The Game Plan: The Art of Building a Winning Football Team

by Bill Polian, Vic Carucci, Peyton Manning (Foreword by)

Overview

As one of the most successful general managers and team presidents in NFL history, few people understand how to create the blueprint for a winning football team like Bill Polian. After building the Buffalo Bills team that went to four consecutive Super Bowls and taking the expansion Carolina Panthers to the NFC Championship just two years after the team’s creation, he was responsible for the Indianapolis Colts drafting Peyton Manning with the first overall pick in 1998 and oversaw the team’s victory in Super Bowl XLI. Now, Polian shares his blueprint for building a successful football team in The Game Plan. He details the decisions both a team needs to make in the regular season and the offseason to bring teams to the postseason and the NFL’s ultimate test of a well-built team: the Super Bowl.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781623688950
Publisher:	Triumph Books
Publication date:	10/01/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	886,093
File size:	10 MB

About the Author

Bill Polian is currently an NFL analyst for ESPN. He spent 24 seasons as an executive with the Buffalo Bills, Carolina Panthers, and Indianapolis Colts. He is a six-time NFL Executive of the Year. He lives in Cornelius, North Carolina. Vic Carucci is the senior editor of ClevelandBrowns.com, a cohost on “Cleveland Browns Daily” on ESPN 850 WKNR, and a SiriusXM NFL radio host. He is a New York Times–bestselling author of many books about football, including the coauthor of Do You Love Football?! with Jon Gruden, No Excuses with Charlie Weis, and Sunday Morning Quarterback with Phil Simms. He lives in East Amherst, New York. Peyton Manning is a five-time NFL MVP, as well as the MVP of Super Bowl XLI. He lives in Denver, Colorado.

Read an Excerpt

The Game Plan

The Art of Building a Winning Football Team

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By Bill Polian, Vic Carucci

Triumph Books

Copyright © 2014 Bill Polian and Vic Carucci
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-62368-895-0

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CHAPTER 1

Soggy Lunches and Validation

"We want to develop champions, not celebrities."

— John Wooden

"Discipline is knowing what to do, knowing how to do it, knowing when to do it, and doing it that way every time."

— Bob Knight

Anyone who has spent even a little time around me has probably heard this phrase more times than they'd care to acknowledge: "What it takes to win is simple, but it isn't easy." I didn't coin it; Marv Levy, the Hall of Fame coach for the Buffalo Bills, did. But I learned it. To be more precise, I absorbed it into the very essence of my being. And, during my 24 years as a general manager — or senior executive — in the National Football League, I lived by it.

The simple part is having a clear organizational vision of your beliefs and staying true to them. It means never deviating from the concept that you build your team with players who have specific character traits. It means that the core of your roster won't necessarily include the biggest stars of their college teams. It means that who you draft won't always show up among the names that the "draft experts" place among their top-ranked prospects.

But none of that is easy. Finding those players requires considerable time and effort and discipline throughout your entire organization. Selecting them, even when more recognizable names are available, won't ever be the popular thing to do ... but it's always the right thing to do.

Following that approach was, ultimately, the main reason that, on the night of February 4, 2007, I was sitting in one of the club-executive boxes assigned to the participating teams in Super Bowl XLI at what was then known as Dolphin Stadium in Miami Lakes, Florida. I was completing my ninth season as president of the Indianapolis Colts and watching, with great anxiety and nervousness, early in the fourth quarter as we clung to a 22–17 lead over the Chicago Bears.

I was sitting with my three sons — Chris, who was our vice president of football operations; Brian, who was an assistant football coach at Notre Dame; and Dennis, who was assistant athletic director at Tulane University — and director of football operations Steve Champlin, who, having been with me for 20 years, was like family.

Now, calling what we were in a "club-executive box" is an extreme exaggeration. It was a makeshift structure that more accurately could be described as a lean-to, not attached to the permanent press box in any way. For all intents and purposes, it was some pieces of wood that had been nailed together to form a box that enclosed some seats in the top row of the upper deck.

