Loyalty. (Here Below).LOYALTY IS, of course, a beautiful thing in sports and coaching. When you have four, five, or six-man coaching staffs working intensely under pressure, you invariably in·var·i·a·ble adj. Not changing or subject to change; constant. in·var  i·a·bil have to have a special kind of
relationship among the coaches.
We became conscious of this serendipity serendipity happy finding of an unexpected object or solution while searching for something else. when we began spending a lot of time with the coaches in the newly formed American Football League For other uses of "AFL", see AFL. ''Note: There were three earlier and unrelated American professional football leagues of the same name: One in 1926, one in 1936-1937 and one in 1940-1941. They are listed at the end of this article. in the 1960s. When Sid Giliman was made head coach of the Chargers, he brought his two lifetime assistants, Joe Madro and Jack Faulkner Jack Faulkner (born April 4, 1926) is a former American football coach and administrator who most prominently served as head coach of the American Football League's Denver Broncos from 1962 to 1964. He also has been an integral part of the St. with him. His third and fourth assistants were freshmen pro coaches named Al Davis For other persons named Al Davis, see Al Davis (disambiguation). Allen "Al" Davis (born July 4, 1929 in Brockton, Massachusetts) is an American football executive, who currently serves as the president and managing general partner of the NFL's Oakland Raiders. and Chuck Noll Charles Henry Noll (born January 5 1932) is a former professional American football player and coach, most notably the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers in the National Football League from 1969 to 1991. . In Faulkner's third year with the Chargers, he received an offer he couldn't refuse--the head coaching job with the Denver Broncos. That, of course, made him an "enemy" to his hard-nosed old mentor, Gillman, who never kissed assistants goodbye or wished them luck. Faulkner's career with the Broncos lasted until the middle of 1964, when he was fired. By this time, Al Davis had become a guru with the Oakland Raiders This article is about an American football team. For other uses, see Raider. The Oakland Raiders are a professional American football team based in the city of Oakland, California. . We were visiting him at the time Faulkner was fired, and we knew that the news hit him hard. "I've got to call Jack," he said. Davis phoned Faulkner at home and we heard him speak reassuringly to him. We clearly remember his closing remark: "Look, Jack. It's going to be all right. You are going to get offers. But remember: You can have a job with the Raiders any time you choose." We had a question for Davis when he turned back to us: "Are you going to let Sid Gillman know about Jack?" "It isn't necessary," he said. "Jack told me that Sid had already called and offered him a job with the Chargers." Some years later we told the story to our publisher, Bruce Weber. "That's how it is with most head coaches," he told us. "When you work hard, do your job, sacrifice, they will always be there for you. "Do you know that Sam Rutigliano went to high school with Al Davis and that they both started out in coaching as part-time recruiters. Sam went on to make it big as the head coach of the Cleveland Browns and then broke down when he lost his child in an automobile accident Ask a Lawyer Question Country: United States of America State: Utah Say you're at a red light in a left hand turning lane and the light turns green so you let up slightly on the break antedating moving forward and the vehicle and then lost his job. "One day the phone rang and it was Al Davis. He told Sam that anytime he wanted a job in the National Football League there was one waiting for him with the Oakland Raiders." Irving Berlin once wrote a little jingle that could have been meant for football coaching staffs: "Friendship, friendship/Just a perfect blendship/When other friendships are forgit/Ours will still be it." |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion