Trust is like respect — it’s earned, not given

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 29/06/2010 (5640 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

You have a lot of advantages going into a season under the direction of a new regime.

While opponents may have seem film of the new schemes you will be operating with, they have not seen them with your personnel and how the coaching staff may have tailored them to your team’s strengths. But at the same time, the one thing teams with a high attrition rate and new coaches are at a disadvantage with, as the 2010 season comes close to kicking off, is continuity and familiarity between the players and the staff.

One of the biggest components that continuity and familiarity breeds on a team is trust. Because so many of the players have not played together before or for the coaches instructing them, they do not necessarily have the trust or assuredness of their peers, as these qualities are usually earned and developed over time.

For example, a defensive end and a linebacker have to be able to trust each other in the heat of the moment when they exchange gaps in a run-stopping scheme or else a hole will be left open and the defence will be exploited.

A positional coach has to be able to trust his players to execute the techniques he has administered and to admit to a mistake on the field when he is trying to figure out how his player or scheme was defeated, instead of the next day after he watches the film. Even coaches have to trust one another that they will make the proper adjustments and handle their individual roles to the betterment of the team.

So this week, our coach has had players get up in front of their teammates, two every day in alphabetical order, and explain to the rest of the room who they trust and why, and the exercise is obvious in its purpose. The players need to be able to count on one another and believe in each other as soon as possible to be successful on the field.

When I first met with Coach LaPolice after he became our head coach in the off-season he caught me off-guard with this question, and I told him after a moment’s hesitation, that I trust veteran players when it comes to the personnel on a football team. It was a knee-jerk reaction and an easy one to suggest as it’s hard to necessarily trust players you haven’t played with before. You don’t know their habits, their tendencies and how they react to highly stressful situations. For the most part, you would think if a player has been successful enough to stick around for multiple seasons in the immensely competitive world of professional football, you figure he has adopted the right processes and practices and can be trusted to uphold his end of the bargain when it comes to being a part of a successful football team. But this is where I erred. After more deliberation on the question, I would now answer it more conditionally than before.

When it comes to people I trust on a football team, I would now answer that I trust veteran players I have played with who have certain qualities and characteristics about them on and off the football field. I would say that I trust players who do not come up to me as their player rep on the first day of the regular season and ask me to remind them on what day their salary will be guaranteed for the rest of the year. I trust those players who do not stop working out once they have made the team or feel like now that they have accomplished this small milestone they can tone it down and start taking it easy. I trust players who look forward to expanding their role, playing time and responsibilities on a football team with enthusiasm and are not easily overwhelmed. I trust those players who recognize that each and every one will make mistakes out on the football field at inopportune times, yet they will learn from them and take whatever steps necessary to try and prevent them from happening again and again. I trust those players who can actually handle and benefit from hearing constructive criticism about their play and don’t become so defensive and emotionally fractured that it never reaches them.

And finally, I trust those players who maintain their composure at all times and can put things in perspective whether they win a game by 40 or lose by the same margin.

Doug Brown, always a hard-hitting defensive lineman and frequently a hard-hitting columnist, appears Tuesdays in the Free Press.