My high school coach was Ray O'Conner. He has coached a lot of players that have signed professional contracts, and many of those have gone on to play in the major leagues.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I wound up through a wild set of circumstances getting into coaching. I went in and volunteered with Don Coryell, who was a big part of my past, great coach. A lot of people say he was one of the greatest coaches ever. He was very good in high school, college and pro. Another guy on that staff was named John Madden.
When I first came into the league, I was with Tim Dwight in San Diego, and a guy named Eric Parker, who really showed me the work ethic it takes to be an NFL receiver, and I've really tried to keep that with me.
The best player I ever coached was Gary Payton.
Bill Belichick was probably the most organized coach that I've ever been involved with.
I've always been privileged to play for Coach Belichick, who I've always said is the best coach in the history of the league.
I feel like I've been very blessed to have some great mentors through the years, starting with Don James, who was my college coach, who really inspired me to want to be a coach, which is not something that I really had in mind.
Coaches who have been players in the league, they get so attuned to playing how they were successful and who their coaches were.
Many of the most successful coaches and managers have come from players who never reached the highest level. The one exception seems to be basketball, where many of the greatest stars at least tried to coach a team.
I worked under Francis Schmidt, and he was the biggest influence on my coaching career.
Name one experienced coach anywhere in the world that would hand over their playbook to the other team. Unless it's a fake playbook, it just doesn't happen.