NFL training camps are upon us, and one of the things that is always interesting is to see how old coaches fit in with new teams. John Fox is taking over the Chicago Bears this season, and he’s been highly successful in stints with the Carolina Panthers and Denver Broncos. As he was giving insight into how he does it in an interview with the Chicago Tribune, he revealed that his philosophy is to create the atmosphere from … of all things … a five star restaurant:
“My experience has been that if players know you genuinely care about them and they know that you can make them better, they’ll do anything for you. This can’t be that you’re the prison cafeteria worker and you just slop the food out there and say, ‘Eat it or starve.’ You have to have more of a five-star restaurant approach. Your players, your employees better get great service. They better get your attention. Or they’ll go somewhere else. People sense the energy. So you have to create that—everywhere in the building.”
There are 7,806 restaurants in Chicago, and only 30 NFL teams. So it’ll be a while before players go somewhere else. But this is a healthy attitude for a coach to have (no pun intended). I wonder if John Fox’s five star restaurant approach extends to the actual food in the mess hall. If so, the Bears will be the best fed team in the league.
(John Fox photo by David Banks/Getty Images)