And it was definitely not built for the torrential downpour that lasted the whole game. It really did nothing more than prevent the rain from falling directly on us while keeping us slightly separated from the fans — the majority of whom in that particular area were rooting for the Bears — in front of us and around us, although there were no problems with our conflicting rooting interests whatsoever.

To get there, we had to walk through the stands and up the aisle, all the way to the top deck. If you had to use the rest room, you had to go all the way downstairs to the concourse. There was water up around our shoe tops. The boxed lunches that we received at halftime were soaked; we couldn't even eat them. We might have had some popcorn, but food, just as everything else that didn't have a direct connection with what was happening on the field, was the last thing any of us were thinking about at that or any point of the Super Bowl.

This marked the fourth time that a team for which I served as general manager or president had reached the Super Bowl. The first three were in consecutive years when I was with the Buffalo Bills, an historic run that began in 1990. That Bills team would play in the Super Bowl for a fourth straight year, after I was fired following the 1992 season, but given that most of those players were acquired on my watch, I might as well have been a part of that one, too.

I definitely felt as if I was. I know my wife, Eileen, did, too. At the time of that Super Bowl, I was finishing out the one season I spent as the NFL's vice president of football development and we watched the game from a box with some league officials. When the Bills came out for warm-ups, both my wife and I choked up. That was "our team."

All four of those games ended in a Bills loss, with each more excruciating than the previous one. Yet, even while going through all of that heartache and disappointment, we never strayed from the blueprint. In fact, sticking to it was precisely the reason we found ourselves with those multiple opportunities to take home the Vince Lombardi Trophy.

Then it happened — the play that would serve as the absolute validation of everything that I believed, everything that I had been taught, everything that all of us who had worked together for years knew would provide the ultimate payoff one day.

With 11:44 left in Super Bowl XLI, Kelvin Hayden, our second-year cornerback, intercepted a pass from Rex Grossman and returned it 56 yards for a touchdown. Hayden's first career interception would not only seal our 29–17 victory, it also provided as clear an example as any of why doing things the way we had done them for all of those years made sense.

The choosing of Kelvin in the second round of the 2005 draft was generally criticized. The common response was: "Who is this guy? He only played corner at the University of Illinois for one year after transferring from Joliet Junior College and after playing receiver for both seasons at Joliet. How can they take that guy in the second round?"

Kelvin played for a Fighting Illini team that hadn't had great success. He wasn't an All-American or recognized in any of the ways that would grab the attention of the average fan. He was not a household name by any means. Even people who studied the draft very, very closely didn't figure him as a second rounder and 60th-overall pick. They probably figured that he would be taken a round lower.

To borrow a term from our coach, Tony Dungy, Kelvin was the "Quintessential Colt." He was selfless, smart, hard-working, a self-made player in every respect. Kelvin also fit Tony's "Cover-Two" defensive system perfectly. The system emphasizes speed, so it consists mainly of smaller and quicker defensive linemen and linebackers, and it encourages passes to be thrown underneath the coverage and calls for runs to be spilled to the outside. Therefore, the cornerback not only has to be able to cover, but he also has to be a good tackler. He has to be physical and be able to mix it up, because he's going to be forced to make a lot of tackles in the short zone, both on passes that are completed in front of him and on running plays that come in his direction. He'll be one-on-one with the back on any number of occasions.

Kelvin was not a guy that was recruited by 72 schools or was a high-school All-American when he was a sophomore. He was just a blue-collar guy. That's what Tony wanted. That's what Marv Levy wanted. That's what Dom Capers, our coach in Carolina, wanted. That's what our program's been all about throughout the years.

Peyton Manning was the MVP of that Super Bowl, but Dominic Rhodes, whom we signed as an undrafted rookie free agent in 2001, could have been. We ran the ball exceptionally well that day. Dominic rushed for 113 yards and a touchdown on 21 carries, while Joseph Addai had 77 yards on 19 attempts.

