Ease limits on NFL coaches
Pederson, Harbaugh prepare for ‘humanly impossible’ restrictions
In his 10 years as an Eagles assistant coach, John Harbaugh left one major impression: He was comfortable speaking freely when others at the NewsControl Compound were measuring every syllable like the sideline crew stretching the first-down chain.
The projection of self-confidence likely led to Harbaugh’s success as the head coach of the Baltimore Ravens. So it wasn’t a shock when Harbaugh looked at the restrictions the NFL recently slapped on coaches and players during the COVID-19 scare and reflected what so many others were thinking.
“I think good people, smart people are involved in this,” Harbaugh said to Baltimore radio station 105.7. “But the way I’m reading these memos right now, you throw your hands up and you go, ‘What the heck? There’s no way this can be right.’”
To the NFL’s eternal credit, it has done the best job of any league, pro or college, of continuing to safely conduct business during a time of unreasonable restrictions on healthy people. It had a draft, using cyber-technology. It has made its coaches and players available for Zoom interviews. It has opened its facilities to groups of players, ordering better sanitization. And what locker room can’t stand to be a little tidier? Yet as training camp near, Harbaugh was wondering how football can be played under the limitations about to be ordered.
Are players in huddles supposed to remain six feet apart?
Really?
“I’ve seen all the memos on that, and to be quite honest with you, it’s impossible what they’re asking us to do,” he said. “Humanly impossible.”
Doug Pederson, often willing to stray from the expected coach-babble, saw the orders, too. Soon, he will try to run a training camp without the usual numbers of players in a weight room, or with important practice functions being spread over multiple fields, or while muffled by a face mask as he tries to explain nuances to a young quarterback.
Coaching is about adapting. And if the Eagles’ coach can find a way to win a Super Bowl by having an 11th-string tight end throw a touchdown pass to a second-string quarterback, well, he can plan for a preseason game while keeping a safe distance from Jim Schwartz. Rules are rules? “These are all protocols that the NFL, the NFLPA obviously must sign off on,” Pederson said the other day on a video conference. “Listen, we understand. I understand that this is a unique time in our society, in our country and our world. This is just what we’re faced with.
“So we’re going to make the most of it and use the resources possibly with the NovaCare facility and possibly with our stadium to take advantage of everything that we can. And the No. 1 thing here is making sure that our players and our coaches and all our staff are safe. That’s our most important aspect of everything right now.”
If football players wanted to be safe, they wouldn’t choose a line of work that often requires being slammed to the ground by a 350-pound man. So they know the dangers, and they have always known the dangers, no matter how they pretended otherwise during concussion-gate. This year, there will be additional risk of becoming ill. That makes it mandatory for the NFL to disinfect its locker rooms, identify and if necessary quarantine sick players … and then to enable a billion-dollar business to function.
The other day, a handful of players in the NFL’s two Texas outposts tested positive for a virus. They’ll receive excellent medical care and will have a good chance at healthy recoveries. Naturally, there were the quick warnings that an entire league will be imperiled. It’s pretty much what happens in sports when something happens: People yell.
The Eagles will do what they can in training camp, and are fortunate to have the usual outdoor practice facilities, the indoor field and, quite nearby, the Linc, which has multiple locker facilities and training rooms.
“We are going to keep everybody together, but we just might have to use the stadium and transition over there from time to time,” Pederson said. “We’re going to socially distance when we are inside the buildings. We’re going to wear masks. We’re going to do all the protocols that we’ve been asked to do and we’re going to make that work.”
Why not? Just because some wide receiver can’t create separation, it shouldn’t mean an NFL team should have its business license revoked.
“Are guys going to shower one at a time all day?” Harbaugh said. “Are guys going to lift weights one at a time all day? These are things the league and the players’ association need to get a handle on and need to get agreed with some common sense so we can operate in a 13-hour day in training camp that they’re giving us and get our work done.
“That’s the one thing you can tell by my voice. I’m a little frustrated with what I’m hearing there. And I think they need to get that pinned down a little better.”
When “humanly impossible” restrictions are being placed on healthy people trying to do a job, it’s the perfect time for that voice to be heard.