In the little time that we’ve come to know Nathaniel Hackett, we cannot conclude that he’s a good football coach. In fairness, we cannot conclude he’s a bad one, either. Not just yet. While Hackett’s bungles have been many, his football team is 2-1 and sitting atop the AFC West. How he got there is a hotly debated subject in Denver, but the fact remains: The new coach has won more than he’s lost.
What the small sample size that surrounds Hackett has afforded us, however, is a nearly undeniable assessment: Nathaniel Hackett is a nice guy.
He’s a good dude.
Positive. Warm. Friendly. Energetic.
In a human being, those are fine, fine traits. As those qualities pertain to an NFL coach, the jury is still out.
Most recently, we can even add “humble” to the list. For every mistake Hackett has made this season – and there have been plenty – he’s often and humbly admitted that he’s been wrong. After botching the clock (again) against Houston in Week 2, Hackett was asked if he might seek some help from a veteran assistant to streamline what appeared to be a major issue on the Broncos sideline.
His answer: “I think right now, I’m very confident in our staff and everybody that we have. I think everything is always open in the air. But for us, everybody is good. We just have to work things out together, we have to communicate better. It starts with me and getting the proper information that I need.”
In other words, “Thanks but no thanks – we’ll be fine as is.”
But a funny thing happened on the way to Sunday Night Football against the San Francisco 49ers – Hackett retained the services of longtime NFL assistant coach Jerry Rosburg to help with gameday management. Rosburg was in the coaches’ booth for the 11-10 win over the 49ers, and – perhaps not so coincidentally – the Broncos appeared to be “better coached” (at least in terms of timeouts, clock management and situational decision making).
Whether Hackett was the force behind hiring Rosburg, or whether he received a “gentle nudge” from Broncos GM George Paton, became a popular topic of conversation on Monday following the win. Regardless of what happened behind closed doors, however, the move seemingly worked, and Hackett rolled along with that big signature grin on his face the whole time. If he was forced to bring in Rosburg, he certainly did so happily – at least as far as anyone on the outside could tell.
“We knew that we had some things, especially myself, that I had to address,” Hackett told the press on Monday. “Then being able to get [Senior Assistant] Jerry [Rosburg] in there and work with the people that we have….I appreciate all those guys and all the extra work they put in this past week to get that process going the right way.”
Winning has a way of bringing out the smile on everyone’s face. Hackett’s doesn’t seem to go away, win or lose, but he never ever looked crusty about turning over some of his duties to another coach. For many – let’s say most – NFL coaches, the idea of publicly turning over the reins to someone else, for anything else, wouldn’t sit so well.
If there’s a list of words that would “typically” describe an NFL coach, it might start with “egotistical.” That’s normally a negative connotation, but when the dollars are big and the seconds are small, the need for big men with big egos and little doubt is often required. NFL coaches don’t often wonder if they’re right; they just know. Even when decisions go awry, the coach who willingly says “I f*<#ed that up” is rarer that a fat, slow wide receiver.
Add a few more choice descriptors – tough, secretive, self-assured, calculated – and you can fairly accurately paint the picture of the typical NFL coach.
Hackett might be some of those things, but they’re the predominant traits that we’ve come to know. Not yet. And not only has he said he’s been wrong, but he’s basically said so after every game.
Following Week 1’s end of game decision to kick a 64-yard, game-winning (losing) field goal: “Looking back at it, we definitely should have gone for it.”
Following Week 2’s “Fan Countdown” of the play clock – a mocking, creative form of booing to be sure – most coaches might have snarled, grouchily unwilling to acknowledge that it even happened, much less helped. Not Hackett. He took it in stride, and of course, with a smile.
“When it comes to the fans, they were awesome,” he said. “I mean they are loud. It’s great for the defense. It was great. The countdown, all that kind of stuff, they are smart.”
Following Week 3, when his team put just 11 points on the scoreboard, he humbly accepted the fact that his every move since the season started has been perhaps excruciatingly, but justifiably, scrutinized.
“Nobody ever told me this was going to be easy. Taking this job, you knew there were going to be some ups and downs. It’s going to be a roller coaster. I think that’s something that I’ve embraced,” he said. “For me, it’s just about continually improving every day at whatever it is. As a person, as a coach, father, husband, you name it, I always want to get better and everything that I do. There is always going to be scrutiny. Whether you lose, when you win, when you tie, there’s always going to be something that people are going to say you can do better, and I’m going to do everything I can to continue to get better.”
How can anyone not like this guy?
In many, many ways, Hackett should be role model for young girls and boys everywhere. This is how you act. This is how you treat people. Smiling is good. Humility is good. Taking responsibility is good.
Nice is good.
But if one strolls through the hallways of the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, the busts that anyone would call “nice” first and foremost are few and far between. It’s a long list of tough and gruff men who had no problem going nose to nose with monsters twice their size, proud men like Tom Landry and Don Shula. Dick Vermeil might be the “nicest” coach in Canton, but even he could blow a fuse from time to time.
Nathaniel Hackett is about as far from Canton as an NFL head coach can be at this exact moment. He’s just starting out, refreshingly and humbly with his very own style. One can’t accuse Hackett of being someone he’s not. And even though his team isn’t that far from being 0-3, they’re sitting nicely at 2-1. No matter what you think of him, that’s nice to see.
Can this nice guy turn into a nice head coach by the end of the season? It’d sure be nice to see the Broncos back in the playoffs. If this nice experiment works out, they should be.
