Bob Wylie, veteran NFL Coach: Chemistry & Communication are More Important than Football X's & O's

Bob Wylie joins Pro Mindset host and veteran NFL Agent Craig Domann and talks about how chemistry and relationship between (a) the head coach and his assistant coaches, and (b) the coaches and the players determines the likely success of a team and season. Bob shares his belief that players don’t care about the schemes and game plan unless and until the players feel the coaches care about them as people. Bob was known to get birthday cakes for his players and celebrate their birthdays in the position meetings and he also sent their spouses and kids birthday and Christmas gifts.

Bob, a nearly 30-year NFL coach, has been part of many staffs and with several different head coaches. He shares his experience with the 13-3 Chicago Bears when Dick Jauron was the head coach. Coach Jauron encouraged his coaches to provide input, share ideas, and speak up when they had a dissenting opinion. Bob went further in encouraging his players to do the same. He mentions that he told his players that it is okay to disagree and have a different opinion, but it is not okay to be disagreeable.

Bob shares his perspective that communication is the separator between the winning programs and the losing programs. Bob believes that success is 80% communication and 20% technical (scheme, personnel, game plan and X’s & O’s). The philosophy and vision must be consistently communicated throughout the program. Communication in a football program naturally has two parts: the coach communicator that communicates the message and the player recipient who has the choice to accept the message. It’s a simple process but one that fails often in a locker room. Additionally, Bob shares that a coach’s communication is about teaching a player instead of telling him and, equally important, a player response is either a fixed or judgment mindset or a growth mindset. In a judgment mindset the player blames someone or something else for his mistake or error, whereas, a player with a growth mindset responds by searching for ways to get better, improve and correct his mistake.

Bob describes mindset as framing the interpretation of the millions of bits of information and stimulus a player takes in during a moment before a player or any moment in time. He says every coach expects his players to have a good mindset, but few coaches tell the players what a mindset is and/or describes what a correct mindset looks like. Bob’s a fan of a growth mindset!