veteran coach

Personal Sergeant
$26.95
witty, quirky movie about kid soccer buff and crusty granddad. directed with a truffaut-like sensibility by my kid brother.

Veterans Keychain
$2.99
* Durable acrylic key chain is crystal-clear and double-sided so the artwork or message is seen twice.
* Sturdy metal ring holds your keys securely.
* Full color printed images or messages are included.
* If you have new ideas or need help selecting text for your custom keychains please contact us.
* Size: 2 1/8" x 3 1/2" (Approx. business card)

My SAT Coach with The Princeton Review
$29.99
I have noticed a couple of misspelled words in questions, That always throws me off!! I got this because I have been out of school for 25 years and haven't used algebra or geometry in all those years, I don't want to have to go through the basic math classes now that I have returned to college. It is doing ok with teaching me, it's more of an experience teacher though. Test first, then explaining why I'm wrong. I'm sure it would be much better for kids still in school who have a clue what they are doing, but I am learning. This is my "break" from my 6 college classes. I recommend this game for anyone who is trying to improve their chances on the SAT.

NFL Head Coach
$19.99
Even though this is an EA Sports Football game and even uses some cut screens from the Madden series, this *isn't* a game where the user directly controls the action on the field. Instead, the user acts as a coach to teach and motivate players to perform on the field.

One look at the available videos accessed through the main menu tells you that the objective of the game isn't just racking up a great win-loss record. "Sabol Moments" accessed through the extras bar on the main menu include not only "First Super Bowl Win" and "Back to Back Championships" but also "3 Super Bowl Wins," "4 Super Bowl Wins," and "4th Consecutive SB." Oh, and if that doesn't tip you off that the point isn't just being able to win a lot of games, maybe "1 Undefeated Season" and "2nd Undefeated Season" puts it in perspective.

So the ultimate point ISN'T about just winning games. In fact, the game EXPECTS you to win games. Instead, the goal of the game is to become the greatest NFL head coach of all time. This means you have to win championships, certainly. But it also means you have to extend a lineage of coaches who follow in your footsteps. This is much, much more difficult than just winning games on Sunday.

Another task you will want to accomplish along the way is to fill your trophy case. There are nine cubbies in the case, and these are for the easy tasks (First Win), the "mundane" expectancies (Best Offense/Defense, AFC and NFC Conference Championships, Lombardi Trophies), and the hardest to accomplish awards (Coach of the Year, Comeback Coach of the Year, and Continuous Service).

This indicates that the best coach will not only win, but rebuild from *losing* seasons, coach for multiple teams (not just their favorite) in both conferences, and coach for one team for several seasons.

While the job offers include monetary incentives, earning money plays no part in the game and can be ignored. It's all about achievements on the field.

PROS:
It's a different concept that is more mentally challenging than just knowing which plays to call at what times and clock management. The user is developing his own character as well as players, coordinators, and position coaches. Even though the coach has weekly and seasonal goals, winning the game means being focused on multi-season and long-term goals.

CONS:
There is no instruction booklet to explain anything and the ingame tutorial aids are worthless to anyone other than someone who knows nothing about football. There are some aspects which are intended to be "intuitive" but aren't. The first time you go into the Hall of Champions or navigate into your trophy case, don't be surprised if you get stuck there. Remember: Backspace, [, and Enter.

The game can become tedious. Practice schedules are repititious...just like real life. While they can be simmed over, this increases the likelihood of player injuries (which unrealistically don't occur in supervised practices) and lowers the coach's Work Ethic attribute...resulting in less productivity per task.

There are a lot of little glitches in the game. The problem is that these glitches undermine the "value-adds" of the game. Some players names are announced wrong. Accessing "NFL.com" during office hours is how you keep up on your team rankings and player stats, but don't bother clicking on the stories. The top story is an undetailed blurb already covered by the headline and the bottom story, especially when it is about the history of the game, doesn't always match up with the headline.

Beyond the glitches, there are flat out deficiencies that should have been developed better. I think the greatest disappointment is the graphics animations. No gang tackling. Forget about trying to see if receivers got both feet inbounds on replays (some look both in and are called out, some look both out and are called in). Fumbles caused by the ground are another issue. Where a player is actually ruled down? Anyone's guess. And watching a replay of a fumble recovery looks like a bunch of guys stumbling around with invisible pumpkins in their hands.

You can't do anything with special teams. No play designing. No practicing. You can't even involve a kicker in a trade with another team...only release yours and sign a free agent.

You can design 10 offensive and 10 defensive custom plays. This is a nice feature. But you can't make unbalanced lines or wildcat formations. Some plays, such as reverses, screens, and flea-flickers don't have the logic available in the customizing screens and don't work if you move a player...even if it's just a minor adjustment such as offsetting the FB. On offense, not all the receiver routes are available for custom plays (such as Cover 2 Corner) and you can't make a customized route. On defense, no all of the stunts and twists are available...just left, right, or up the middle. Zone coverages are vague (and there's a glitch on the deep curl zone). In games, LBs given a zone or QB spy assignment tend to blitz instead. And the biggest problem is you can't set key/read assignments (read RB1, if to cover RB1, if away cover gap/zone X). Sound complex? I used to play a game made in 1996 that managed to include that level of logic in its play designer.

Everything gets cleared out weekly, which is annoying when you have a player with high attributes in the principle areas for the position, but the position coach always wants to put a player with a higher overall above him in the depth chart. (There's a major glitch with the depth chart, by the way, where a player sometimes takes up two slots.) It's also annoying to give the same strategy week after week for blocking assignments on plays. That's why practices become so tedious.

In the game, penalties and interceptions are reminiscent of JV-level play and not pro. Facemask, holding, and pass interference penalties are the most common. Moreover, the game doesn't address some rules accurately...everything from onside kicks that don't go 10 yards (which is anyone's guess who the heck is going to be awarded the ball, regardless of which team recovers) to no ability to free kick after a fair catch. Then there's the roster (55 instead of 53) with no practice squad and no inactives.

Even the funnest part of the game, preparing for the draft, has its issues. You can't make trades for draft picks during the season, you can't have more than 10 total picks in the draft, and it's waaaaay to easy to get multiple first-round picks (like 3, 4, or more) and even get all 10 of your picks in the first 3 rounds. The game starts with the Reggie Bush draft (he usually doesn't go until 9th or so). After that, the draft classes are random. That is, there are 20 years of draft classes and these are cycled randomly. I've started several careers since I bought the game a couple years ago, and the draft classes haven't cycled the same yet.

So, you might ask, if the game has so many glitches, why the heck should I bother? I can only answer for myself. The long-term goals and challenge to become the #1 HC of all time, the drafts, filling my trophy case, and unlocking all the Sabol Moments videos are the fun part of the game for me.

As for the events that occur every Sunday? Well, when I go a whole season without scoring less than 65 points in any game...including multiple 100+ point games in a season, you can see that that isn't much of a challenge. It's all about getting the players their stats so they will develop.

This game isn't about the games.