Vineland High School football players received a special pre-game pep talk on Friday from legendary football coach, Dick Vermeil, who owns the rare distinction of being named “Coach of the Year” on four levels: high school, junior college, NCAA Division I and the National Football League.
Vermeil’s visit was sponsored by Allen Associates, a Vineland employee benefits and financial services company.
Vermeil, whose pro career spanned 17 years, was coach of three NFL teams – the Philadelphia Eagles, the St. Louis Rams, and Kansas City Chiefs. He coached the Rams to the Super Bowl title in 1999 and was one of few coaches in the NFL to bring three different teams to the playoffs.
Vermeil began his NFL head coaching career in 1976 with the Philadelphia Eagles. He would coach the Eagles through the 1982 season and was named the NFL's coach of the year in 1980, the year he led the Eagles into Super Bowl XV after defeating the Dallas Cowboys for the NFC championship. The Eagles lost 27-10 to the Oakland Raiders, finishing the year with a 14-5 record.
The coach retired for the first time after the 1982 season, citing long-term exhaustion. For the next 15 years, Vermeil spent time working as a sports announcer for the likes of CBS and ABC.
He returned to the NFL in 1997 as coach of the St. Louis Rams for two years –winning Super Bowl XXXIV in 1999. He then served as head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs from 2001-2005.
“Being successful in football, being successful in the classroom, being successful when you get out of school --- the ingredients are all the same,” said Vermeil. “It’s all based on performance. Do you get the job done? Do you play well? One of the keys I always thought was critical in my football team was whether players understood what it takes to play well. Of course, it takes smarts, it takes physical ability, talent --- no question about that. But it all comes down to performance.”
“People who take advantage of their God-given talent and maximize it do their best --- whether it be on the football field or in the classroom or outside working for an employer or as an employee hiring other people,” said Vermeil. “Do you do a good job when you have the opportunity to do it? Performance is all controlled by your motivation, your desire to do it.”
As an example, Vermeil said, “some of the finest football players I have ever coached in my life were not first-round picks.”
“Even in college, there is a greater deviation in the skill levels of every team,” he said. “In the NFL there are no poor players. They are all real good. My thought was that what makes the real difference is the guy’s motivation, his desire to play, his desire to work.”
“What you have to understand is the only thing you have total control of is your performance,” he said. “You have total control of your performance in the classroom. You have total control of your performance tonight, individually. How well you play, what you are going to do tonight will be determined right here. How bad you want it. Your motivation.”
Vermeil said that at every level motivation and attitude “and how players aligned their priorities”, were key factors in successful performance.
“I have found that people are either victims or beneficiaries of their attitudes -- the victim or beneficiary of how they think,” he said. “If you can train yourself to think positively and believe in yourself and listen to the right people and develop the confidence you can do something, you win, you can be a good student, you can be successful, it makes a big difference.”
As for his own attitude, Vermeil said, “the only thing I ever talked about was winning --- even when we were losing. You have to keep talking about winning, keep talking about doing it right and finding a way to do it better.”
“You won’t play as well tonight as you will four weeks down the road,” Vermeil told the VHS team. “Why? Because of experience. You will leave this game tonight a better player than you were when you went in the game. No question. That happens. The big thing is to control your motivation by defining your attitude. Align your priorities and determine what is important.”
“Don’t ever have someone tell you can’t do something,” Vermeil said. “You make up your mind; you will do it and do it well.”