Some things never change: Reed’s goal is perfection
‘I expect it of myself, I expect it of ... everyone around us’
He’s arguably the deepest-thinking coach in the Canadian Football League — a should-have-been-doctor and a one-man book club who was reads people just as well and just as quickly as the words on a page.
Over his two past years as the head coach of the Edmonton Eskimos, Kavis Reed has in many ways been a media scrum delight, capable of turning a straightforward question into a multiple-paragraph, insightful answer.
So when a broad question is posed to him — You’re entering Year 3 as the head coach of this team. What do you think you’ve learned from Year 1 to now? What’s changed? — his answer isn’t true to form.
“I would like to say a lot has changed, but not really a lot,” Reed said. Well, so much for that. With an even 18-18 record as a head coach, Reed has been consistent on and off the field. There will be no changes in his demeanour this season, he says, nothing different in how he does his job. The coach who talks just above a whisper off of the field will still be the same fiery, get-in-your-face sideline patroller in an ongoing feud with anything less than perfection.
The Reed who blew up on Joe Burnett last year in Toronto when the rookie returner/cornerback ran a punt out of the end zone when he should have taken a knee will be back. The Reed who an onfield TSN cameramen learned to keep out of microphone’s distance when something went wrong in games last year will be back.
That short-fused version of Reed seems to rub some fans the wrong way. They criticize him for acting out too much, for turning the sideline into a sideshow. Reed doesn’t see it that way.
“There’s no cookie-cutter approach to coaching,” he said. “A lot of people want you to conform to a certain ‘standard,’ but then you’re changing the personality, then you’re changing the individual.
“I’m very conscientious of the teaching aspect of it. Sometimes teaching a person means quietly putting your arms around them and telling them something and other times it means being demonstrative.
“That’s who I am and that’s always the way I’ve taught and coached and I feel very strongly that the players that I work with understand my personality.”
There’s a reason that his players understand his personality.
“You’ve got to think, a lot of players are like that, too,” said Eskimos linebacker J.C. Sherritt, another mellow young man off of the field, who came into the league as a rookie when Reed was a rookie head coach. “We’re goofing around, but once you stop on the field on game day … that’s par for the course for a lot of people.”
When things go wrong on the field, whether it’s a player or a coach who’s slipped up, Reed won’t hold back.
“When I get on the field I expect perfection. I expect it of myself, I expect it of the coaches, I expect it of the equipment management, everyone around us,” he said.
“I have a low tolerance for things that are not seen as chasing perfection and sometimes I display it. I never wake up the next morning having regrets, because I feel that the players and everyone around me knows that, ‘I love you to death and I’m going to love you to death, but I want to help extract the very best out of you in decision-making and performance.’ ”
Reed and Eskimos general manager Ed Hervey were a big part of why Sherritt so quickly re-signed with the Eskimos in December, putting any chance of free-agent talk to rest almost two months out from the Feb. 15 deadline. Knowing what to expect every day from his coach, Sherritt said, is a huge plus.
“You know that’s what you always get with him. You’re not going to get a different guy every day and he’s not going to flip-flop on who he is,” Sherritt said. “He’s Kavis and he’s someone you respect because of that.
“One thing in this business is people can pick out phoneys. If you try to be someone that you’re not, especially in a group this big, you’re going to lose respect. Honestly, it’s one of the things that I enjoy most about him and respect about him is the way he’s stayed consistent.”
“It’s football,” Reed said. “I don’t have an overbearing personality, I don’t believe that. I believe that as a coach you’re many things and the biggest one is to be a teacher, a life coach and it goes beyond the football field.
“It goes beyond just being that guy that says, ‘Go turn right at the 50-yard line and expect the ball.’ It means helping men grow in an environment that’s very challenging. Off the field, yes, I’m not as … colourful as many would think that I am on the field, but in the same way my intent is the same on and off the field.”
The question hanging over this season is if the consistency continues. Reed’s contract is up after this season.
“It’s something that’s been discussed,” he said.