NFL thing

[Brugdor]

http://www.nationalfootballpost.com/2008/10/national-football-post-tavern-talk-49/

By Michael Lombardi

I’M BUYING A ROUND FOR THE HEAD COACH OF THE WEEK…

TOM COUGHLIN                       NEW YORK GIANTS

Yes, I know he has one of the best teams, but what has impressed me about the job Tom is doing is his ability to handle Plaxico Burress and not let it affect the team.  He is using a very simple leadership strategy called the “Law of Threes”.  On each team there are three types of players.  The first are the ones that will do anything that is asked, willing to help the program.  The second group are the undecided players, the players that are not sure what to do.  And the third are the malcontents.  These are the players that want to buck the system all the time, and try to breakdown the team.  As a leader, there is a tendency to try and win over the players in group three, by trying to make them happy. But all that does is move the players from group two into group three, and cause you to start to lose the players in group one.  What Coughlin has done is focus on group one.  He pays no attention to group three and what has resulted is that Plaxico is on an island and no one wants to join him.  The team is bigger than Plaxico.  Mike Singletary needs to follow this advice.   

Amen to that.

[Night Owl]

I think it was Billy Martin that said (about managing) - "there are five guys who love you, five guys who hate you, and fifteen undecideds. My job is to keep the undecideds away from the guys who hate me"