"NFL Head Coach" (PS2) Review

There are only two games a year that I buy for the PS2: "NCAA Football" and "Madden." But, this year, I saw some previews for a new EA Sports title called "NFL Head Coach," so I had to check it out. Yeah, I'm a football nut. This is the start of the year for football nuts like myself. "NFL Head Coach" will hold me over until "NCAA Football" and that will hold me over until "Madden" and before I know it, the actual season(s) will begin!

It being the first year for this new game, I generally knew what to expect based upon some reviews I read (and the title of the game), but you never truly know what you have in a game until you play the darn thing. If one loves the scouting, recruiting, and dynasty mode in "NCAA Football" and loves the franchise mode in "Madden," then my guess is that they'll like this game. I'm not using the word "love" here as an exaggeration. I mean, they have to truly LOVE these things. Why? Because, that's the bulk of this game. You don't get to actually play and control the players on the field. You get to be the guy on the sidelines preparing those players, calling the shots (plays), challenging calls, calling timeouts, substituting, and talking to players for either motivational or strategical purposes.

Now I'll start from the very beginning and give everyone some insight on what transpires. I made a head coach, used my name, and made him look somewhat similar (not exact, of course) to myself. I got to pick out his attire that he'd wear on different occasions: in the office, at practice, on gameday, and in cold weather. I also got to pick out my offensive and defensive philosophy. On the offensive side of the ball, I chose the single back and on the defensive side of the ball, I went with the 4-3. I also mentioned that my specialty was on offense (offensive coordinator) and that I was more a strategist than a motivator (although, looking back, I wish I had chosen motivator). Trey Wingo then appeared at the ESPN Studios talking about this new and upcoming coach that everyone is talking about. As he was saying these kind words about me, he showed highlights of this past year's Super Bowl between Pittsburgh and Seattle, because, supposedly, I was the offensive coordinator for the Steelers. This portion was pretty cool, because the highlights were very true to what really happened. They showed the record-breaking touchdown run by Steeler back Willie Parker and showed the reverse receiver pass from Antwaan Randle-El to Hines Ward. A short little scramble by Big Ben Roethlisberger was also shown on the clip.

On from there, I was told that upcoming was an interview and to grab the phone in my office and call the team that I was most interested in. So, naturally, I picked the Atlanta Falcons. I thought about picking the Detroit Lions or even a nobody like the Houston Texans, but that might be a future project. For my first project, I decided to talk to the Falcons. The interview process then took place and I was asked 20 questions, so they could gain a better understanding of my football knowledge and if I was a right fit for the team. There were a couple questions that could've gone one of two ways, depending on your own philosophy, but there were a couple others that anybody could answer. I remember one question that went something like this, "If you have a power back, what do you do with him? A) Make him your #1 receiver, B) Run a lot of sweeps and tosses, or C) Run up the middle, right at the defense." Naturally, I went with A). Just kidding. I went with C), of course. There were a couple questions like that, but there weren't too many that I had to roll my eyes enough to get a headache. Once the interview was completed, I was then notified that I had 5 offers, so I checked them out and those offers were from: the Saints, Texans, Jets, Raiders, and the Atlanta Falcons. The deals ranged anywhere from $12 million over 4 years to $2 million over a year. But, the Falcons gave me the best offer, about $16 million over 5 years, so I took that and no, not for the money. Although, that didn't hurt matters any.

After I made my decision, I was shown around in my new office, told what all I needed to know, and then got down to business. My first job was to hire and fire coaches. These coaches include: offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator, special teams coach, scouting director, offensive line coach, running back coach, quarterback coach, tight end coach, wide receiver coach, defensive line coach, linebacker coach, and defensive back coach. My special team's and linebackers' coaches contracts were up, so I had to either re-hire them or look elsewhere. The special team's coach did a decent job, it appeared, so I scheduled an interview with him, but the linebackers' coach could definitely find a job elsewhere, as could the defensive coordinator, wide receiver coach, and tight end coach. So, I fired those three other coaches, who were still under contract, and went out to interview coaches for four positions along with one specialty coach who would retain his job. The interviews went fairly well. All the coaches I had come in and talk to me received great praise from others and they seemed knowledgeable enough (more so than their predecessors), so I hired them. Next time, I may be a little tougher on how I go about hiring new coaches, but I was excited and wanted to play (coach) some football, so I was a bit anxious on hiring the coaches. Next year, I think, if their contract is not finished, I'll be firing my scouting director, quarterback coach, and maybe my offensive coordinator.

