No Job Security in Professional Football
By: Matt, October 18th, 2006
The National Football League (NFL), which has become the best-run league and producer of America’s favorite sport, represents the pinnacle of professional sports leagues. Though not without its share of headaches and embarrassments, the NFL’s success, relative to that of the other major sports leagues, is enviable. As with most big businesses, though, the expectation of success at the top trickles down through the ranks so that the league and its followers collectively possess a “what have you done for me lately” mentality. And, unlike the rest of corporate America, where a lazy or under-producing employee can “go with the flow” and remain gainfully employed for many years, the NFL is very unforgiving.
On that note, Jim Fassel, former coach of the New York Giants and for the past 1+ seasons the offensive coordinator of the Baltimore Ravens, has been fired. The move was announced at a press conference on Tuesday morning by head coach Brian Billick, who himself went through a rigorous series of interview with new majority owner Steve Bisciotti and general manager Ozzie Newsome after the 2005 season to determine if he would return for the 2006-2007 season.
Billick, as those who follow professional football know, is back, but he is hanging by a thread to his position and, in addition to toning down his often-smug attitude, must win this year to keep his job. To follow the flow of the “must win” mentality, we start at the top.
As mentioned, the NFL is the most successful pro sports league in the country, due mostly to shrewd marketing, excellent television contracts and a labor agreement that splits power between players and owners (unlike Major League Baseball, which leans heavily towards players). NFL’s top executives have grown accustomed to success and expect nothing less than continued dominance in this arena. Team owners, likewise, thrive on winning seasons and some, like the Washington Redskins’ diminutive owner Daniel Snyder, will stop at nothing to win.
And so, head coaches must also win, or they will not keep their jobs. Assistant and position coaches who don’t get the job done therefore find themselves searching for employment at the end of the season (or during it) when they don’t perform, and players must produce in a relatively short window – football players have an average career of 3 and a half seasons – in order to keep their jobs and realize the payday that will make their post-playing days manageable.
Billick’s move to fire Fassel was a difficult one, as the two have been close friends for many years and met in Super Bowl XXXV in 2001 (Baltimore Ravens 34, NY Giants 7). However, Billick knows that he must win to keep his job and that the team can’t truly hope for the necessary level of success without tuning up the offense. Known as an “offensive genius” from his offensive coordinator days with the record-setting Minnesota Vikings, Billick will now call the plays himself, heaping all the responsibility on himself to turn the team’s sputtering offense around. The move is an interesting one for both football aficionados and the average manager out in the workforce because it represents a hands-on approach that is common neither in the NFL nor in the delegation-heavy layer of middle management that exists in corporate America. Billick’s test is one to watch not only for other head coaches in the NFL, but also for managers who, by necessity, must delegate authority but who ultimately will also go down in flames if their subordinates don’t produce.
The conundrum presented to Billick and his management-level counterparts in companies throughout the U.S. is not a new one, but the approach we’re going to see in the coming weeks may be a good old-fashioned way to deal with an age-old problem.
Tags: job security, nfl jobs
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October 30th, 2006 at 5:38 pm
[…] I wrote a couple of weeks back about Brian Billick’s new experiment as the Baltimore Ravens offensive coordinator. In his new job as both head coach and offensive coordinator (the latter of which was his old job in Minnesota from 1994-1999), Billick did just fine on Sunday. Ultimately, the Ravens’ win over New Orleans yesterday was as much about players executing and the defense again dominating the field as it was about Billick preparing the team. It has been noted by multiple players, however, that under Billick offensive meetings are longer, more involved and ultimately more educational, and that he puts the players in a better position to succeed on the field. While Billick can’t control how his players fare when game time comes, he can do quite a bit when it comes to preparing them. As offensive coordinator, Billick’s job is much like a manager’s job in a more traditional business setting. The manager can’t do all of the work - he has employees who are specialists in their given field to do that - but he can make the environment in which those specialists operate more conducive to success. In week 1 of the post-Fassel era in Baltimore, mission accomplished. Like it? Bookmark it!These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. […]