Want Your NFL Team’s Strength & Conditioning Coach Fired?
Savior or scapegoat—an expert explains the difficulties
As the NFL playoffs begin, most contending teams are battling significant injuries and a long injured reserve (IR) list. Meanwhile, coaches among the teams whose seasons are over can start expecting pink slips.
When injuries have played a major role in the W/L tally (as they have for my Seattle Seahawks) unhappy fans often call for the firing of the strength & conditioning coach.
It might sound satisfying, but if the question is “How much responsibility do S&C coaches have for a long injured-reserve list?” the short answer is, “It’s complicated.”
Plenty of science, but how much is used?
In theory, a good S&C coach has considerable science and technology at his disposal (and yes, at the moment, all in the NFL are men, although Kelsey Martinez strengthened the Raiders last year). Many have degrees in exercise science, nutrition, or kinesiology. They have GPS technology and accelerometers, among other tools, to measure a player’s workload and the forces involved in acceleration, deceleration, and directional changes. They can track imbalances between his right and left sides, take blood tests, and assess dehydration. And scientists…