Don't get me wrong. Peyton had a very good game, completing 25-of-38 passes for 247 yards and a touchdown, with one interception. He also did a remarkable job of handling the ball well under conditions that were torrential. But, overall, I just thought Dominic was equally deserving of the MVP.

The thing that stuck out about that victory was the fact that we had the best team in the league, really, or the best team in the conference, certainly, for the two previous years and hadn't advanced. So, when we rallied from a 21–6 halftime deficit to actually beat the Patriots in the 2006 AFC Championship Game at the RCA Dome, it was incredibly powerful. Our center, Jeff Saturday, was truly speaking for all of us when he said years later, during an interview on ESPN, "That was the most emotional win of all."

When you win the conference title in your own stadium, it's always pure because it's your fans, your team, your family, your team family that gets to share that with you. There are no outsiders. There are none of the hangers-on, none of the supernumeraries that seem to just envelop the Super Bowl. It's just you and the ones with whom you want to share something like that the most.

And it remains a vivid memory. The joy of having accomplished that and coming from behind and doing it in our building, after all we'd been through in the two previous years — losing to the Patriots, 20–3, in the divisional round in 2004; the 13 straight regular-season wins in 2005 and then we inexplicably lose to San Diego; the death of Tony Dungy's 18-year-old son, James Dungy, four days later and all of the heartache that we'd gone through, and then we lose in the divisional round of the playoffs to Pittsburgh by a field goal at the end — was overwhelming. It was the pure, unadulterated joy of having finally won the conference championship and going to the Super Bowl.

Just before we left for the airport to fly to Miami, Tony took all of the players and coaches to our indoor facility. He pointed up to the wall, to the banners for the five division championships the franchise had won in Indianapolis before we clinched the sixth in 2006. He then took note of the fact that there was a space for another banner — the one for the Super Bowl.

"Here's what we're going to do, guys," Tony said. "This whole week is about putting a banner up on that wall. That's what this is about. Now, let's get on the buses."

All I could say was, "Wow!"

Now, fast forward to June, to our organized team activity practice. The only players there were the ones who had been with the Super Bowl team. After the first team meeting, Tony walked all of the players out to the indoor facility, and he said, "Look up on the wall."

"There it is," Tony said, pointing to the new banner for our victory in Super Bowl XLI. "You did it!"

I watched in awe. We would have a ceremony to present the Super Bowl rings after the final OTA session in June, but the unfurling of that banner was, at least for me, the most emotional of the celebrations because it was just with the people who did it.

Taken in context, Kelvin's interception was the validation of everything we believed in, everything that we tried to build with the Bills, with the Panthers — when I was their GM from 1994 to 1997 — and with the Colts. Here's a guy who's the typical product of our system making the play that won the Super Bowl. As Marv used to say, "Programs win, people don't."

The way our team was built, invariably a player like Kelvin Hayden was going to make a play like that, just as a player like Marlin Jackson was going to be the one to intercept a Tom Brady pass at our 35-yard line with 16 seconds left when we were up 38–34 on the Patriots, to end the 2006 AFC Championship Game and put us in the Super Bowl. Marlin was another cornerback we had drafted in 2005, a round ahead of Kelvin. He was better known than Kelvin, but he wasn't all that highly touted, either. Most people following the draft had him as a low-first- to upper-second-round talent.

But those two players were exactly what we needed and wanted, and they fit the profile that we established perfectly. Reggie Wayne, our standout wide receiver who I hope will go into the Pro Football Hall of Fame one day, was like Marlin and Kelvin. Reggie was the 31st-overall pick of the draft from the University of Miami, and it was another decision that prompted the second-guessers to say: "Why did they draft this guy? They don't need a wide receiver. They have Marvin Harrison."

Santana Moss was by far the more well-known receiver on that Hurricanes team, but Reggie was the more complete and NFL-ready receiver. What it takes to win is simple, but it isn't easy.

