Coaches get far too much credit when things go well and way too much blame when things go poorly.
Are good coaches important? Of course they are. But ultimately it’s the players that win and lose games, not the coaches.
The Detroit Lions let head coach Jim Schwartz go at the end of last year, a season in which the Lions were given every opportunity to win the division. Aaron Rodgers got hurt, Jay Cutler got hurt and the Vikings realized they actually sucked, despite the best efforts of Adrian Peterson.
Now maybe a different coach would have game-planned differently and won enough games to make the playoffs, but it was Matthew Stafford and friends who were unable to capitalize.
Jeff Hornacek receives so much praise for turning the Phoenix Suns into anything more than the bottom-dwellers of the league, but it’s Goran Dragic and the players who decide the outcome.
Schwartz was bad, and Hornacek is good, yes. But they are not the end-all, be-all reasons the Lions and Suns did what they did.
Coaches are there before and after the game, but from start to finish of the actual game, it’s the players that do the work.
Reach the reporter at justin.emerson@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @J15Emerson
