By Bruce Allen
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This is another peek inside Bill Walsh’s Finding the Winning Edge.

There is a chapter entitled “Handling The Pro Athlete” which deals with ways in which to promote sound player relations. It also addresses challenges that can arise, including substance abuse, diversity in the locker room, domestic violence and player assistance programs.

The chapter concludes with a look at the “Future dynamics of player relations” and tries to forecast circumstances and factors that may affect player relations in the future. Keep in mind that this book is now 10 years old, having been published in 1997. See if what Walsh predicted has come true:

• Players will become even more preoccupied with “self.”
• Agents will become even more dominating factors in the lives of the players they represent; these agents with provide counsel on all matters involving their players and will act in a self-serving manner.
• Only the most informed (i.e. knowledgeable) and most talented (i.e. demonstrated ability to teach) coaches will gain the respect of players.
• Because of the money involved, players will be even more concerned with their current situation, as opposed to having a long-term perspective.
• Players will give even more attention to their “unique image”; as such, the media will become even more of a major factor in the player’s life.
• As they earn and accumulate wealth, players will be even more susceptible to the “lure” of an unacceptable life-style.
• Players will reprioritize their sense of loyalty; their allegiance will be given to their agents first, then to their friends, and next to the media. In this regard, the team will not fare well.
• Players will be even more inclined to engage in histrionics on the field during the game. Such attention-seeking demonstrations will continue to be an outgrowth of a player’s attempt to achieve notoriety by drawing attention to himself.

These were only some of the items mentioned in a rather lengthy list. Of the above, I found several particularly interesting. The third one down, which deals with coaching, seems to fit well with Bill Belichick, who certainly fits both criteria. It also fits a coach like Mike Shanahan. These two are among the longest tenured coaches in the league and certainly considered at the top of the coaching pile.

The role of agents in the lives of players is right on the money, as well as the obsession with image. The “unacceptable life-style” one I found interesting. Could this apply to someone like Michael Vick, who perhaps felt that he was protected from the consequences of his actions somehow?

The last item is one that has become an everyday occurrence among all athletes. From Terrell Owens to Chad Johnson, Ray Lewis, and yes, Randy Moss, these on-field demonstrations just seem to get more prominent each season, despite the efforts of the league to keep them more subdued.

Was the coach a prophet here, or were these things easy to predict? Talk about it in the comments.

This is another look into Bill Walsh’s Finding the Winning Edge.

Chapter 10 of the book is entitled “Designing a Winning Game Plan.” Within this chapter, all the elements of what needs to be considered in building the game plan are discussed. A lengthy section of the chapter deals with Situation Offense. It is noted that there are at least nine different categories of situational offense: Normal down and distance in the open field, Backed-up, Third down, Fourth down, Red zone, First and goal, Goal line, 2-point play and Blitz.

The Patriots do a lot of situational offense work, and it has been specifically mentioned here and in the newspapers. I thought we’d look at one of those situations, and see what Walsh advises when the offense is backed up inside its own ten or five yard line. There are 13 priorities mentioned here that should be considered:

• Moving the ball past at least the five yard line.
• Selecting core plays which are low-risk.
• Reducing the chances of fumbling by limiting ball-handling to key players.
• Selecting plays from the short-yardage selection of your game-plan.
• Cutting off defensive penetration with a double tight-end formation.
• Utilizing a close flanker to block the blitzing strong safety.
• Selecting passes which emphasize ball control.
• Selecting ball-control passes which are thrown to the outside (i.e., passes thrown over the middle are more likely to result in either an interception or a fumble caused by a forceful hit on a relatively exposed receiver by a defender).
• Throwing the ball deep to change the momentum and keep the defense off the field.
• Throwing passes only to the strong-hand side of the quarterback (i.e., a right handed quarterback should pass to his right).
• Avoiding plays in which both guards pull.
• Attacking the defense between the ends.
• Deciding if taking the safety is an acceptable option.

We can see that some things are obvious – using low risk plays, giving the ball to your sure-handed players, but the interesting one to me was the last one…taking the safety. We know that Bill Belichick and the Patriots did this memorably in a Monday night game in Denver a few years back…a play that was thought to be unorthodox, but was really one of the clear options for that particular situation.

When the legendary San Francisco 49er’s coach died on July 30th, one of the things that came out in the days following was Bill Belichick talking about the 1997 book that Walsh wrote with Brian Billick and James Peterson called Finding the Winning Edge. The Patriots coach had high praise for this book, declaring it a must-read for any one involved in coaching.

I managed to get my hands on a copy of the book…no mean feat since used copied are being sold for as much as $600 on Amazon.com. I thought that over the course of the season, we might take a look at various bits of advice from the book as it relates to the Patriots and the situations they might be facing at that particular time.

When talking about training camp, Walsh talks about teaching the system to the players, and near the start of the chapter, says:

Whatever the offensive or defensive philosophy of the head coach however, the core of any type of detailed preparation is the need for maximizing meaningful repetitions. Accordingly, as the head coach, you have to develop and implement a plan that ensures that every player gets the meaningful repetitions he needs to refine his skills and techniques.

When you think about the fact that there are 70+ players in a training camp, the importance of organization is really highlighted. The players aren’t just running through drills, it needs to be ensured that they’re getting the right drills and reps appropriate for their position so that the coaches can see their strengths and weaknesses, and thus address each.