JoPo returns - Chiefs’ Edwards gives Army a boost

[Hammock Parties]

http://www.kansascity.com/sports/chi...ry/614798.html

There’s an old line that goes something like this: Bankers get together to talk about art, and artists get together to talk about money. It also can go like this: When football coaches get together, they talk about war — bombs, sacrifice, shotguns, stealth bombers flying over stadiums, ground attacks, courage, defensive lines.

And when soldiers get together, they talk about football.

“There are so many similarities with what we do,” Lt. Gen. William B. Caldwell told Chiefs coach Herm Edwards. “It’s remarkable. We are dealing with many of the same things.”

Caldwell is the commanding general of the Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth. This is the position Gen. David Petraeus had immediately before taking over as commanding general of the multinational force in Iraq. Just to give you an idea.

Sure, there are many cheap and easy jokes you can make about Herm Edwards going to Fort Leavenworth on Friday to address the United States Army School of Advance Military Studies (SAMS). But … I was there. And Edwards was amazing.

Yes, I do realize the Chiefs went 4-12 last year. I realize that the offense’s most productive player was the punter. I realize that anytime you write the words “Herm” and “Edwards” in the same column, you are guaranteed to get dozens of e-mails and phone calls from people who would like to point out his many deficiencies as a strategist and football coach. The words “clock management” will be repeated often.

I think a lot of it is unfair. Let’s face it: Edwards took over an ancient team that was trying to win with new clothes and a combover. He was saddled with a lot of dead weight and irrational expectations. The star left tackle, Willie Roaf, retired before Edwards’ first game. The starting quarterback, Trent Green, was knocked unconscious during Edwards’ first game. Last year, his singular offensive weapon, Larry Johnson, got hurt when the Chiefs had a winning record (4-3) and were beating the Green Bay Packers. The Chiefs did not win again.

Edwards’ offensive line — the heart of the Chiefs’ moderate success in the early 2000s — fell apart. His cornerbacks were old enough to catch movies at half price. His quarterback choice was between a 34-year-old lifelong backup and a strong-armed Alabaman who had thrown seven passes in his NFL career (two of them interceptions).

Now, finally, Edwards is being given a fair shot. The Chiefs had what they (and most other draft analysts) considered a spectacular draft. They got 12 players — including their dream choice Glenn Dorsey — and added another nine college free agents. They will go to River Falls, Wis., this July with perhaps the youngest team in pro football. This is exactly what Edwards wanted. He knew they would have to blow things up. The feeling at Arrowhead is that the Chiefs are on the right track, they have rebuilt their core, they have broken away from the failed policies of the last decade.

Now, not everyone is buying it. But the United States Army does. Rob McClary, an instructor at SAMS (which prepares and trains some of the Army’s best officers for command positions), embedded with the Chiefs coaches last year to study how a team prepares for a game. He has spoken many times with Edwards. He was very impressed. He asked Edwards to come and speak to the students about leadership and overcoming adversity and building a team from the ground floor.

“No, no, you don’t want me,” Edwards said. “What you guys do is for real. We’re just playing football.”

McClary, though, explained that what Edwards does as a coach — create game plans, make hard decisions, inspire and energize players, overcome losses, build teamwork, adjust when everything’s falling apart, handle overwhelming criticism, stomp out dissension, work with the media to get out the right message — is a pretty precise model of what a military leader must do in today’s new world.

So, of course Edwards came, and he spoke to the students. He had lunch with Gen. Caldwell and some elite military minds. And it would not be an exaggeration to say that they were blown away. Edwards is electrifying in small rooms. It’s the big reason his players play hard for him. It’s the reason that for all the criticism, Edwards has taken four teams to the playoffs. It’s the reason the Chiefs — with lots of young players running around wildly — will probably be better in 2008 than most people expect.

Edwards told them: “There’s one thing I know when I walk into the stadium on Sunday morning. I know that there will be 80,000 people there. And every one of those 80,000 people can do my job better than me. That’s the job. That’s what you signed up for.”

He said: “Every time you lose, there will be people who say, ‘This is a bad plan.’ Every time. … The big thing is: Don’t deviate. You must not allow uncertainty.”

He said: “It’s never convenient to lead. That’s what you have to remember. … But when it’s all said and done, you will only need six people in your life. That’s all. It takes six people to put you in the dirt. And when that happens, what will they say about you? Because the biggest thing is to be able to say, ‘I made a difference.’ ”

He told them he doesn’t like free agency (“Helmet for hire,” he calls it), and he had a simple message for the players at the end of the last disastrous season (“Boys, there are going to be changes”) and that he lives his coaching life by a simple motto (“There are only two possibilities. You either coach it or you allow it to happen. That’s it.”)

Nobody wanted the day to end. Yes, there may be complaints about the offense the Chiefs ran or Edwards’ conservative history, but it’s pretty close to impossible to be around him in these moments and not be stirred. As McClary says: They are thinking about much bigger issues in the Army — for instance, how to make progress in Iraq, how to measure the progress, how to get word out that progress is being made, how to get Iraq on its own feet so Americans can come home, on and on and on. And, he said, seeing and hearing Edwards up close inspires everyone.

That’s how it is. Football coaches talk war. Soldiers talk football.

“Sir, I want to show you something.” This was Maj. Henry Groulx, who had just returned from his third tour in Iraq. Groulx had told Edwards some amazing stories about the challenges there, the triumphant feeling of installing a new generator or a sewer system, the way the heart beats through the chest when the enemy fires, the way that an American soldier must keep moving so not to give the snipers a clear shot.

Then he pulled out his notebook and turned it over.

There it said a quote his commanding officer in Iraq had used almost every day. The quote was: “You play to win the game!” That, of course, was Edwards’ famous quote to the New York media a couple of years ago.

“This is what we lived by in Iraq, sir,” Groulx said. Edwards’ eyes looked like they may have watered just a little bit.

He said: “Well, isn’t that something?”

And Groulx said. “Yes sir. Play to win. It’s the only way, isn’t it?”