Lions’ Jim Schwartz plans to keep working 100 hours a week
By Mike Dyce
With the shocking health scares to Denver Broncos head coach John Fox and Houston Texans coach Jim Schwartz, the excessive work schedule of NFL coaches has come under the microscope. NFL coaches are under an immense amount of pressure to succeed and given little room for error. That leads to long work days, which turns into long work weeks.
Some head coaches might be inclined to scale back their working hours after watching what happened to Fox and Kubiak, but Detroit Lions head coach Jim Schwartz isn’t one of them.
“That’s probably the same way you would talk in the locker room about a player that saw another player get an ACL or have another injury — if you let that affect the way you work, you’re in the wrong boat,” Schwartz said, via the Detroit Free Press. “Coaches don’t work 100 hours a week because they’re doing it because that’s healthy. They do it because the job requires it. It just is what it is.”
His players have seen his dedication and one of them shared an interesting story about Schwartz’s work week.
“We’re here a ton, but then I go up and I talk to a coach about anything and I’m sitting in his office and I peek down and glance underneath his desk, and there’s a pillow and a blanket,” Lions wide receiver Nate Burleson said. “For a brief moment, I laugh and I’m like, ‘Holy smokes, this guy sleeps in his office.’ But then when you really think about it, it’s like, ‘This guy really sleeps in his office.'”
For now it doesn’t seem like Schwartz will change that routine. He says a lot of “Tylenol (and) caffeine” to get him through the day.