Words of Wisdom

Think of Hank Stram and you can’t help but recall NFL films classic-footage of Super Bowl IV. A championship coach was wired for sound for the first time, and there was Stram, cackling and bragging to his “boys” that the “coach pumped it in there” after the Chiefs scored an important touchdown en route to their upset of the Minnesota Vikings, the AFL’s second Super Bowl victory. It’s hard to believe that only a few years earlier, Stram had considered giving up coaching to become a sporting goods salesman, until Lamar Hunt called to offer him a head coaching job in a new professional football league. Stram coached the Dallas Texans to the AFL’s third championship, then when the team moved to Kansas City and became the Chiefs, he became the AFL’s first representative coach in Super Bowl I, and won it all three years later. He was blessed with the full backing of a millionaire owner who provided financing for some of the best defensive talent in the history of the game – Hall of Famers Buck Buchanan, Willie Lanier and Bobby Bell – as well as offensive stars like Lynn Dawson, Mike Garrett and Otis Taylor. Stram finished his career in New Orleans, where unfortunately the owner was not as willing to open up his checkbook. Of Stram, Saints owner John Mecom once said, “I gave him an unlimited budget, and he exceeded it.” Whether true or not, the little man from Gary, Indiana certainly exceeded everyone’s expectations in becoming the AFL’s winningest coach.My philosophy? Simplicity plus variety.

It is only a game when you win. When you lose, it’s hell.

It is a game of people, not of notebooks.

You can’t be fat and fast, too; so lift, run, diet and work.

Yesterday is a cancelled check, today is cash on the line, and tomorrow is a promissory note.

We hadn’t used it for the last two months, so it wasn’t on the films. (When asked why an end-around play was so effective during a game.)

If a team doesn’t have a good punter and kicker, it’s in trouble. Look at the teams that have been successful throughout the years. They’ve had three things: a quarterback; good defense and the kicking game. I have seen too many fine teams with excellent offenses and defenses blow a game on a punt return, a blocked field goal or a weak punt.

We don’t have an overabundance of rules and regulations, but the ones we have will be followed to the letter.

We respect every team we play.

There are few secrets in football. So execute.

Football, like life, is about change.