Sports
Sinking coaches no longer treading water
SOURCE: By Len Pasquarelli/SportsLine Senior Writer

Perhaps a little too thin-skinned for his own good, New England Patriots coach Pete Carroll spent the early days of the past offseason brooding about the skeptics who claimed he wasn't tough enough. He also worried that the players found it too easy to be injured during his stewardship, or that he allowed himself to become overly chummy with several veterans and thus surrendered some disciplinary clout to friendship.

For several weeks, Carroll holed himself up in his office at Foxboro Stadium, or at the cozy den in his home, and put himself through a torturous self-analysis. And by the time the Patriots' third-year coach finally emerged from his self-imposed solitary confinement, after having spoken to himself and to friends in the business about where his career was headed, Carroll's exercise in introspection led him to an answer.

He was, Carroll concluded, going to change nothing at all in 1999 about the way he coached.

"Everybody has a way of doing it but, the problem is, every outsider has an opinion about how it should be done," Carroll said. "The key is, you can't just sell yourself out to all those people who feel your way won't work, and you can't allow yourself to become something you're not. I decided I would do this the best way I knew how and the way with which I was comfortable. The result is, I feel a lot better and the players see I am more relaxed, that there's not going to be some (fake) standing in front of them.

"People have referred to a 'new Pete Carroll' this year. The truth is, nothing has changed. If anything, I'm probably more rooted in the way I do things. I'm more at peace with the idea I might actually know what I'm doing, you know?"

The more quantifiable results are a 2-0 record that suddenly has the ever-critical media in New England and even the fans lauding the strong early season performance of a Patriots team traditionally long on talent and shy of heart. Nearly fired by owner Bob Kraft during each of his first two years with the team, Carroll isn't out of the woods yet, but has weathered the worst of the storm.

New England's spectacular comeback from a 28-7 halftime deficit to beat Indianapolis last week could be regarded as the watershed event that resurrected Carroll. But the Patriots veterans feel the turnaround came at the beginning of training camp when the coach acknowledged his job likely was on the line in '99 but also vowed not to enact dramatic reforms in an effort to salvage his career. Two longtime New England veterans conceded to SportsLine that Carroll's belief in himself has won over some of the doubters in the locker room and on his own staff, and perhaps set him up for a contract extension.

Personable perhaps to a fault, Carroll has exhibited a little more edge in his critique of players, the veterans said, but has not been heavy-handed in scrutinizing mistakes.

Said strong safety Lawyer Milloy, openly critical of Carroll a few months ago when the Patriots released veteran free safety Willie Clay: "What you always want is a coach who's going to let you play your game and who puts you in a position to win. Pete has done both those things and guys respect him for that. He's going to be around for a long time because of it."

The once-embattled Carroll may be the 1999 poster boy for coaches who have fought back from the brink of professional extinction and removed themselves from the league's endangered species list. At this early point of the campaign, though, the poster could be a crowded group shot.

Beyond Carroll, there were nine other coaches widely viewed as being in trouble entering the '99 season. They were: Bruce Coslet (Cincinnati), Mike Ditka (New Orleans), Jim Fassel (New York Giants), Jeff Fisher (Tennessee), Chan Gailey (Dallas), Jon Gruden (Oakland), Bobby Ross (Detroit), Norv Turner (Washington) and Dick Vermeil (St. Louis). The word is that Coslet is all but fired in Cincinnati, and there may yet be others who earn pink slips either during the season or at its conclusion.

But consider this: The 10 least secure coaches going into the season boast an impressive aggregate record of 13-6 after two weeks of play, and Coslet (0-2) is the only one with a losing mark. Carroll is joined at 2-0 by Ross, Fisher and Gailey, three guys under pretty heavy scrutiny by ownership.

Ross barely survived a February palace coup in which some high-ranking members of Lions management sought to hire former Raiders and 49ers linebacker Matt Millen as the club's general manager. The officials went to owner William Clay Ford and threatened to resign. Then on the eve of training camp, he lost star tailback Barry Sanders to retirement. Wide receiver Herman Moore is out for five more weeks with a strained knee and the offensive line is a shambles, but the undefeated Lions seem intent on overcoming adversity.