It's hard to find those kinds of people. Finding them takes a tremendous effort by a great many people and it has a great many levels. It starts with the core belief that you win with people that have great football temperament. Football temperament tells us that a guy has, number one, a real love for the game and all that goes with it, that football's important to him; number two, that he has a really good work ethic, is willing to do whatever it takes to win; and, number three, that he's a good citizen, both on and off the field.

When you have those kinds of people and when you have that kind of mindset in your organization, three things happen: One, you win. Two, you win in dramatic ways because you have incredible resiliency; you have that never-say-die spirit because it's kindled by this group of like-minded individuals — coaches, players, staff people, everyone. And, third, you do it in a way that makes you proud because, by and large, these are really good guys. They're people that fans want to root for.

Yes, you need a Peyton Manning. You need the Hall of Famers that we had with the Bills: Bruce Smith, Jim Kelly, Thurman Thomas, and Andre Reed. But you've got to have, as we did in Buffalo, all of those other players who fit the mold as well — guys like cornerback Kirby Jackson, who entered the NFL as a fifth-round draft pick of the New York Jets, was picked up by the Los Angeles Rams, and then by us; free safety Mark Kelso, whom the Philadelphia Eagles made a 10th-round draft pick from William & Mary and then released before we acquired him; defensive end Phil Hansen, who was not a well-known name when we took him with the second-to-last pick of the second round from North Dakota State; nose tackle Jeff Wright, whom we drafted in the eighth round from Central Missouri State; and linebacker Carlton Bailey, a converted nose tackle whom we drafted in the ninth round from North Carolina.

These are the kind of guys who become good players and some become great because they have that work ethic, that determination, that intelligence, that ability to say, "I'm a professional, I'm going to give it all I got, and team is what counts. I'm checking my ego at the door. I want to win. That's what's important."

If you have those kinds of people, and you put them around those game changers, that's what propels you over the top. You can't win without those kinds of players, because there are many more of them than there are game changers. You want all of your players to fit the same profile, but if you're lucky, four or five of them are going to be game changers. You have to have 24, counting the punter and kicker, who can go out there and perform at a high level and not be cowed by the pressure.

They're not worried about the extraneous, outside issues. They can focus and are smart and can make winning plays in tight situations. That's what you have to have throughout the team.

The NFL isn't the NBA. You hear people say the NBA consists of one or two or maybe, if you're very lucky, three game changers per team, and the rest are all "role players." They're rebounders or they're defensive players or they're guys who handle and pass the ball, but they're not game changers. That doesn't fly in football. Everybody has to do their job to the best of their ability.

Not that people in the NBA don't, but Michael Jordan, for example, could basically score on his own. He might need a guy to get him the ball on a rebound or a guy to set a pick for him, but not always. And he could beat anybody he had to one-on-one, so you could isolate him on the floor.

That doesn't happen in football, because even if you have top-flight receivers such as Marvin Harrison or Andre Reed that you could isolate on a corner, somebody still has to block for the quarterback. And somebody has to run a complementary route so that the defense can't double-team him. Then, the quarterback has to deliver the ball to him. Otherwise, he's useless. It's just a different game — the ultimate team game.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from The Game Plan by Bill Polian, Vic Carucci. Copyright © 2014 Bill Polian and Vic Carucci. Excerpted by permission of Triumph Books.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Contents

Preface,
Acknowledgments,
Foreword by Peyton Manning,
1. Soggy Lunches and Validation,
2. Deciding on the Decision Maker,
3. Escape From the Storage Closet,
4. Searching for Something to "Shout!" About,
5. The Prodigal Quarterback Comes Home,
6. Setting a New Course,
7. Managing a Strike ... and Striking Gold,
8. Hold the Sugar,
9. You Never Roam Too Far From Buffalo,
10. With Expansion Comes a Lot of Contractions,
11. Tuning Out the Noise,
12. On Draft Day, Let the Board Talk to You,
13. No Excuses. No Explanations. Turn the Page.,