Jim Bates: face-to-face with his players

I thought this was an interesting tidbit in the Rocky Mountain News…

Jim Bates has announced that he plans to stroll the sidelines during the games instead of working from the booth (as both Larry Coyer and Ray Rhodes did). This doesn’t give him the bird’s eye view of the field, but it will allow him to be face-to-face with his players.

“Just the feel of the players, the body language of the players, seeing their eyes. You can’t see that in the box. You don’t know the feeling of the players. On the field, you get a different feel for where your players are at and direct communication with them — I like that.”

— Jim Bates 7/25/07

My respect for Bates just went up quite a bit. I like the idea that he believes it is better to read his players than to see the unfolding of the play from on high. He fell in love with this perspective after he came down from the booth when he took over as the interim head coach in Miami.

I might also add that I’m not the only one that believes that the leader of our Defense should be among his men on the sidelines. My understanding is that Mike Shanahan didn’t like Ray Rhodes move to the booth, and even threatened to force him to the sideline if his unit didn’t preform well. Now, I never heard anything like that when Coyer was the DC, but I can easily see Shanahan being pleased that his new Defensive Guru has decided to join him on the field. Mike Shanahan hasn’t had that kind of sideline company since Greg Robinson left the team at the end of 2000.

Not that we won’t have annalists in the booth. In fact now days, with advanced communication between the booth and the field, most coaches have access to photos and other info from the booth almost instantly. In 2007, Bates plans to have his Defensive Coordinator, Bob Slowik, lead his eyes in the sky team. That should free Bates to motivate his troops face-to-face.

And one possible motivation for the players this year will be avoiding returning to the sideline after missing a tackle to face the wraith of Bates!

Rocky Mountain News Article: FULL STORY