Jerry Rice finished his career at Mississippi Valley State with 301 catches for 4,693 yards & 50 TD playing for Archie "Gunslinger" Cooley.

The "Satellite Express" was a 5-Wide, No Huddle Offense that would often align in Empty 4x1 to create isolation opportunities for Rice.

This past off-season I did a Deep Dive on 4x1 Route Concepts from Andy Reid to Mike Leach etc.

The more I dug, the more I realized how important Archie Cooley was to the development of the Modern Spread Passing Attack. He was doing this in 1984!

When you watch the Kansas City Chiefs flood zones with 4x1 Route Concepts you're seeing the same Numbers, Spacing & Isolation tactics that the Satellite Express was using in their Empty 4x1 Stacked Formation!

That being said... I believe a big step in eliminating inequality in coaching (only 3 Black Head Coaches in the NFL) is understanding the history of Offensive & Defensive Innovation in Football & how brilliant men like Archie Cooley have moved the game forward.

Not only did Archie Cooley orchestrate a Record Setting Offense that averaged over 51 points per game, but he was able to win 17 of 21 games with a recruiting budget of $3,500 a year.

Why don't we have a 30 for 30 about The Satellite Express?

Every play we call on Gameday has a Life & History of it's own.

If we learn the history of the plays we call, we'll realize that Great Concepts come from All Walks of Life & All Levels of Ball.

Learning that history will make us a better football coaches & better people.

There is an iconic scene from The Shawshank Redemption where the prison warden storms into the cell of inmate Andy Dufresne only to discover a tunnel carved out of the rock. Earlier in the film Andy asks fellow inmate Red for a small Rock Hammer Chisel — each night he chips away at the rock, extending the tunnel and plotting his escape. I’ve tried to develop a Rock Hammer Mentality in my own life — set a goal and chip away a little each day to reach it.

In life, we overestimate what we can do in a day, but underestimate what we can do in a week. We overestimate what we can get done in a year, but underestimate what we can accomplish in a decade.

As the Chinese Proverb goes, “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” I’m learning to embrace marginal gains and take a small step forward each day.

As a coach, I am confronted each day with how little I know about a given topic. One day I’m working to understand the intricacies of Human Performance, the next day I’m trying to grasp Empty Pass Protection. It’s easy to become overwhelmed with the daunting task of all I need to learn in order to be effective.

The truth is — we can’t learn it all in a day, a week, a month or even a year. The key to longterm growth is to identify your destination and begin taking steps in that direction. Where do you want to go? How do you plan to get there? What is one or two things you can do everyday to get you one step closer to the finish line?

If you zoom out on any journey, it looks more or less like a straight line. This is the view we often get of the career arc of others. They make it look easy.

If you zoom in on the days, you won’t see many straight lines. Each day is a struggle, but in order to grow you have to take daily turns, exits and roundabouts. The years are straight, the days are crooked.

In order to experience longterm growth through marginal gains, you need to have daily habits that get you one small step toward your final destination. In the creation of these habits, you should under promise and over deliver. Keep your habits simple, keep them small. Keep them attainable. If you set goals and create habits that aren’t attainable every single day you will eventually give up. As your strength and resolve grows, add intensity to your habits — but always keep them attainable.

This is the Rock Hammer Mentality. Just like Andy Dufresne from The Shawshank Redemption — chip away, day by day. It may take you two years to reach your goal. It make take you two decades. Start designing your days to chip away — longterm growth through marginal gains. When you zoom out, you’ll see some straight lines.

Personally, I have three goals each day:

Read (10 Pages a Day of Any Book)
Write (Creative or Thoughtful)
Run (Break a Sweat Everyday)

The categories are broad, the expectations are attainable. The key is to start small and start today. Keep chipping away — when you zoom out you’ll see some straight lines.