Obviously, the Cowboys aren't the powerhouse outfit they were earlier this decade, and Gailey ruffled some feathers by decreeing that wide receiver Michael Irvin and tailback Emmitt Smith would be rested more in 1999. But in his second season, Gailey has put his imprint all over the Dallas offense. And playing without three key defensive starters -- tackle Leon Lett and cornerbacks Deion Sanders and Kevin Smith -- the Cowboys have relied on quickness, subterfuge and a front seven rotation system to play well enough to win on that side of the ball.

The conventional wisdom has been that the Titans possessed playoff-caliber talent and competed well in the AFC Central, but lacked resolve outside the division and tended to lose focus in tough situations. Fisher has done a nice job of blending veteran players and youth, rebuilding the defensive front over the offseason and emphasizing the big play on offense. As a result, Tennessee heads into a divisional showdown against the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday a team more confident in itself than at any time in the past seven seasons.

As is the case with Carroll, all of the other undefeated coaches claim they haven't promulgated dramatic changes this season, and their players concur. Ross, in particular, continues to fall back on the very basic disciplines and personal fundamentals that he learned during his military background. In the wake of the stunning announcement from Sanders, defensive end Robert Porcher noted, Ross was the calmest person in the Lions camp. He may have lost his meal ticket, Porcher said, but Ross never lost faith.

"There was never a sense of panic about him," Porcher said. "From the minute we heard about (Sanders), he kept stressing that no one man is bigger than the team, and that we had the people here who could win on Sunday afternoons. Sure, we rely more now on the passing game, but that's only natural. What never (wavered) was his belief in us, and guys appreciated that.

"He emphasized everyone picking up the slack and we have. Barry is a great player and I wish he was here. But his not being here meant we had to rely more on each other and we didn't have him around to bail us out. So in a sense, it probably made the offense a little more (diverse) and less Barry-centered. So far, it's working out."

A source close to Ross told SportsLine that the coach made sure he explained to his team that Sanders would not be riding in like the cavalry to rescue the Lions. And a Detroit official noted the initial reaction of Ross to the retirement was the opposite of how most coaches would have responded.

"A lot of guys would have put the pressure on (management) and said like, 'Do whatever you have to but get him in here.' That was never even brought up. The response was more of, 'OK, he's not here, so we move on.' The last thing Ross would ever want is to feel sorry for himself. And he doesn't want the team doing that, either."

Lawrence Shitosky, a New York-based sports psychologist who has treated several coaches and managers from a variety of professional sports, noted the positive steps made this year by the NFL coaches in trouble were hardly the norm. His experience has been that even men as regimented and stolid as coaches typically become chameleons when their jobs are on the line. Shitosky said he once dealt with a non-NFL head coach who even suggested he change his wardrobe, haircut and the car he drove simply in an attempt to curry favor with ownership.

What most embattled coaches overlook, he said, is the only way to save themselves is to win. The old adage that winning cures all, Shitosky said, "isn't 100 percent infallible, but it usually holds true. One of the problems for coaches in the current environment of sport is that everyone seeks instant gratification. The owners, the fans, the players, all want to win right now. So, for certain, there's more pressure than ever before on coaches. The job stress has increased exponentially. But the guys who succeed are usually those who stay the course they know best."

Turner surprisingly won an internal power struggle with former general manager Charley Casserly, but still is under pressure from meddlesome owner Daniel Snyder. The Redskins' boss, though, hasn't changed any of his offensive playbook and suddenly has the game's most explosive attack. What did change was that Casserly, before his demise, traded for a quarterback (Brad Johnson) with whom the coach could win.

Vermeil, on the other hand, had to alter his practice schedule and cut back from the three-hour sessions that had his players poised for mutiny a year ago. Still, Vermeil sees the changes as positive and part of his new and more flexible attitude.

"To me, the changes were almost incidental," he said.

The latest Raiders coach to live on the edge with owner Al Davis' penchant for change, Gruden agreed that a coach is only asking for trouble if he tries to change his personality to meet the expectations or desires of his players or club management.

"Nobody can smell a phony quite like a bunch of players," Gruden said. "You're far better off sinking or swimming with who you are and what got you to this point."