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One weekend morning this spring, Sam Darnold was in a hotel room in New York after a night out with friends when his phone rang with a FaceTime call.
It was Adam Gase.
"I say," What's going on? "I'm at the hotel. I'm in my boxer. My shirt is removed and I'm faceTiming, my head coach, "Darnold recalls with a smile.
Gase quickly saw that it was not the right time to chat and told Darnold to go take a shower.
"If you see his name appear and that Adam Gase wants to deal with TimeTime, no matter what you do, you always feel comfortable to answer and he will not judge you," said Darnold .
The Jets head coach in second and first year have developed a strong relationship in their first eight months. The franchise relies on this relationship to lead to more than FaceTime hijinks, but also wins and championships.
This is the reason why Gase was hired in January compared to the other candidates met. The Jets felt that he was the right coach to bring out the best of their young quarterback. They spent the spring and summer getting to know each other better and learning to speak the same language, even if it requires the occasional FaceTime surprise from the head coach.
"I bother him a lot," said Gase. "I'm FaceTime from time to time and just drive him crazy."
The head coach relationship is the most critical in sports and is at the center of the 2019 Jets. A baseball manager and pitcher do not always need to be on the same page. In basketball, star players have more weight than coaches. In hockey, a goalkeeper and a coach do not need to have excellent communication.
But in football, it is essential. From Paul Brown to Otto Graham to Bill Belichick and Tom Brady, almost every dynasty in NFL history was preceded by a coach / quarterback tandem. You watch an excellent quarterback, they usually have a great coach. You watch a good coach and they almost always have a great quarter.
Since 1967, 18 coaches have been inducted into the Professional Football Hall of Fame. Of those 18, only three of them had no quarterback to the Hall of Fame.
In the current NFL, a second-year shoemaker group has recently had some success with an offensive head coach. The Rams (Jared Goff and Sean McVay), the Bears (Mitch Trubisky and Matt Nagy) and the Chiefs (Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid) all made the playoffs in the second year of this quarter. The Jets hope that Gase will be able to do the same with Darnold. That's why they made him their first head coach with an offensive past since Rich Kotite in 1996.
"I do not want to say it has to be a good relationship, but you have to have an understanding," said Hall of Fame coach Bill Parcells.
Parcells had one of the best coach / quarterback relations in New York history. Parcels and Phil Simms with the Giants of the 1980s, Weeb Ewbank and Joe Namath in the 1960s and early 70s with the Jets and Tom Coughlin and Eli Manning in the 2000s with the Giants, come to mind during of the last 60 years. All have won at least one championship together.
Parcells and Simms had a heated relationship that they felt was fueled by their competitive spirit.
"Bill and I were talking the same language," said Simms, now an analyst at CBS. "I know everyone says, you fought. We spoke the same language. We were the same guy. That's why we got along. That's why we could shout at you. "
Parcells agreed when relayed the comments of Simms.
"He was a pretty ardent personality and me too," Parcells said. "But it was ok, we did not take things personally and there were times we could have but we did not have them."
Gase and Darnold are not yet about to shout at the field. They still feel outside.
At some point in OTAs this spring, Gase shouted at Darnold. The 22-year-old quarterback told him, "It's high time."
"He always makes jokes left and right," Darnold said. "I'm still trying to figure out how much I can tell him. I do not want to feel like saying things that do not suit him because he is the head coach and all the rest. Everything is fun and fun until you make fun of the head coach. "
Both are also trying to learn to communicate together on football.
"The other night, he came in and I sort of showed him how I watch a movie, how I go about planning the game," said Gase. "We discussed the best way for you to do it. I think it's going to be an ongoing process for him and for me, because I do not want to overload him and let him look at everything he has to do when he does not need to do it. This is one of those things where the second year will be different from the eighth grade for him. We just have to keep building this library slowly. "
Darnold said he and Gase treated things the same way, which helped him learn the offense. At night, Gase sends him a text message about the practice of the next day and the two always seem to talk when they are on the ground.
Gase said it would involve Darnold in planning the game to make sure the quarterback felt comfortable with what he was doing. That's something Parcells did with the Jets when Vinny Testaverde was his quarterback in 1998.
"Vinny did not like the confrontation," Parcells said. "I understood that when we were doing something, all I wanted was to make sure that Vinny appreciated the content of the game plan.It was n & # 39; I did not like certain things, we rejected them, I would say, "Is everything okay here?" As soon as he said, "OK, coach," well, he was the owner. with the confidence that he loved them and we thought we could execute them. "
Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Fouts said it would be different for Darnold to have a head coach invested in the offensives and quarterbacks. Todd Bowles was a defensive coach and de facto defensive coordinator for much of last year.
"It's huge," said Fouts about this relationship.
Don Coryell was hired to coach the Chargers in the midst of the 1978 season, the sixth season of Fouts in the league. The following year, the Fouts competed in the first of six Pro Bowls and were All-Pro for the first time.
"It gave me hope, a great attack plan and a commitment," said Fouts, now an analyst at CBS. "I tell a story about starting a game and missing my first three assists and my fourth was selected for a touchdown in the other direction. I'm approaching the sideline and instead of thinking I'm going to get fired, he says, "You still have 40 throws, okay? It is this commitment to the plan, the offense and for me, it was the reason we were successful. "
Beyond the appeal of good games, the quarterback is convinced that this is where the best coaches make their mark, said several former quarterbacks.
"Trust is an incredible thing," said Simms. "You can conquer everything. A close throw suddenly seems open. You are a better decision maker. You feel well. You drive better. When you eat at night, it flows more easily. All this is real. The better he leads Sam Darnold, the better for the entire football team. "
Gase worked with Peyton Manning, one of the greatest players of all time, when he was with the Broncos. Gase said the biggest thing he had learned from Manning was to know how to listen to the players. He is now trying to forge a relationship with Darnold in which the quarterback can still have a direct line with him on whatever.
"Is it really important for Sam? [Expletive] yes, said Gase. "Think about it, it can come to me for any purpose. It may be the smallest thing that we attack and he can say to himself, "Hey, we really have to solve this problem because this group has a problem." He can solve the problems. It can happen up to me, where some guys might be a little afraid to say anything. He knows, for example, "We have to solve this problem." He wants to win. To do this, he must make sure his crew is good. "
Darnold knows that he can reach Gase at any time, even if it's a FaceTime call on Sunday morning in his boxer.
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