Over the years, listeners of the High School Football America Radio Show have heard me talk with lots of former NFL players — Mark Brunell, Don Beebe, Jon Kitna and many others — who had returned to their roots to become high school football coaches. Some had the journey back to high school football mapped-out in their head, while others thought it was the right fit for them at the time.
Earlier this week, the Daily Record in New Jersey wrote about the New York Jets gave some of their younger players a look inside what it’s like to be a high school coach during the team’s second annual 7-on-7 tournament that was held at the team’s Florham Park training facility. The event was organized by Dave Szott, the Jets’ director of player development and a former NFL offensive lineman.
The newspaper reports that younger Jets players like second year pros T.J. Barnes and Trevor Reilly served as referees for the tournament, plus they also got a chance to give coaching tips to the players.
Reilly said this about the experience — “Those guys are in the trenches. They love to get kids motivated to do the right thing on the field, which usually translates into doing the right thing off the field. … The biggest thing is to help the kids. Our strategy hasn’t been to go in and change the plays. We just want to develop individually, each kid, to be better.”
