The stress of being an NFL coach -- the sleep-deprived nights, the long hours, the years of poor eating habits -- might have caught up with Ray Rhodes in early September.
He woke up, but he was too dizzy to stand. His vision was blurry. Rhodes, the Seattle Seahawks' 55-year-old defensive coordinator, was having a minor stroke. And for one of the few times in his life, he was scared.
"Your body goes through that shock, that trauma, it wakes you up," Rhodes, looking fit and showing no sign of illness, said Tuesday at Ford Field. "You got family, people that care about you. You want to make sure you're around for them."
Rhodes is still around, with the Seahawks during Super Bowl week. But he is the defensive coordinator in name only. John Marshall, the linebackers coach, has been the acting defensive coordinator all season. Rhodes sits in on meetings and makes suggestions, but the Seahawks limit his hours, and he is uncertain if he will return to coaching full-time next season.
Rhodes' situation hits home for coaches during Super Bowl week, because no game in their profession is more important or more pressure-packed. By the time the Steelers and the Seahawks play Sunday, each coach will have spent more than 100 hours in preparation for one game. They watch videotapes. They hold staff meetings. They conduct practices. They prepare game plans. And they worry.
But stress is not limited to Super Bowl week, and neither are health issues. Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren missed a minicamp practice in June because of chest pains. The former St. Louis Rams coach Mike Martz was forced to leave the team this season because of endocarditis, a bacterial infection of the heart valves. Washington coach Joe Gibbs has diabetes. Dallas coach Bill Parcells has had four angioplasties.
For coaches, the Super Bowl is not about the glamour, the parties, the excitement or the attention. They are consumed by the game, the knowledge that the right play, called at the right time, could make the difference between winning and losing.
"People may not understand this, but if you coach in the NFL, stress is a motivator," Dick Vermeil, who was a head coach in two Super Bowls, said during a telephone interview Monday. "The farther you go in the playoffs, the more stress you feel.
"When you get to the Super Bowl, you feel the stress of knowing that you're this close to accomplishing your ultimate goal. You know how hard you've worked. You know how hard it was to get there. You know how hard the other team is working to beat you. So you keep working."
Vermeil coached the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl XV in 1981, won by Oakland, 27-10. During the week the Eagles spent in New Orleans, Vermeil never set foot on Bourbon Street. He attended only one function, a Friday night affair that was mandatory.
He spent virtually every waking hour thinking about the game, but that was Vermeil's way. A few months earlier, the Philadelphia Phillies were in the World Series, playing three games at Veterans Stadium, where Vermeil had an office. Vermeil left his office only once to watch.
"I saw Mike Schmidt get a hit," he said, laughing.
Then he went back to the office.
Neither Holmgren nor Pittsburgh coach Bill Cowher is as obsessive as Vermeil, but the atmosphere in coaching meetings can be intense.
"We sit in the room as a staff, everybody has input, we have our arguments, we have our fights," said Ken Whisenhunt, Pittsburgh's offensive coordinator, who calls the plays during the game.
Some Super Bowls have been played one week after the conference championships, putting more pressure on coaches to prepare.
That happened most recently in 2003, when Tampa Bay defeated Oakland, 48-21, in San Diego.
After winning the National Football Conference title game in Philadelphia on Sunday, the Buccaneers flew to Tampa, Florida, late Sunday night, before flying to San Diego on Monday. The coaches remained in Tampa until 4am Tuesday, giving them time to finish the game plan, before leaving for San Diego.
"I didn't have a free moment at that Super Bowl until Friday," Tampa Bay's linebackers coach, Joe Barry, said during a phone interview Tuesday. "Other than practice, I don't think I saw the light of day. But the outcome was worth it."
Barry said Rhodes' situation was a wake-up call for coaches to take better care of themselves. Rhodes had a second stroke in November, but he said it was far more minor than the one in September. Even so, it convinced Rhodes that he was trying to come back too fast.
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