ball-carrying drills. To prevent false starts, you rep plays out and constantly remind your guys. To prevent fatigue in the fourth quarter, you do wind sprints and run hills and do grass drills and run laps and more wind sprints and on and on and on. If you do it in practice, try it with your players.

This will be harder to do with players, but can be done. Do you love wasting practice time running the whole team because the locker room is a mess? No one does. This is an example of where we can be proactive. Make yourself present in the locker room. Let the kids see you in there. Other than covering your tail if something like a hazing incident occurs (which they do), you can get to know your kids - their personalities, sense of humor, even what they look like without a helmet on. By being proactive and settling clear guidelines which you and your staff oversee, you can keep small problems from becoming big distractions.

Be Proud.

Here is a redundant, philosophical phrase: I take pride in being proud.

I am proud of my kids. We put them through things physically that would take us days to recover from. We demand the best from them every time they are on the field. We expect them to sit through a film and grease-board session for 45 minutes when we know they can't sit through 20 minutes of geometry. Football players, and other athletes, have higher expectations than students who don't participate in sports. We monitor their grades more closely, keep tabs on their in-school behavior, keep them out late on school nights and expect them to do all we ask with marginal error and ultimate success.

So when a kid hangs in there and doesn't walk away from the game, I am proud of him. Uber proud.

Too many times I have seen kids endure all of the blood, sweat, and tears and excel on the gridiron to look up and see that their parents aren't there to see them. How many of us can identify with having to take our best players home after practice because no one bothered to pick them up. I have been there and walked that. It's disappointing as a coach. It must be crushing as a player.

That's why I am proud of my kids. If they mess up, they're still trying, still fighting. I will be there for them during the wins. I will be there for them during the losses. We preach team; sometimes we preach that football is family. Family doesn't quit, doesn't abandon. Family doesn't feel ashamed; neither do I. I am proud of all of my boys. I am their number one fan. Sometimes, we are their only fan.

So while I can't make do things like creating a new offense that would spread like wildfire in the prep ranks, I can pass on some advice and some things that have helped me grow as a coach. 

If this helps, which I hope it does, let me know. 

Young coaches just starting out, write out a philosophy regarding the way you coach/want to coach. It will open your eyes to what you want to be. Even if you are the most seasoned of coaches, take a moment and evaluate your philosophy. After all, every good coach steals a play from another coach along the way.

The Screen-Option Pass

The spread offense, especially the no huddle, has taken the football world captive. A football enthusiast is less likely to find power running offenses than the pass-happy spread.

However, the spread attack does have it's place in a power-based offense, especially the screen-option pass.

In calling it the screen-option pass, I am combining the bubble screen, with the option for the QB to give it to the RB or pass based on the number of defenders in the box.

In a typical power running offense, such as the double wing, defenses can and will load up the box to stuff the power run game. By adding the screen-option from a spread look, the offense forces the defense to adjust, while still enabling the same style of run game. It's a simple adjustment splitting tight ends and wings out. The QB can remain under center, while the fullback would need to be adjusted deeper, or run counter action, which I prefer, to allow for power/pulling guards taking on the middle backer.

If six defenders are in the box, run it. More than that, pass it. That's the option aspect. It's a pre-snap read by QB giving him the choice.

When throwing the pass, the action for the QB is to reverse out, fake handoff and throw the ball to the wing. The pass is made to the same side as the fullback is running to, putting pressure on outside backers. Backside split outs block, as well as back-side tackle. Play-side tight end cracks to outside backer, springing the wing for one on one.

This simple play doesn't alienate run-first offenses, it just creates an easy wrinkle for the defense to account for. In youth and junior football, a quick, play-action pass can be a quick-hit touchdown.