Coaches in all sports have a long history of arguing with officials regarding calls. At the most basic level, the goal is to try to get the next close call to go their way. For some, like legendary baseball manager Earl Weaver, bad calls draw harsh reactions because bad calls lead to bad losses, which can lead to the manager not having a job and his family not being fed.
Eagles coach Nick Sirianni, who has a history in his three seasons on the job as being a little feisty with officials, recently explained that he’ll try to be less demonstrative when officials make calls with which he disagrees.
“All of us, the moment we stop growing and trying to grow in our profession and grow as people, as players, as coaches is the moment you might as well not be doing it anymore,” Sirianni told reporters this week.” So we’re constantly trying to evolve everything that we do to -- you go through adversity and you think about, ‘What can I do better in adversity?’ You go through good times and you think about, ‘What can I do better?” Everything is always in a constant evaluation of yourself. That’s accountability. To point out a specific thing, I mean, I’ve worked a lot on a lot of different things just to make sure that I’m being the best head coach that I possibly can be.”
The specific focus, as it relates to his sideline demeanor, will be interactions with officials.
“You know, one thing that I read when I was reading a leadership book this offseason was if you want everyone around you to have accountability and you want yourself to have accountability, then you fussing at the refs is not -- it’s almost like, ‘Hey, this happened, so I’m going to blame that,’ Sirianni said. “When I read that, I was like, ‘Yeah, that hit me some sort of way.’ When I think about me with a referee potentially on the sideline and I complain about a call, is that really sending the right message to the rest of the team as far as our accountability goes?
“Again, when something goes wrong, the answer should be how do we fix this and what are the solutions, as opposed to looking for a scapegoat, I guess to say, is how I read it in the book. That hit me a certain way because with our core values being what they are -- our connect, our accountability, our toughness, our detail -- with our core values being that and accountability being such a big one, I looked at that as -- that doesn’t mean I’m going to be perfect. I already know that. But that’s definitely on my mind.”
There’s definitely a balance to strike. If one coach never reacts to a bad call and if the opposing coach always does, maybe the officials in a given game will be subconsciously more likely to resolve the close calls in a way that avoids getting chewed out on TV. But if a coach goes too far in constantly ripping the refs, it becomes counterproductive — especially if the players think it’s a little much.
Still, there’s a way to use a reaction to a clearly bad call as motivation. But it has to be real and authentic, not contrived. The team has to have been truly screwed, and it has to be clear and obvious that they were.
For the truly close calls, a loud reaction just becomes noise. And if it happens all the time, it becomes tiresome and exhausting. For everyone.