When it comes to the work week, XFL coach Bob Stoops ‘gets it’
Bob Stoops was in his second year as the head coach of the University of Oklahoma when he told his staff to leave the office early to start his biggest week of the season: Texas week.
It was Sunday, which meant he and his staff typically stayed in the OU offices until 10 or 11 p.m. This particular Sunday, in 2000, he told his staff to go home at 6.
“We’re going to kick the hell out of these guys,” Stoops said.
Oklahoma defeated No. 11 Texas, 63-14.
Stoops’ point is when you’re done, leave. Hanging around isn’t going to change anything.
This should apply not only to football coaches, but all of us. The culture of football, and too many offices spaces across the globe, are stuffed with too many people who waste too many precious moments working when what they are actually doing is merely spending time at work.
Bob Stoops is now a fit, comfortable 59-year-old man whose office is that of the former manager of the Texas Rangers. As the coach of the first-year Dallas Renegades of the XFL, which starts its first season this week, Stoops remains committed to the same schedule.
It’s inspiring.
“I am not one to waste time,” he said. “I am confident in what I do. I believe in hard work. I believe in getting it done properly, but when it’s done, it’s done.”
Amen.
“I am not going to ever sit in my office to tell everyone I was there until 11 o’clock. I call it, ‘garden your desk.’ If your work is done, get out of there,” he said.
Most coaches who retire to spend more time with their family are unhappy after spending time with their family.
Stoops never was that guy. He was OK with kids and families coming up to the coaches’ office at OU, and that hasn’t changed since he took this job.
Learning from Snyder and Spurrier
Stoops worked under two men whose approach to their work day could have not been more different, Kansas State’s Bill Snyder and Florida’s Steve Spurrier.
Snyder could turn a 24-hour day into 40-hour work day. He expected his assistants to do the same.
Spurrier was quite legendary about knocking off.
“When I worked with Spurrier I realized you could win at the highest level,” Stoops said. “He never short changed his work. When practice was over, he might clean up some stuff at the office but he’d leave and get back at it the next day. When I was at OU, I really worked the same way. That doesn’t mean you cut corners.”
In coaching, there are far more Snyders than Spurrier.
The sports’ culture, from high school to college to the pros, is to be at the office all the time. A lot of it is driven by paranoia.
“I think for some guys it’s a badge of honor to be there all night and tell everybody they were up there ‘til 11 o’clock. If you’re still losing, what are you doing?” Stoops said. “They do it because people can’t say, if you’re not winning, it’s sure not because you’re working hard. But you still get fired if you’re not winning.
“Sometimes it’s peer pressure, or their boss realizes [the coach] is there all night. It has to show on the field.”
Stoops in the XFL
Stoops admits stepping away from the Sooners’ job was managing misery. He just felt he had to it.
He has been able to travel to Europe with his wife, and enjoy his life with his family, and playing more golf.
When the XFL reached out to his agent about potentially coaching one of its eight franchises, he passed. Only after a phone call with friend, XFL commissioner Oliver Luck, did he change his mind.
Stoops doesn’t plan to change his approach for this job, even if this is technically professional football. He’s also not sure the schedule element to the profession needs to be addressed.
If working 90 hours a day suits a coach, let ‘em.
“No one is going to change it,” he said. “These guys are working to win games. It’s about finding the right balance for you. This is what works for me.”
It should work for more of us.
This story was originally published February 3, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
