Bill Polian - The Game Plan: The Art of Building a Winning Football Team

This book is dedicated, with much gratitude, to the most important people in my life.

To Eileen, who is my wife and partner in all.

To our sonsChris, Brian, and Dennis who have always made us proud to be their parents.

To our grandchildrenAnnie, Will, Jack, Caroline, Kate, Aidan, and Charlotte. They bring sunshine to our life every day.

Most of all it is dedicated to our daughter, Lynn, whose devotion and loyalty to all through her selfless and optimistic approach to life inspires every member of our family; most of all her father.

Bill Polian

To Emma, who is a constant reminder of how blessed we truly are as a family. Love, Pop.

Vic Carucci

Contents

Preface

Throughout my many years as a coach, scout, and club executive in college and professional football, I have learned incredibly valuable lessons from some of the all-time great influencers of this and other sports.

Chief among them from football are Marv Levy, Tony Dungy, Paul Brown, Don Shula, Bill Parcells, Jim Finks, George Allen, Paul Tagliabue, George Paterno, Joe Paterno, Norm Pollom, as well as two legendary figures from basketball, John Wooden and Bob Knight.

My primary motivation in writing this book is to share those lessons, which you will find sprinkled and woven throughout.

No sports executive succeeds or even exists without players and coaches. Every player on every team for which I have worked contributed to my success more than I ever have. Many are mentioned in this book. Space precludes mentioning them all. But to all: Thank you from the bottom of my heart. You are truly the game.

I mention all of the assistant coaches and scouts with whom I have worked in pro football in the acknowledgments. That mention does not come close to sufficiently thanking them for all they have done for me. Their lessons, hard work, support, and most of all their friendship have made my career a joyride.

To all of the doctors, trainers, videographers, and front-office staff who have contributed to that success to my heartfelt thanks. I owe a special debt of gratitude to Toni Kirkpatrick Miller and Sue Kelly, who were my loyal assistants through the years. The same goes for Donna Montana, Connie Papa, Lisa Hatter, and Carol Constantine, who ably assisted those of us on the NFL Competition Committee.

To George Paterno, Jim Schaff, Paul Robson, Cal Murphy, Kay Stephenson, Norm Pollom, Ron Waller, Bob Ferguson, John Butler, Bill Munson, Ed Stillwell, Steve Champlin, Chris Polian, Tom Telesco, David Caldwell, Tom Gamble, Don Weiss, Joel Bussert, and Dom Anile, I give my undying respect and deepest gratitude.

Finally, a special salute to the men without whom this book and my career would not exist: Coach Bob Windish, who started me on this road, and supported me every step of the wayand Coach Marv Levy, my role model, my mentor, and my dear friend. He made this all possible.

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to give their heartfelt appreciation to the following for their contributions to this book: Tom Bast, editorial director at Triumph Books, for embracing the idea from the start and providing tremendous support throughout; Jesse Jordan, our editor at Triumph Books, for overseeing the project from start to finish; Mark Zimmerman, of Headline Media Management, for his assistance in putting us together; and Amy Jo Griffith and Danielle Lavelli, for their tireless work in transcribing many hours of interviews and for helping with research and other details along the way.

We would also like to give special thanks to Patrick Smyth, executive director of media relations for the Denver Broncos, and Avis Roper, senior director of communications for the Indianapolis Colts.

Additionally, we would like to acknowledge the coaches and scouts with whom it has been Bills pleasure to work:

Coaches

Kansas City Chiefs: Bobby Ross, Frank Gansz, Kay Dalton, Joe Spencer, and Rod Rust.

Buffalo Bills: Ted Marchibroda, Walt Corey, Jim Ringo, Tom Bresnahan, Elijah Pitts, Don Lawrence, Ted Cottrell, Dick Roach, Bruce DeHaven, Ted Tollner, Jim Shofner, Art Asselta, Charlie Joyner, Nick Nicolau, Dan Sekanovich, Chuck Lester, Rusty Jones, Hank Bullough, Joe Daniels, Dick Jauron, Chuck Dickerson, Joe Faragalli, Herb Paterra, and Ardell Wiegandt.

Carolina Panthers: Don Breaux, Blair Bush, George Catavolos, Billy Davis, Vic Fangio, Ted Gill, Cary Godette, Chick Harris, Jim McNally, Chip Morton, Joe Pendry, Brad Seely, John Shoop, Kevin Steele, and Richard Williamson.

Indianapolis Colts: Tom Moore, Howard Mudd, Mike Murphy, John Teerlinck, Ricky Thomas, Greg Blache, Rusty Tillman, Bill Teerlinck, Tony Marciano, Jay Norvell, John Pagano, Kevin Spencer, Gene Huey, Jon Torine, Todd Grantham, Richard Howell, John Hufnagel, Chris Foerster, Diron Reynolds, Jim Caldwell, Clyde Christensen, Ron Meeks, Russ Purnell, Alan Williams, Pete Metzelaars, Leslie Frazier, Rod Perry, Frank Reich, Larry Coyer, Ray Rychleski, Jim Bob Cooter, Ron Prince, David Walker, Devin Fitzsimmons, and Ron Turner.

Winnipeg Blue Bombers: Cal Murphy, Fred Glick, Mike Riley, Bob Yazpasiani, and John Gregory.

Scouts

Chink Sengal, Bob Ryan, Dave E. Smith, Elbert Dubenion, Bruce Nicholas, Bobby Gill, Les Miller, Dave Gettleman, Tom Gibbons, Dave W. Smith, Doug Majewski, A.J. Smith, Ralph Hawkins, Jack Bishofsky, Joe Bishofsky, Tony Softli, Boyd Dowler, Pat Martin, Bob Guarini, Malik Boyd, John Becker, Kevin Kelly, Kevin Rogers, Todd Vasvari, Clyde Powers, Byron Lusby, Bob Terpening, Matt Terpening, Jamie Moore, Mark Ellenz, Jon Shaw, Ryan Cavanaugh, Paul Rolle, Duke Tobin, J.W. Jordan, Andrew Berry, George Boone, and Mike Butler.

Foreword by Peyton Manning

When I think about Bill Polian, the first word that comes to mind is loyalty . Im not sure Ive ever met a man who is more loyal than he is. He was loyal to me for the 14 years we were together in Indianapolis, and he has been loyal to me since.

I had three head coaches during my time with the ColtsJim Mora, Tony Dungy, and Jim Caldwelland I was very close with all of them. But I only had one general manager, and Bill was a great source of continuity during that time. I was honored to be drafted by him in 1998.

Bill and I had very open lines of communication. We always had visits after the season where Bill would kind of go through some things that he wanted me to do as a player, and then he would ask me questions about the team and what was happening in the locker room and get a perspective from there.

At the same time, I always appreciated his advice. Bills a guy who has been around football for a long, long time. He has seen it all, he had great experience with Jim Kelly, so I always took to heart any insider coaching point that he might have had because Bill is an old coach and an old scout. He would always have something he wanted me to work on for the off-season as a player, as a leader, whatever it might be.

Obviously, in 14 years together, there are going to be some disagreements on some things. But at the same time, Bills door was always open and he always answered his phone. If we had a disagreement on something, we would always continue to communicate until we came to some kind of resolution. We were on the same page.

That was true even though, after the Colts made me the top-overall pick of the draft, I went through some tough negotiations that would cause me to miss the first three days of training camp. I was 22 years old, and I had no idea how negotiations worked. Ive since realized that its not personal, that that is the business side of the NFL, and its really one that the player needs to stay out of.