NFL players break the rules all the time and get away with it, yet for National Football League coaches, things aren’t usually as lenient. The coaches have stricter rules to follow or they will be fired in a heartbeat. This is because the coaches are more easily replaceable than the players, making the players the prized possessions, not the coaches.
The owners of the team try to get the best person to fill the coach positions, and sometimes when the coach is hired, he will bring players with him from the team that he previously coached. As long as the players are good, this is usually allowed.
Take Joe Gibbs, for instance. He got out of coaching and went to start up his own Nascar team in racing. Soon after starting the team, the Redskins called him for the head coaching position, so he put his son, J.D. Gibbs, over the Nascar team. Unfortunately, Joe has not been as successful coaching with the Redskins as he was with the previous football’s team, or with Nascar. Many people wonder why, and it’s probably because he is attempting to do too much at one time. The pressure of heading two major sports, especially in two totally different areas, can be difficult to handle. It would probably be a lot less stressful and frustrating if he were to choose only one thing to do at a time. Then he could focus on one thing, such as coaching, and do as great a job as ever, if not better. It would be really unfortunate if the pressure became too great and he lost one or both jobs because of it. Joe is a good coach and Nascar car owner, but in my opinion, he’s not ready to try to keep up with both sports.
There are other coaches who have fallen victim to the pressures of NFL coaching as well. Pete Carol, who coaches for the USC Trojans, didn’t make it in NFL even though he originally wanted to coach for them. Steve Spurier didn’t make it, either, despite the fact that he previously coached college football. He’s now head coach for the University of South Carolina. So as you can see, the lives of coaches aren’t as peachy as they seem. There is an insurmountable amount of pressure, frustration and competition for coaches in the NFL, just like for anyone else.