Pro football: it takes an army

By Jeff Orvis

Today's topic has nothing to do with political prognostications. You won't find any highly-charged emotional notes here. This time, we're talking about football, but not specifically about the recent success of Peyton Manning with the Broncos, or the Iowa Hawkeyes or even my alma mater, the undefeated Pleasant Valley Spartans.

There's an old saying that behind every successful man is a loving, caring woman. It's probably an outdated saying, since more and more women are as successful – or more so – than their male counterparts. The point is, it's almost impossible to succeed by yourself.

If it takes a village to raise a child, as Hillary Clinton very wisely pointed out, it appears that it takes a virtual army to ensure the success of a pro football team. Even on the high school level, the quarterback or wide receiver may grab the headlines for a great performance. But even before he stepped out on the field, somebody had to make sure he had a chin strap, his helmet was adjusted properly and his ankles were taped. I speak from personal experience, after spending my high school years as one of those behind-the-scenes guys on my high school team.

Back then, our high school team existed with a head coach, a couple of assistants and a couple of student trainers who doubled as equipment guys. Most larger high schools now have an adult trainer and there's usually a doctor on scene at games and and ambulance standing by on the sidelines.

It would appear that as the caliber and level of play and the accompanying national noteriety increases, so do the available resources for a football program and the number of folks it takes to make sure the success continues. A small college team might have four or five assistant coaches and three or four trainers, equipment people, etc. Major colleges might have three or four times that number.

As a longtime fan of the Chicago Bears, I was wondering how many people worked on a daily basis to try and produce a winner. So I did a quick computer search and downloaded five pages of the Bears' staff directory. There are more than 160 positions listed and that doesn't even include the 53 players on the active roster or the eight-member practice squad.

There are nine members on the board of directors, with six of them members of the McCaskey family. The management division lists seven positions. Nine people are needed for the accounting department and five work in information technology. One of the more interesting divisions is the administration division. Twenty-five positions are listed here and includes team and building operations, stadium operations, three “stadium experience” personnel, four groundskeepers and five security people.

Two men are in charge of business development. The corporate communications division has 32 staff members who are in charge of media relations, broadcast operations, community relations, player appearances, the team web site and even a mascot coordinator.

Five positions are listed under “football administration and legal counsel. The sales and marketing department has 30 positions. The coaching staff has 20 positions. There are three assistant athletic trainers, four in charge of equipment, ten in player personnel and four in video services.

So now you have some idea what it takes to run an NFL team. Some former standouts from Iowa colleges were hired for various team practice squads. Each team can have eight players on that team. While each of the 53 members on the active roster are paid at least $390,000 per year, practice squad members receive a minimum of $85,000 a year. It's a chance for them to continue their dream, but hardly gold bling or expensive sports car territory.

There's much more to a Sunday game than suiting up and throwing a football on the field. Somebody back home has to be in charge of the transporting, feeding and lodging of perhaps 80 or more members of the traveling party each time the team goes out of town.

Thinking about all of the details each game takes might make your head hurt. But sometimes it's nice to realize that before Jay Cutler threw that first touchdown pass, a lot of things had to happen just right, thanks to that small army.