There are so many things that go into being a successful head coach in the NFL. There’s no one way to do it. All one can point to are trends and personality make up for an idea of what they’re like. Matt Nagy is no different for the Chicago Bears. He came up with a fiery competitiveness for the game, the intelligence of a successful college and Arena League quarterback and was mentored by one of the best coaches in the business.
Under those conditions, it’s not hard to see why Nagy has had the success he has right out of the gate. However, there may be deeper explanations. One of the forgotten qualities of the best head coaches is not their ability to motivate or discipline their players. It’s their ability to teach. Their ability to make things easy for them to learn.
It’s not an art every coach has. This is why some of the more successful coaches in NFL history actually came with a background in actual teaching at various levels be it grade, middle, or high school. Even in college. It turns out that Nagy himself did such a thing for a time early in his adult life. To varying degrees of success.
Important updates from Halas during Bears-Rams week: Matt Nagy liked being a substitute teacher for 7th and 8th graders. Kindergarten? Not so much.
“Kindergartners? Well, they don’t listen. … I was frizzled that day. I was beat. They beat me up."
— Kevin Fishbain (@kfishbain) December 6, 2018
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Matt Nagy shares a common background with some all-time greats
As stated above, there have been some highly notable coaches throughout league history who worked as teachers before coaching became their true vocation. The great Paul Brown, the architect of the dynasty Cleveland Browns that won seven championships in the 1940s and ’50s, doubles as a teacher and head coach during his first years on the job.
Everybody remembers Vince Lombardi as the domineering and relentless head coach of the Green Bay Packers who led his team to five championships from 1961 to 1967. Not enough people recall how good of a teacher he was to his players, and that’s because he had plenty of practice. Years ago he taught all sorts of subjects from Latin to physics and chemistry.
Another future Packers alum had a similar background. Mike Holmgren is known best for turning Green Bay back into a powerhouse in the 1990s, winning a Super Bowl with the team. He also turned the Seattle Seahawks into a contender after leaving in the early 2000s. Most people don’t remember he taught history, economics, and mechanical drawing at the high school level before beginning his rise to stardom.
Nagy earned this sort of experience too. Something that has proven invaluable to his meteoric rise, going from future insurance salesman to NFL head coach in a span of just 10 years. Understanding how to have patience with students and being able to communicate your message to them. That is the essence of coaching.
