Along with any other sport, football has a coaching staff that cares about each and everyone of their players. According to many athletes, myself included, have built life-long relationships with the coaches. Matt King stated, who said in an interview by Pete Warner, "He's like a second father to me," King said. "If you mess up, he'll be quick to tell you that you're doing something wrong ... and he'll be the first to congratulate you when you do something well" (Warner par. 28). King was referring to his coach, Jack Cosgrove, at the University of Maine during this interview. King also talked about how anyone else that has ever played for him feels the same way. Even though Pete Warner’s interview was just one case, there are many more athletes that feel the same about their coaches across the world. Another reason people liked Coach Jack Cosgrove was because he made the team goal not about winning, but being a family and playing fundamental football. If the team could do that, the wins would then take care of themselves he said (Warner par. 17). In a final statement in the interview, King expressed how he felt Cosgrove was a second father to him. That is probably how many other athletes would refer to their coach too.
Anyone familiar with football should agree that a majority of coaches are great mentors that indeed build lifelong relationships with their coaches. According to Swigonski, 45 percent of athletes claim to have been bullied by a coach during at least one sport (par. 3). A major flaw in that statistic is what people consider as bullying. Some people may call a coach a bully because he or she demands absolute respect and perfect effort from the team. If it was only considered for cases of real bullying, the statistic could be as low as five percent. In a specific case reported by Swigonski, a mom went to pick up her daughter from basketball practice and saw the coach screaming at the team saying how they “lacked intelligence” and also telling them that they were “lazy” because the messed up a play (par. 5). The mom insists that the coach was being mean to the girls for no reason, but if the mom had walked in five minutes earlier, she most likely would have seen the girls messing around, not focusing, and not giving the perfect effort that the coach knew they could give. The coach most likely was screaming like that for one of two reasons. Either they offended the coach by not giving him the respect he deserved by half-heartedly trying, or he was trying to get them motivated to truly give their best effort. Though the number of bully coaches is greatly exaggerated, there still are some coaches that truly bully their athletes. The first type of bully coach will give moral justifications to his or her actions. This type of coach will most likely say something like, “All of the other coaches do it, so it is no big deal” (Swigonski par. 12-13). This type of coach is most common because it is the easiest out for a coach that is a true bully. The second type of bully coach will use a backhand apology. Swigonski calls it a backhand apology because the coaches will most likely say something like, “I’m really sorry I got a little carried away, but we really need to work on our fundamentals if we want to win” (par. 14-15). This type of bully coach is very easy to mistake for a coach that is trying to motivate his or her athletes, but some coaches can take things a little too far when trying to motivate the players. The third type of bully coach will use an excuse known as the advantageous comparison. This is a more concerning type of coach because he or she will most likely say something similar to, “I have never pushed them around or laid a single finger on them” Swigonski par. 16-17). This type of coach will most likely be defending themselves from problems that were not even a hand, such as the comment about pushing the athletes around when the problem at hand was verbal abuse. The last type of coach is the coach that uses the escalation technique. The escalation technique is most often used by coaches that are successful and well respected because they most often tell the athletes and parents, “If you don’t like the way I coach you can quit” (Swigonski. par. 18-19). This type of coach is the least common because most well respected and winning coaches have great relationships with all of their athletes. Some leading research shows the most successful and winning coaches do not put down, but encourage all the players all the time.
Anyone familiar with football should agree that a majority of coaches are great mentors that indeed build lifelong relationships with their coaches. According to Swigonski, 45 percent of athletes claim to have been bullied by a coach during at least one sport (par. 3). A major flaw in that statistic is what people consider as bullying. Some people may call a coach a bully because he or she demands absolute respect and perfect effort from the team. If it was only considered for cases of real bullying, the statistic could be as low as five percent. In a specific case reported by Swigonski, a mom went to pick up her daughter from basketball practice and saw the coach screaming at the team saying how they “lacked intelligence” and also telling them that they were “lazy” because the messed up a play (par. 5). The mom insists that the coach was being mean to the girls for no reason, but if the mom had walked in five minutes earlier, she most likely would have seen the girls messing around, not focusing, and not giving the perfect effort that the coach knew they could give. The coach most likely was screaming like that for one of two reasons. Either they offended the coach by not giving him the respect he deserved by half-heartedly trying, or he was trying to get them motivated to truly give their best effort. Though the number of bully coaches is greatly exaggerated, there still are some coaches that truly bully their athletes. The first type of bully coach will give moral justifications to his or her actions. This type of coach will most likely say something like, “All of the other coaches do it, so it is no big deal” (Swigonski par. 12-13). This type of coach is most common because it is the easiest out for a coach that is a true bully. The second type of bully coach will use a backhand apology. Swigonski calls it a backhand apology because the coaches will most likely say something like, “I’m really sorry I got a little carried away, but we really need to work on our fundamentals if we want to win” (par. 14-15). This type of bully coach is very easy to mistake for a coach that is trying to motivate his or her athletes, but some coaches can take things a little too far when trying to motivate the players. The third type of bully coach will use an excuse known as the advantageous comparison. This is a more concerning type of coach because he or she will most likely say something similar to, “I have never pushed them around or laid a single finger on them” Swigonski par. 16-17). This type of coach will most likely be defending themselves from problems that were not even a hand, such as the comment about pushing the athletes around when the problem at hand was verbal abuse. The last type of coach is the coach that uses the escalation technique. The escalation technique is most often used by coaches that are successful and well respected because they most often tell the athletes and parents, “If you don’t like the way I coach you can quit” (Swigonski. par. 18-19). This type of coach is the least common because most well respected and winning coaches have great relationships with all of their athletes. Some leading research shows the most successful and winning coaches do not put down, but encourage all the players all the time.