As the college football season kicked off in Dublin, the phrase repeated by ESPN was that this was the beginning of a season ‘like no other’. The question for the NFL is whether this season will be unlike the last two, ones where the Kansas City Chiefs prevailed after a season where AFC hot-shots and the odd NFC juggernaut positioned themselves as future kings, writes Shane Brennan.
Whether someone can knock Patrick Mahomes and Co off their perch could depend on the power of positive thinking. How does one build belief in a team without the pitfall of overconfidence or the comfort of being too self-forgiving?
Modern coaching really contrasts with the style of the serial winners of years past. Today’s generation, people like myself who were born in the 1990s, seem to react better to support and encouragement than to a call to the grind.
The Belichicks, Johnsons and Parcells' of this world saw football as a tough man’s game. Hard-hitters in coaching, criticism and coarseness. It worked - it killed egos, rewarded discipline and, in past eras of more relaxed refereeing, fired up the heavy hitters to go in and ‘do your job’.
But a new type of coach rises to the top in this decade, people you’d probably like to be friends with, even if there’s a hard-ass hidden under the smile that’s released when needed. A new cohort of believers in support and seeing football as a planned art rather than the more military-style followers of being demanding of their men.
Andy Reid’s level of genius is complemented, on the surface at least, by a personality that is not needlessly abrasive, a type that players love playing for and allow for the offensive expression that the Chiefs are now famous for. And the teams that we associate with sheer offensive explosiveness also have head coaches who utilise positive messaging to get the most out of this generation of NFL stars, something more important than ever in a passing league.
The contrast between the styles is evident in the mind of Tua Tagovailoa. He took to "The Dan Le Batard Show" recently to bemoan Brian Flores’ style of coaching, complaining of the negative messaging. Speaking of his time under Flores in Miami, Tua said that if “you have a terrible person telling you things that you don't want to hear or probably shouldn't be hearing, you're going to start believing that about yourself. And so that's what sort of ended up happening.”
He compared this to the supportive backing he has gotten from Mike McDaniel, whose coaching style I found interesting in last year’s in-season Hard Knocks with the Dolphins.
Now, the Fins have a habit of not grinding out victories against the tough, physical teams they need to surpass to hit their ceiling, and a natural stick to beat them with usually surrounds questions of Miami’s toughness, often fairly.
But Tua’s comments and the development of the Miami offence are a reflection that players of the current generation, especially in creative positions, react better to words that build self-belief rather than demand the hardest of hard work. It’s one of the reasons Mac Jones, a fellow Alabama graduate to Tua, failed at New England. Everybody demanded more, nobody knew how to encourage more. Like it or lump it, it’s harder to get results from people these days with a hard-ass attitude that isn’t backed up with support, especially for quarterbacks.
To unseat Mahomes, all of the top QBs will need a healthy dose of self-confidence - the type that has earned the Lions so much acclaim, the type that turns athletes into leaders and is inspirational. This week is our first chance to see how much belief these teams have after a summer of preparation.
Three things to watch in Week 1:
Anthony Richardson is making his return against the Texans in Indy on Sunday. He must have watched CJ Stroud last year with a belief that he can hit similar heights. It’ll be too early to truly judge how good the Colts can be, but if the Texans lose, people will judge H-Town for already slipping from their sky-high promise. The pressure is on one side.
Steelers at Falcons is box-office for almost all the wrong reasons. Both clubs are quarterback controversies waiting to happen, and all accounts suggest Pittsburgh’s off-season has been a disaster. I’m looking forward to seeing whether they can get on track early … and whether Kirk Cousins can shake off nearly a year on the sidelines. This game is the first with Neil Reynolds and the great Sky Sports team on Sunday, and it will be interesting to see how much they discuss the Steelers’ growing ties with Ireland.
How many times will we see Tay Tay on Thursday? The Chiefs returning to the screens will mean the inevitable temptation of TV directors to keep flashing the world’s biggest pop star on screen. Some of us don’t really care, others are getting sick of it. The NFL’s video promoting the return of the season during the week included Taylor Swift, but did not include Joe Burrow. One fancies Burrow to go into Arrowhead on Week 2 and make a simple statement: The Super Bowl will see me on the field and no Swift in the stands.
This week’s shout-out - huge thanks to Craig Rigden who puts in a mammoth effort working on the graphics with the Irish NFL Show. His work is much appreciated and core to how we make our content as engaging as possible. And he’s a Giants fan who must watch the Big Blue march on without Saquon, so hopefully our thanks will make this weekend brighter!
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