Ray Rhodes Facing Failure

Ray Rhodes, Defensive Coordinator for the struggling Seattle Seahawks said,

"He has begun calling in a core group of his young defensive players -- Marcus Trufant, Ken Hamlin, Michael Boulware, Niko Koutouvides and others -- for a 45-minute videotape session that begins at 7 a.m.

He has looked at the tapes of the league's elite teams -- Philadelphia, New England, Pittsburgh -- seeking answers he can't find on his team's videos."

"I'm not one of those guys who's looking for a lot of excuses," Rhodes said. "The bottom line is getting it done. And we've not done that. I'm not getting things done the way I love to get them done. We don't talk about excuses. It's just, 'Hey, get it done.' You try to keep your head on straight and keep working your rear off and try to get things straight."

"I haven't failed much before, and when you get in a situation like this, you feel like you're failing everybody. That's hard to live with. The thing you have to realize is what my parents used to tell me, 'The things that won't kill you will make you stronger.' I promise you we've been working our rear ends off to come up with things that will work from a scheme standpoint.

"You keep working and doing the things you've been doing over the years, and the worm will turn. You have to keep pressing and pressing and putting as much pressure as you can on the players. And the accountability has to be there for everybody. I'm accountable. The players are accountable. The rest of the coaches on the defensive side, we're all accountable."

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Rhodes is a strong NFL coach who is working very, very hard and it still isn't working out this year. This article shows what he is going through to turn it around. He is showing who he is during this hard time. He isn't blaming the players but he is clearly saying that he AND the players are accountable. He is tweaking the system to get the most out of the team and the "test" is this weekend....win or lose is the playoffs. I wonder how many good, hard working principals are feeling like Ray Rhodes this year?