After the Washington Redskins beat the San Diego Chargers in dramatic fashion in overtime last Sunday at FedEx Field, defensive coordinator Jim Haslett’s form of celebration included a trip to Redskins Park in the wee hours of Monday morning to begin a roughly 201/ 2-hour workday. With the Redskins set to play again Thursday night at Minnesota, there was much to be done and no time to waste.
“You do spend a lot of hours, especially this week,” Haslett said at midweek, standing outside the team’s indoor practice facility at Redskins Park. “With the Thursday night game, I think Monday I came in at like 2:30 [in the morning] and went home at 11 [that night]. So it catches up to you after a while.”
Those in the NFL’s coaching fraternity were dismayed but not overly surprised when two of their own, head coaches John Fox of the Denver Broncos and Gary Kubiak of the Houston Texans, suffered recent health scares. Among NFL coaches, putting work ahead of health issues isn’t just commonplace; it’s practically part of the job description.
“You always do that,” said Haslett, the former head coach of the New Orleans Saints. “That happens. Guys get sick, and there’s no days off. It’s not like you take a day off. I’ve never been around a coach that said he’s got the flu, he’s not coming in. They all come in.”
Kubiak, 52, collapsed on the sideline as he began to leave the field at halftime of the Texans’ loss last Sunday night to the Indianapolis Colts. He was taken to a hospital by ambulance, and the team later announced he had suffered a transient ischemic attack, “also called a ministroke” according to the Mayo Clinic’s Web site. It also “means there’s likely a partially blocked or narrowed artery leading to your brain, putting you at a greater risk of a full-blown stroke that could cause permanent damage later.”
By Thursday, Kubiak visited the Texans’ practice. The Houston Chronicle reported he could coach the team next weekend barring a setback.
Fox, 58, underwent heart surgery Monday to replace his aortic valve. He reportedly had been hoping to put off the procedure until after the season but was told by his doctor he couldn’t wait that long after he felt light-headed while playing golf last weekend in Charlotte. Defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio has taken over as the team’s interim coach.
Fellow coaches have no way of knowing to what extent, if any, the demands of their jobs contributed to the health issues of Fox and Kubiak. But they do know that health concerns regularly take a back seat to the football-related tasks at hand.
“What you’re dealing with is a very high-risk, very rewarding business,” former longtime NFL coach Dan Henning said in a telephone interview this week. “And it happens to be something we like to do. You get almost addicted to the fact that you can’t wait until Sunday for a chance to compete.”
The coaching stakes are perhaps higher than ever, with some NFL coaches’ salaries topping $7 million annually. Job security and longevity are fading memories, and the head coaching ranks league-wide turn over almost completely every few years. Scrutiny has intensified with the 24-hour news cycle, and praise and blame are handed out nonstop by experts and non-experts alike.
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