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Home > Terence Moore > Archives > 2008 > July > 29
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Players know Falcons head coach means business
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Flowery Branch — Nobody knew the outwardly compassionate Bill Walsh would evolve into a secretly ruthless NFL head coach. Chuck Noll was more about actions than words from the start. Then you had the sideline calisthenics of John Madden, Jerry Glanville and the rest.
Anyway, who is Mike Smith, and what will he become?
You just can’t tell, especially since this particular “Mike Smith” is entering his seventh month with the Falcons as a first-year NFL head coach.
What we do know is that Smith has coached for 26 years overall, including nine in the NFL. He also has the facial profile of a kinder, gentler Vince Lombardi, and he smiles like Steve “wild and crazy guy” Martin. Plus, despite having a team that began training camp this week dominated by question marks instead of exclamation points, he gives you the impression that he is eternally joyful.
So why did Falcons defensive end John Abraham raise his eyebrows after easing into a smile between two-a-days on Tuesday after our last comment?
“I’ve seen him angry,” said Abraham, before adding in a hurry, “It wasn’t fiery angry, but I’ve seen him get an attitude a couple of times. He puts his foot down when he needs to, and a lot of times, you can have a tendency to overlook that, because if you look at his exterior, he’s such a nice guy. But when you have somebody who is always happy, you don’t want to see him when he gets mad.”
That’s true, which means the Falcons may have what they need — a head coach who makes players comfortable, but only to a point. In other words, Smith isn’t wearing the blinders of Jim Mora, who was so chummy with his players that he once climbed into the Lamborghini of DeAngelo Hall to follow the bus containing the rest of the Falcons to a team event.
Then again, Smith is sort of like Mora, suggested Abraham, who has seen more than a few coaching styles during his nine seasons in the league that began with the New York Jets. “To me, [Smith] is a mix of a several people, including Jim Mora, and he’s a little bit of Herm Edwards,” Abraham said. “Both of those coaches know how to treat guys on and off the field. That’s the biggest thing to me. You can always go to Mike’s office and talk to him.”
Bobby Petrino, not so much. He was Smith’s predecessor, and he also was a rookie NFL head coach. His style was to treat professional athletes as if they were the same as the college players he was used to coaching. The word “dictatorship” comes to mind. Not surprisingly, with much of the Falcons locker room threatening to shove a goalpost down his mouth, he bolted in the middle of the night to call Hogs in Arkansas near the end of last season.
You had Mora before Petrino, and you had Dan Reeves and his traditional ways as a veteran NFL head coach before that. As for other Falcons skippers, their styles aren’t worth mentioning, except for moments of goodness by a Leeman Bennett here and a Glanville there.
Now you have Smith and his occasionally deceptive calmness. “I’m not a hothead by any stretch, but the guys know when it’s time to get on point,” Smith said, straight-faced, forgetting to add … or else.
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