Sports Illustrated

In a Sports Illustrated magazine article, the author talks about different NFL head football coaches’ views on their players getting into fights at practice and the punishments for the team if anyone gets into a fight. While most coaches say that they try and break up the players when they start fighting and either send those players home, or make the whole team run wind sprints. The new Jets head coach Rex Ryan is different; he says that if his players start fighting he lets his players fight till they are done. He said that after watching film of his team last season, they needed to toughen up and start getting each other players back.
This is a big question for all coaches; in a physical game like football where do you draw the line for your players? In such a physical game like football, players can get caught up with all that adrenaline and one little thing can set them off. Even though I don’t agree with Rex Ryan’s theory on allowing his players to fight, I understand his theory of letting his players fight to bring them closer. I know that people looking from the outside in and who haven’t played football might not understand the discussion here; they look at it as there is no reason for player to fight. The only way I can explain coaches letting the players fight, is to tell these people that yes the players dont like each others when they are fighting, but when the offensive player come to help another offensive player while they are fighting a deffensive player. This causes the offensive group to come together and the deffensive unit to also come together. This is the struggle coaches go through with bringing their team together and making sure they have each players back. With new players coming in every year, coaches have to get these players to commit to their system and have them grow close to their teammates. These are teammates that players are going to be around each other for close to a year, so it is important for them to respect and be there for each other.