It was a few minutes before Dan Campbell's introductory press conference was to begin four years ago, and Detroit Lions owner Sheila Ford Hamp and president Rod Wood were walking Campbell around the team facilities. They got to the indoor field, and Campbell bent over and broke down. It was no secret that this was the job Campbell wanted. He looked around. Oh my god, he said. I'm the head coach of the Detroit Lions. Then he went on Zoom to meet the media, with no notes and almost no advice from his new bosses about what to say.
"I had a lot of confidence he was going to kill it because I knew how important it was to him," Wood said recently.
It's a ritual that will be repeated around the NFL in the coming weeks, the principals in their appropriate color ties, as head-coach openings are filled and new eras are launched (the Patriots' Mike Vrabel was the first to take part this year, and Ben Johnson is next in line with the Bears). Everyone hopes they will be able to look back at the introductory press conference as the moment the entire franchise pivoted. Rarely does it work out that way. In most cases, the day is innocuous. The quotes are given, the stories are written and everyone moves on with the offseason.
Still, that initial press conference is a singular moment in a coaching tenure. It is a chance to make a first impression on everybody in the team's universe -- the reporters, the staff, the fans and, most importantly, the players -- that will linger in the consciousness, for better or worse. Initially, it was hard to tell which it was for Campbell, whose opening statement went viral immediately.
A refresher, although how could anyone forget: Speaking only to a camera -- no reporters were present on that day in January 2021, because of COVID-19 protocols -- Campbell first cracked that he had encouraged confusion with Matt Campbell, who had just led Iowa State to its best season in history and was reported to be a candidate for the Lions position. He spent the first seven minutes thanking everyone from his wife and children to R.C. Slocum, Bill Parcells and Sean Payton. And then, press conference immortality:
"Here's what I do know, is that this team is going to take on the identity of this city," Campbell said. "And this city's been down, and it found a way to get up. It's found a way to overcome adversity. And so this team's going to be built on, we're going to kick you in the teeth, all right, and when you punch us back, we're going to smile at you and when you knock us down, we're going to get up. And, on the way up, we're going to bite a kneecap off.
"And we're going to stand up, and then it's going to take two more shots to knock us down, and on the way up, we're going to take your other kneecap, and we're going to get up, and then it's going to take three shots to get us down. And when we do, we're going to take another hunk out of you. Before long, we're going to be the last one standing."
In the room, Hamp and Wood stifled their own delighted laughter, because they didn't want to get caught on Zoom.
"Locally it sold incredibly well," Wood said. "Nationally, it was, this guy is a meathead. That narrative has faded."
Indeed. In hindsight, Campbell -- who has since helped turn the Lions into one of the NFL's more successful teams -- threaded a fine needle. Ideally, the coach's first press conference should contain the enthusiasm of a pep rally and the clear-eyed messaging and policy goals of a State of the Union address, all without any significant bloopers that will live on in internet archives. It is a high-wire act that is so fraught with the possibility for disaster that most are thrilled if nobody remembers a thing from it a few hours later.
Little of what we see in press conferences has much long-term impact. Coaches are nervous, excited, exhausted. They stumble, stutter and misspeak. The public persona on that one day does not presage how a coach will conduct a practice, how he will evaluate players, what his decisions will be in the heat of the moment. Bill Belichick authored perhaps the most bizarre entry in the genre in sports history, scribbling, on the day he was to be introduced as head coach of the New York Jets in 2000, his brief resignation note. Then he went on to lead a two-decade-long dynasty in New England.
Those moments are fleeting, but many candidates for coaching and general manager positions undergo training to prepare for job interviews and public speaking. In December, during a gathering for minority general manager candidates, mock interview sessions -- led by former coaches and team executives -- were held, to get candidates comfortable with the kinds of questions owners are likely to ask. Almost nobody gets behind a microphone for that first meeting with reporters without some kind of rudimentary debriefing from the public relations staff on the team's issues and what questions are likely to come up. Nobody wants to be blindsided.
And every time a coach is introduced, there is one audience he is talking to above all others.
"It's the players, it's always about the players, I always sent my message through you guys to the players," said Herm Edwards, whose introductory press conference with the New York Jets in 2001 showcased his high energy and communication skills. "I was the exact opposite of (immediate predecessor) Al Groh -- our styles -- I'm just a guy that has energy. That's just me. I wanted to make sure that came out. After that press conference, they really knew."
Before the press conference, Edwards had gone into his new office, where he found a note from Parcells, who had been the Jets' head coach from 1997 to 1999 and general manager from '97 to 2000. In it, Parcells offered Edwards some advice: In his first press conference, he needed to set the tone.
