As I said, internal motivation has its limits. In football, you need external motivation along with the internal motivation. That's why leadership is so important.
I would love to be labeled a player's coach. As long as I'm also seen as a brilliant mind.
Thread isn't being sidetracked as long as we're talking about what we want in our next coach.
What constitutes a players coach ?
Was Fisher a pushover when he had Janoris Jenkins running steps at Candlestick ?
To me a "players coach" is nothing more or less than one the players believe they can identify with, not one who lets them do as they please .
I prefer self motivators ,I prefer to appeal to the player on a cognitive basis ,I think it's more effective and lasts well past the rah rah or ass chewing , the thing is though each player is different in what makes them respond. For me it boils down to two basic forms of motivation faith and fear, a leader / coach has to be able to wield both or the universe of players / followers he can lead is limited .
I'd classify the label "payers coach " as falling under the classification of faith which in times of trouble are to me the more reassuring, if a player is already getting his ass kicked on the field ,I've never thought kicking his ass on the sideline was very constructive but that's not a universal answer , there are people who just have to have a kick in the pants and IMO on a roster of players the size of an NFL roster there are bound to be all types, players identify with a coach who knows WHEN to administer the kick ,which I think our current coach has demonstrated he knows on many occasions.
The mistake that was made when we fired Martz was that the FO believed that Martz's relationship with the team was the same as his relationship with them. It wasn't, so when they hired his replacement they got a guy who WAS a pushover and struck fear in no-one to the extent that he lost the respect of his players who were openly defiant towards him even though he was a pretty good offensive coordinator and deserved some respect for his acumen he lost the ability to get his point across.
As I look back on the Spags era I regard him as having been a victim of circumstance in the three year standard that some are now ready to try to impose upon Fisher. IMO Spags made some horrendous decisions that he may well have not made had he been able to take a longer term view because he wasn't coaching for his job under that three year standard .
I have always said I personally would not take a job as an NFL head coach on a 4 year contract, because teams hardly ever fire a coach with two years left on their contract and prefer not to let a coach continue without an extension into their final year.
This year has shaped up as much a disaster on the injury front as Spags final year and we've already won as many games as that team did thankfully Fisher hasn't been under the same contractual conditions and has been able to plan for the future more than his predecessor was able to so regardless the outcome of this season next years coach won't be facing the prospect of rebuilding a roster that was made old to try to keep a coach his job.