JEFF HOWARD HIRED – A PERFECT 10, TIMES TWO, AND A FEW MORE
By STEVE KING
It’s hardly news that the new assistant coach the Browns just hired, pass game coordinator/defensive backs coach Jeff Howard, was a longtime assistant with the Minnesota Vikings.
After all, new Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski knows Howard well from the years they spent together at Minnesota. Coaches hire mostly guys with whom they have a relationship.
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In any event, no, the real surprise is that the Browns hired another assistant coach, period, whether it’s from Minnesota or Mongolia, or anywhere in between.
“Another coach?!,” my friend texted me when I sent her the news of the hiring.
“Yes,” I replied, “they are like acorns covering the ground in that they’re everywhere.”
OK, I know that the Browns aren’t the only ones with large coaching staffs. All NFL teams do the same thing, with staffs numbering in the low 20s.
Yes, you read that correctly. Teams have 20-plus assistant coaches.
Yikes!
Why so many?
Because owners let head coaches do it after they explain, “Everybody’s doing it, so we have to do it.”
It’s just like when you tell your significant other, “The McSnookers next door just got new carpeting, so perhaps we need new carpeting, too.”
It’s called “keeping up with the McSnookers,” or something like that.
But how much is too much? How many is too many assistants?
I’ll refer again to Sam Rutigliano, the former head coach of the Browns during the Kardiac Kids era to whom I referred in my last post.
I started to ask Sam one time how many assistants he would have if he were coaching now, and he stopped me about halfway through the question.
“Ten,” he said in matter-of-fact fashion.
“What? I haven’t finished yet.”
“You were going to ask how many assistant coaches I would hire today, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, I’ll tell you. I’d hire 10, no more and no fewer. I would need 10, but not any more than that. Any more than 10, and they just get in the way. They would be looking for ways to validate their existence.”
Will Jeff Howard – or any of the other 20 or so Browns assistants — be looking at ways to validate their existence next fall?
We’ll have to wait and see.