The team's public relations executive at the time, Frank Ramos, offered Edwards some notes and a warning that he was now in New York. Edwards demurred. He had played in Philadelphia, after all.
"Bottom line is this -- you gotta know who you are and you gotta be OK with that," Edwards said.
Few executives are as relaxed about the moment as Edwards. Mike Tannenbaum, who was the Jets' general manager from 2006 to 2012, went on to found The 33rd Team and is now helping to lead the search for a new Jets head coach and general manager. Tannenbaum views the press conference as a chance to put the new leadership and the franchise in the best possible light.
"You've made a change for a reason, and it's usually not a good reason, so it's the first opportunity to turn the page," Tannenbaum said. "A lot of people probably haven't had a chance to meet the new coach yet, so it's an opportunity to talk to them. You're not hiring someone to be an orator, though. At least get people to have a feel for who you are, and as important as that is, we check that box and it's onto the next thing."
Tannenbaum believed in doing some prep for the new coach, at least about the roster. The emphasis, still, is on a coach being himself, whatever that turns out to be. To do otherwise, to be too scripted, is to come across as a phony and to risk alarming an owner who doesn't recognize the person who was just hired. That's why many NFL people liked Campbell's first appearance.
Rex Ryan, who served as Jets head coach from 2009 to 2014, is now an ESPN analyst and has interviewed for the Jets' opening this year, knew he needed to use his first press conference when hired in 2009 to unleash his signature bravado to do some image repair -- not for himself, but for his franchise.
"With all the cameras and all that, I was looking for our new president back there," Ryan began that day, referencing the recently elected Barack Obama. "You know, I think we'll get to meet him in the next couple years anyway."
Said Tannenbaum, who said he gave no advice to Ryan before he was introduced: "He came out of the womb that way."
Said Ryan recently: "I wanted to make sure everyone knew it was not Same Old Jets. I was speaking to our fan base and our players. I wanted everybody to understand we would lead the league in defense. That we were going to stand for something. I wanted that message to be loud and clear."
Coaches might be surprised to hear that players might not even be paying attention to that message. Younger players with less job security have more immediate concerns. Anthony Becht was entering his second season as a Jets tight end when Edwards was hired, and he does not remember a thing about what Edwards said. He was more interested in who his position coach would be and whether the new regime would even want him. Hall of Fame center Kevin Mawae was also a member of the Jets when Edwards was hired, but he was a far more experienced, established player. He did not watch the press conference. He sat in Edwards' office and talked to him directly a few days later. The introductory press conference, Mawae believes, is mostly for the fans, who want to know what the plans are for the team. He also knows from experience how very off-kilter a press conference can go.
"I went to see the Belichick press conference and by the time I got upstairs, he was no longer the coach," Mawae said.
Campbell aside, the most memorable press conferences, to teams' dismay, are almost always notable for their gaffes, the press conferences that leave fans asking, "We hired this guy?" The image of Ben McAdoo in an oversized suit at his introduction as Giants head coach in 2016 -- he had lost a lot of weight and hadn't had time to shop for a new one -- followed him throughout his tenure. Former Dolphins and Jets head coach Adam Gase is still remembered for an introduction with New York in 2019 that generated headlines that used the phrase, "Crazy Eyes."
"I know how to lose that press conference," said Gase, whose darting eyes and intense gaze in the blaze of camera lights became a meme. "When that's your first exposure, that kind of stinks."
Gase recovered from that day, of course, so much so that he was one of the people working with general manager candidates on their preparation for job interviews ahead of the current hiring cycle. Most coaches do get past what might be their most cringeworthy moments. Philadelphia Eagles coach Nick Sirianni's introduction in 2021 was awkward -- he stumbled over words, was nearly breathless from nerves and talked a lot about vague "systems." It was widely mocked, even -- maybe especially -- by Eagles fans.
"I was thinking man, I can't wait to see what he's about, because now he's dealing with adversity early," said the Eagles veteran defensive end Brandon Graham. "He owned it -- he said, I messed it up, y'all. He was mad about it. He got it out, talked about what he did wrong -- that was an indicator of how it was going to be. We have a game, we talk about it, what we did wrong, and move on."
Sirianni has taken the Eagles to the playoffs in each of his four seasons. They were the NFC's No. 2 seed this season and are one victory away from returning to the Super Bowl for the second time since Sirianni was hired. Sirianni, like Campbell, has proven a universal NFL truth.
"As long as you keep winning," Edwards said, "they forget about that stuff."