Coaches you'd love to play for

Not somebody I would want to play for, but Billy Martin in baseball. Highest level manager with a caustic personality. Earl Weaver was maybe less caustic, but interesting. Never allowed his player to sacrifice bunt, I understand.

My choice to play for would be Bill Walsh in football. Not only coached at an elite level, he was a decent human. Did not allow the initiation of rookies. Everyone else seemed to think that was how you "toughen 'em up".

Honorable mention goes to Marv Levy. Never won the Super Bowl, but a helluva coach.

Earl Weaver; Frank Layden Don Cherry Pete Carroll.

F Notre Dame.

These days if I were a college athlete I’d say whoever could get me the best NIL deal if who I’d like to play for.

If it’s before then, I’d go with Bill Self. Even at that back in the day he too could have gotten me a few duffle bags full of money from Adidas.

Tony Dungy, Andy Reid, and Ted Lasso...

Dungy and Reid were horrible fathers, so not sure why playing for them would be good.

F the Chiefs F the Colts

Good question. Bobby Knight was a great coach but he was really tough borderline abusive to a lot of his players. I had a HS bball coach who went to his coaches camp and subscribed to his tough coaching style. I learned a lot from him and we won a lot of games, but it was stressful and not a lot of fun.

And then there is old Bud Grant. Minnesota Vikings coach back in the day. When asked in his retirement how he reconciled losing all 4 of his Super Bowls, he replied: "At the end of the day, it's just entertainment."

Words to live by.

The only fun I had playing football was winning so give me Belichick or Saban. Saban really backs his players.

Mike Dantoni seemed fun and didn't care about defense so him or John Wooden, just to soak in his mindset.

Definitely Bobby Cox as a manager.

Scotty Bowman if my sport was hockey

I shoulda had Angelo Dundee

Yo’ momma or yo’ daddy, who you choosing?

My mother motivated me to get out of the house and my daddy motivated me to work if I wanted anything.

Rex Ryan, John Madden. Maybe not the greatest coaches, but one that players loved to play for. The kind of coach that every player should experience for at least one season in their playing career. I'm one of those who believe that winning is fun. Wrt to Vince Lombardi- I wouldn't tag him as "cool", any more than I'd tag Bobby Knight as cool. One should listen to his halftime speech on YT.

I would have liked to play basketball for John Wooden at UCLA. Bobby Knight here in my state of Indiana was a great coach down at IU but I do not think I could have survived the verbal abuse.

Football, Tom Landry. Hockey, Doug Jarvis (I knew him through elementary and high school) and for lacrosse, Ross Powless, coach of the Rochester Americans and the Brantford Warriors, who were the perennial Mann Cup champions (the Canadian championship). I had the privilege of playing on a team with one of his sons.

Football-Don Shula; Baseball-Earl Weaver or Tony LaRussa; Hockey Punch Imlach or Scotty Bowman; Basketball-John Wooden

My Bobby Knight-disciple HS bball coach really did a number on me with his verbal abuse. I don’t want to be too specific, because the other kids (then) who witnessed the worst of it (teammates, cheerleaders-ugh) would know who wrote this. It was a different time, the late 70s. I’m still friends we some of my old teammates and we laugh about it. It was kind of funny but unbelievable. Complicated being a coach. I kind of loved and hated him. He knew the game and I would have run though a brick wall for him.

Any takers on Jerry Sandusky/Joe Paterno out there?

^ Sandusky was a disgrace and Paterno care a lot more about the reputation of the program than boys being molested by Sandusky. Simple statement of fact.

I'm kidding obviously. Btw Lee Elia had a great rant back in the day. That's what an old school manager sounds like

m.youtube.com

^ ha ha - Lee Elia was hil! Philly local guy. Manager the Phillies a few years. My dad played baseball against him back in the day and said he was a great player.

I was sitting behind the bench at a college D1 bball game. The coach had a real gentleman/professor type reputation. He was laying into a player on the bench he just took out of the game for something. The player yelled, “What do you want me to do?” The coach got right on his face and yelled, “I want you to stop being a pussy!” I’ll never forget that.

Bob Knight for sure