We'll take a brief moment at Hogs Haven to honor Frank "Bucko" Kilroy, who passed away yesterday after an incredibly prodigious NFL career. To wit:
His death yesterday was announced by the New England Patriots, for whom Kilroy worked for 36 years.
He spent 64 NFL seasons as a player, coach, scout, executive and consultant.
Kilroy's professional football career began in 1943 when he played for the wartime "Steagles," which was the combined Pittsburgh Steelers-Philadelphia Eagles team during World War Two.
He served in various capacities after his playing years with the Washington Redskins and Dallas Cowboys before joining the Patriots. He served as a "super scout" for the Cowboys from 1966 to 1970 -- a period in which Dallas won five straight division titles.
This man forgot more football than I could ever hope to know, and the game is worse off without him. My condolences to his family. Per
Wikipedia, he was with the Redskins from 1962-64,
though I apologize for not knowing what capacity he served in and
The Redskins Historian Mike Richman had this to say on Kilroy:
Frank "Bucko" Kilroy was the chief talent scout of the Redskins during that period. He previously held that position with the Eagles. He also played for the Eagles for 13 seasons.
Thanks Mike!
Family is also more important than Football, and a recent article tackles that issue as regards NFL coaches. The portion I will focus on relates to how hard the coaches work, as the piece provides two Redskins who differed greatly in their coaching philosophy.
Steve Spurrier:
With salaries and expectations constantly on the rise, the pressure for coaches to pour every available hour into their jobs is intense even though the staff sizes are increasingly large and improved technology allows coaches to do more in less time.
Regardless, it's not unusual for a coach to sleep in his office during the week on a pull-out couch. Steve Spurrier scoffed at that when he became coach of the Washington Redskins, leaving his workaholic peers feeling vindicated when Spurrier resigned after 7-9 and 5-11 seasons.
:
The late George Allen, who coached the Rams when they were in Los Angeles and the Redskins, once said, "I always called the opposing coach at 10 o'clock Wednesday night, and if nobody answered, I knew we would win on Sunday."
It's no coincedence that one was successful as an NFL coach and one was not. There are some things worth criticizing in Joe Gibbs 2nd tenure in Washington, but his commitment to the job is not one of them. Remember, Joe Gibbs
"was known as a workaholic who sometimes slept on a cot at Redskins Park". He was, and remains, an
iron man:
He's also driven, compulsive and a legendary workaholic. This week, after the Redskins learned they would play the Minnesota Vikings in Saturday's first round of the NFL playoffs, Gibbs pulled his black Blazer into the parking lot at Redskin Park late Sunday afternoon and, with the exception of a couple of brief naps, pretty much worked the next 96 hours on a gameplan.
He seldom sleeps more than five hours a night, even when he's on vacation, and his body clock runs at such a high speed that others have trouble keeping up. When he saw an assistant coach eyeing the clock during a 1991 meeting, he ordered clocks removed from the room. He still talks in amazement about the coach who left a gameplanning session because he had a bad cold.
