Genius

Buddy Ryan, defensive coordinator for the Bears’ Superbowl XX team, died the other day at age 85.  It appears that he was a genius.

Ryan’s claim to fame was the 46 defense, named for the jersey number of Bears’ safety Doug Plank.  What Ryan’s defensive scheme did basically was have eight players up front or eight in back, and it worked perfectly.  Of course, that may have something to do with the fact that the ’85 Bears had future HOFers Richard Dent and Dave Hampton on the line with Mike Singletary, another HOFer, at middle linebacker, and they were surrounded by a bunch of B+ talent.  That team could have played any defense it wanted, including the double tiddlywinks, and still won.  It’s the same with Phil Jackson and his triangle offense.  Whatever it was, it worked with the Bulls, largely because two gods from Olympus, Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, ran it, then on to LA with Kobe Bryant.  Either of those teams had the personnel to play man-on-man, fast break, pick-and-roll…

So, what exactly is the value of coaching in professional sports?  Good question.  A coach or manager has to recognize talent and then fashion an attack around it.  But, no matter how good the coach, no talent no attack no wins.  I think coaches have the biggest impact when they come into new situations where the old regime royally screwed things up.  Provided there’s talent on the roster, the coach can plug it in and sit back; the results will show up soon enough in the box scores.

On a lesser level, a coach can get individual players to believe in themselves and thereby “discover” otherwise “lost” talent.  That’s why baseball has hitting and pitching coaches, to uncover the inner HOFer.  But coaching by itself doesn’t create talent, as owners learn time and again to their disappointment after hiring a franchise savior.  Just look at Ryan’s career post-Chicago—he was a .500 coach with the Eagles and Cardinals—or Jackson as president of the Knicks, 49-115 in two years.  The schemes matter a lot less than the players who implement them.