If Anyone Can Adjust to a New Normal, it’s Colts Coach Frank Reich
INDIANAPOLIS — It’s almost laughable when Indianapolis Colts Frank Reich utters the term “new normal.”
As much as there’s nothing normal about a 2020 NFL season impacted by the Coronavirus pandemic, challenges emerging from crisis are nothing new for Reich. Think about his time with the Colts.
The Colts were 1-5 after Reich refused to settle for a tie and went for it on fourth down in his own end at home against Houston in 2018. It didn’t work, the Texans completed one pass, and kicked a game-winning field goal. The second-guessers were standing in line with the easy criticism, but players later said the head coach won his locker room that day.
In his usual calm, confident way, Reich continually emphasized to stay the course. The players did, and the Colts rebounded with nine wins in 10 games, then knocked off the AFC South Division Texans on the road in the playoffs.
Then quarterback Andrew Luck retired in August of 2019. Nothing normal about starting a season without your franchise quarterback. The heartbreaking disappointment was written on the faces of everyone during that Luck presser, including a sullen Reich.
But as general manager Chris Ballard reiterated at the time, the Colts are about more than one great player. Then Reich led the team to a 5-2 start. The season didn’t follow the script for a happy ending after that, but once again, the players’ leader showed why he should be followed.
Before Ballard and Reich could be too excited about an offseason with several key moves to bolster the roster, along comes the Coronavirus pandemic, which meant virtual offseason training activities and coaching from home by staring at a computer screen.
New normal, huh?
Preseason games have been canceled. This NFL season is shrouded in doubt. One week before veterans were to report to team facilities for training camp, the NFL Players Association reported 59 players had tested positive for COVID-19. As players reported, 21 more players were added to the COVID-19 list, including a couple of young Colts reserves.
Yet there’s an upbeat Reich appearing on a Zoom video conference call on Wednesday. He sounds refreshed and eager to meet the next challenge, just as he faced previous hurdles.
This is more serious, some might way. This virus can mean life or death.
But a life devoted to faith, family, and football has taught Reich to be resolute. That's the mark of true leadership, when one can keep his head while everything else seems out of control.
“Obviously, I think we all have been looking forward to this day of getting started back to football,” Reich said, “even though it will be not a normal training camp and not normal in any way, but it will be what we call a new normal, right?”
There’s that term again. If anyone can sound prepared for this, it’s him.
“Many times in life and in football you’ve got to get ready and sometimes you have to make adjustments and get ready for new normals,” he said. “We’ve all been doing that for a while and we are doing that here at the Indiana Farm Bureau (Football Center) and as the Colts organization.
“It’s been really fun to get to see the players, especially the rookies right? Many of them, (it’s) the first time seeing them face to face – albeit with a mask on, but it’s been good. I believe our guys are ready to go. The rookies have looked good. Guys have come in in shape. We do all the testing – weight, body fat, physical testing. All of that stuff has been really good stuff. I feel like even though we were doing virtual stuff the whole offseason, our strength and conditioning staff did a great job – our rookies did a great job – of keeping up with the programs that they were given to be able to come back in here.”
He spoke of rookies adjusting to their unusual NFL initiation by working out away from the team. He mentioned seeing some of his veteran players in the parking lot on Tuesday as they submitted to mandatory COVID-19 testing.
Reich reiterates he’s looking forward to getting used to another “new normal.”
Ballard and Reich have talked at length about how to move forward, which involved instituting new league-required protocols for safety that include testing, contact tracing, social distancing, sanitizing, and wearing a mask.
Much like any other situation, they’ve settled on a plan and set their minds to guiding the franchise forward.
"We are going to get it behind us,” Reich said. “The good thing is that we feel we have the players and the organization that has the maturity to not allow this to be a distraction, to understand it’s real, to understand we have a responsibility, but not allow it to be a distraction.
“It becomes much easier to do that when you are really focused on the right things. So that is what our job is, as coaches and players, to focus on the right things and then just follow the new normal and the new protocols and get to work. I’m looking forward to having a great year, a very productive year.”
As many wonder if there will be football and how the NFL can pull off a season, Reich is ready to go. Of course, he is.
“We will adjust and adapt as we go as needed,” he said. “It will be challenging. I’m looking forward to it. It will be challenging.
“It will be fun and I believe we have the right guys and the right organization to handle any uncertainty that comes our way, but also we have the right guys to stay focused on getting better and (am) looking forward to winning a lot of games this year.”
(Phillip B. Wilson has covered the Indianapolis Colts for more than two decades and authored the 2013 book 100 Things Colts Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die. He’s on Twitter @pwilson24, on Facebook at @allcoltswithphilb and @100thingscoltsfans, and his email is phillipbwilson24@yahoo.com.)
