The Anatomy of an NFL Mind

After taking part in and observing many, many football conversations, if have found it most interesting how some football minds seem to connect parts of the game to parts of the human anatomy.  The comparisons are usually pretty accurate and explain, in lay-mans terms, some great fundamentals aspects of the game of football.

Take for example, a Twitter conversation that went something like this...

@whoever "This coaching staff needs to go with it's gut, not what the fans or Snyder thinks"

@theotherguy "Haz's gut is not so good...too big of balls to run that cover 0 when the game is on the line"

@whoever "Yeah, Haz has balls, but his 'gut feeling' is WAY off."

@theotherguy "Just has to use his head more than his gut and call a good game"

@whoever "IDK if it is schemes, balls, gut or lack of heart from some players"

@theotherguy "Prob a little of all of them.  At least we know Morgan has some good hands"

@whoever "Trent Williams has been a montster too...guy is strong as an ox and great feet"

I am sure these guys could have went at this conversation all night...but it made me think about how body parts were used to relate to make the complex inner-workings of NFL football coaching much easier to understand.  Here is a few...

Balls

So, I would say that a coach having balls is considered a good thing, for the most part, in the NFL. In this case, having "balls" represents having courage or confidence.  If you have to little, that's a problem, and if they get too big, that's a problem.  Though a necessary part of success at times, the wrong size balls can complicate any mistake made.

Gut

Whether you have the balls to trust your gut, I would imagine coaches have to be able to trust their gut.  Of course, in this situation "gut" refers to one's intuition or decision making skills.  I suppose you need to have experience,  experienced some success, grown decent balls, and then use your gut.  A coaches entire well-being revolves around their decision making skills. You want a coach who can go with his gut.

Head

If you have the right amount of balls, a reliable gut, then the next part of the winning recipe is being able to keep your head.  The phrase "keep your head" means staying calm and collected during high stress situations.  The greatest players and coaches in history were cool as ice under pressure.

Heart

Despite physical talent and game smarts, everyone knows playing in the NFL at this high of a level takes an eminence amount of heart, even from the coaching level.  Heart represents the passion to perform against the strongest of competition.  Any wavering in heart by a coach and the team will fall apart.

An Eye

You could have all the answers in coaching but if you do not have an eye you may not find the right answers in time.  An "eye" refers to the coaches ability to recognize talent and read the opposing team...find and exploit mismatches, establish a game plan and call a good game.  A coach with a great eye can find success, making this perhaps one of the most important aspects of coaching.


I am sure each of us has our own theories of how our current Redskins coaching staff matches up.

Hail to the Redskins