Freddie Falcon
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- Mar 16, 2019
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Falcons coach Dan Quinn’s relentlessly upbeat anyway, but having to be a football coach via Zoom is testing him as it is everyone in the league.
But Quinn’s taking specific steps to try to maximize the time he has while working remotely, rather than complaining about what is not available to him.
“I’m trying to stay in the here and now,” Quinn told Albert Breer of SI.com. “It’s not, ‘Will we have an offseason, won’t we have an offseason?’ Let’s control what we can. Which is totally, ‘Hey, if we have to start some of it virtually, then let’s start one kick-ass virtual program.’ I told them at one point our goal was to be the best stay-at-home football coaches, finding fun ways to go after it, it’s been a good challenge. You’re always up for a good challenge.
“As opposed to bitching about it, it gives you some juice. There’s a lot of negative reports out there, if you listen to them all, it can bring you down. So we’re choosing the other way. ‘This is the information now, let’s go after whatever we can in the meantime and find ways to provide great teaching and some uplifting,’ as opposed to all the negative stuff.”
Quinn has tapped into a wide array of resources, from NBA personnel to a mental conditioning coach. He had “It Takes What It Takes” author Trev Moawad (whom he met through Alabama coach Nick Saban) speak during a staff meeting about staying “neutral” during times of crisis. The message was minimizing negativity is more important than being positive.
As a result, Quinn has even come up with his own twist on the common buzzword of the day.
“Staying connected has been a good deal. We wish the term had been physically distanced but socially connected instead of social distancing,” Quinn said. “Physically distanced is OK. But staying connected socially is the big piece for me. I’ve enjoyed calls with players, FaceTime with players on our team, just checking in where they’re at. There’s been a lot of changes for guys in the offseason that they’re having to deal with. We’re all battling through that together. It’s way better to talk about it.”
Of course, nothing is normal, and won’t be for some time. But Quinn’s determined to figure out a way around the current challenges, as opposed to focusing on what he can’t do with his team.