Ricardo McDonald's Sportscity Blog

Former Cincinnati Bengal and Chicago Bears Line Backer Ricardo McDonald has joined the Sportscity.com team. Throughout each week, McDonald will bring his own perspective on all things NFL, from current games and news, to past experiences.

From Good to Great

Written by Ricardo McDonald on February, 20th 2008

The word greatness is sometimes greatly exaggerated. But I think that within the coaches’ rank in the NFL, there are truly noble coaches that stand out shoulder and above the competition. I often ask myself what separates a great coach from an average coach. Within the NFL ranks every team has talent; every team has a great supporting cast made up of assistants, scouts, GM’s, executives, staff, and fans. I once heard a quote by Ronald Reagan that said, “The greatest leader is not the one who is able to accomplish every thing, but the one who is able to make the people accomplish the greatest things.”

This quote is very profound, because the greatest coaches in the NFL, NBA, and MLB are the ones who are able to get their players first to believe that the dream of winning a championship is attainable and motivate those players to go out each practice and game to execute the game plan. Even though these teams have superstars, they play within the confines of the team’s philosophy and play together. Some of the coaches who come to mind are Vince Lombardi, Chuck Knoll, Don Shula, Bill Walsh, Jimmy Johnson, Bill Belicheck, and now Tom Coughlin.

What separates these top quality coaches from other coaches? Sure they have talent along with superstars just as the others do. However, there are 3 essential qualities that truly separate them from the rest of the pack:

1) CONFIDENCE – Some coaches will put in a game plan for the week and feel pretty confident that the plan is good enough to win, but there is a key factor that many fail to realize and that is the “game plan” is only as good as the paper it’s written on. The key factor is Execution. Execution of the game plan on every play and every down.
2) ATTITUDE – I believe that a team’s attitude has everything to do with whether you will be successful or not. I remember in 1998, having just signed with the Chicago Bears that during our training camp, we had some of the trainers from the Bulls come out to help. I had a conversation with one of them about the mind set and the attitude of the Chicago Bulls championship team. He told me they went into EVERY game knowing that beyond a shadow of a doubt, they would win. He also shared with me that their confidence was through the roof. Their fearless leader, Michael Jordan just would not let them be a good team; he wanted them to be great. The Bulls ended the season with an accomplished record that will, in my personal opinion, never be broken.
3) SUCCESS (Resilience) – The word resilience is a very powerful word. To measure the heart and the mind of a true champion is to show that someone or something is resilient. On every team you will have injuries, distractions, etc.; but the teams who are able to overcome adversity by being relentless and persistent, are able to achieve success.

Teams led by great coaches are able to attain ultimate success – GREATNESS if you will. Tom Coughlin was able to coach the New York Giants to pure “Greatness” during their Super Bowl XLII win over the highly favored New England Patriots. That’s a perfect example of “From Good to Great!”

You be the judge.

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