Tales from the New York Giants Sideline by Paul Schwartz

Author:Paul Schwartz
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sports Publishing
Published: 2017-03-17T04:00:00+00:00

Wrong Man for the Job

The last one to know he’s not right for the job is usually the person in that job. Not so with Alex Webster, and not so for his wife.

Webster ran the show as the head coach of the Giants from 1969 through the 1973 season. He was a well-liked, fun-loving former Giants player and a popular choice. But it did not turn out to be a wise or inspired choice.

“I think what happened was he was not ready for it, and he will admit that himself,” said Louise Webster, married to Alex for more than 50 years. “He sort of got pushed into it. He’s not the type to be a coach. He just doesn’t know how to be tough, and you have to be as a coach, and the players just walked all over him. He treated the players like he wanted to be treated and that wasn’t what the players needed at that time.”

That fairly accurately sums up Webster’s four years at the helm. His career record was 29-40-1, but he wasn’t a total failure. In 1970, the Giants went 9-5 and were in playoff contention until the final week of the season. Webster, following that campaign, was even named NFL Coach of the Year by the Washington D.C. Touchdown Club.

Yet Webster knew he wasn’t a perfect fit as the head coach.

“To me when you come to work, especially in football, you don’t clown around,” Webster said. “Guys pull jokes and stunts and all that, but you got to be serious. I guess I just didn’t have enough experience to take it. It got to me after a while. I loved the kids. That was my problem.

“I had a couple of good years. We were on the right track; we just didn’t have any depth. The league had changed, everybody got the big backs and big linemen and we just got overpowered by a lot of teams. We just couldn’t keep up with ’em. We could score points, but defensively we had a tough time stopping everybody.”

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.