Up next on the plate was re-signing players whose contracts had expired. There's a coaches meeting every week to go over their specialties and give some input on what they think needs to be done. Sometimes this input is helpful and other times, not so much. It plays much like "The Sims," although, these people actually mutter real words and not an alien language no one could understand. After they finish whatever it was they wanted to say, one's given two options for a response. From what I've seen thus far, these options are either: 1) agree; trust increases or disagree; trust decreases or 2) agree (passive); trust decreases slightly or disagree (aggressive); trust decreases, but knowledge is potentially gained. From the outset, the owner tells the coach that trust is a key component to winning. Throughout the season, through statements and decisions made, trust will either increase, decrease, or hold steady between the coach and his position/specialty coaches, the coach and the players, the coach and the agents, and the coach and the other owners. During this time of year, most of the coaches lend insight on what the goals should be in the off-season with re-signing players. In my case, tight end Alge Crumpler's name was brought up, as was defensive end Brady Smith, and safety Keion Carpenter. Be careful during this part of the season. While each roster, in the end, will be composed of 55 players, not all the players need to be there after this period of the off-season. I just went crazy and signed about everybody. While this was fine to an extent, I ended up letting go of a few of them, in order to make room for other free agents I wanted to sign and that cost me some extra money. If you're going to do what I did, make sure you don't give players (especially the mediocre to below average ones) much bonus money, because that's the amount you'll be penalized if you sign and then let them go. After I re-signed players that had previously been on the Falcons the year prior, it was time to sign players from the larger free agent pool. Also, it's a time to make trades. These few weeks (along with the draft) is when you truly attempt to compose the team the way you see fit. Some trade offers were a bit ridiculous, I admit, but others I received were more balanced and there were even a couple where I had the definite advantage over the team who offered me the deal. This is when I went crazy. I let go of Ty Detmer and signed Shaun King to be my third-string quarterback. I traded the likes of tailbacks Warrick Dunn and T.J. Duckett away (yeah, no more DVD, I know). Because of that, I signed free agent backs Quentin Griffin and Frank Gore. I signed free agent fullback Thomas Tapeh to battle it out with Justin Griffith and Fred McCracy. I signed free agent tight end (now converted receiver) Antonio Gates. Defensive end Patrick Kierney and cornerback Jason Webster were traded. The 49ers dealt me outside linebacker (converted defensive end) Andre Carter. The Saints dealt me cornerback Mike McKenzie. I signed place kicker Adam Vinatieri and punter Andy Groom, and was able to trade my way up to the 2nd draft slot (all the way from 15) to pick up USC all-everything back Reggie Bush.

Speaking of which, that brings me to the draft. All throughout the off-season, the coach and scouting director go over players to scout. This occurs once a week. When you feel like you're ready for the draft, you can start to scout free agents or players from other clubs that you might be interested in trading for. Then draft day comes about and Mel Kiper is front and center. Ohio State linebacker A.J. Hawk went #1 to the Texans and with the second pick, I took Reggie Bush. For some reason, Kiper didn't like that pick. It goes to show you how much that guy knows! During the draft, there are many different options. You can ask your scout director who he thinks you should pick (I didn't listen to mine much and he didn't care much for that, but oh well). There's a computer where you can look over your roster to check out what areas you need the most help in. There's a telephone handy, in case you want to trade up in the draft or trade down. I freaked out at first, because I didn't know what to do. I knew who I wanted to take, but kept clicking on the computer and the phone and the list of players I could draft wasn't popping up. But, when I went over to my scout director and he told me who he thought we should pick, I simply replied no and then the list of players available appeared. After that first pick, it was easy sailing from there, but that first one was tense. There is the option of skipping ahead to your next pick once you've made a pick. Until then, Mel keeps talking away as picks come in and you have the option of calling different teams to try and make deals. After I got Bush, I wasn't very interested in trading up or down, so I skipped ahead to my next pick. Because of this, the draft didn't take too long. One thing to be careful of, my roster was full before the draft, and because of this, my rookies ended up not getting signed, so they became free agents. Don't make the same mistake! Fortunately, Reggie Bush was still available as a free agent, so I let Frank Gore go, picked up Reggie and it's like I had him signed all along. I did so much other maneuvering in the off-season, that I didn't pick up any of the other people I drafted. I still have a lot of room under the cap, so next year should be especially fun! Heck, signing Bush off the free agent market may have benefited me. The guy only asked for $4.5 million over 3 years! I gladly accepted that! But, it's not worth the risk. If I hadn't of gotten Bush, I would've slapped myself silly, especially since I traded my top two backs.

After I composed my team, it was off to training camp. You can sim ahead as much as you'd like. There's even an option during office hours, as they're called in the game, that a coach can swap certain drills with something else. But, there are certain goals that are set before training camp and until one reaches those goals (and you will be notified when they have been reached), then I wouldn't suggest to sim ahead to the pre-season. I simmed past one drill and noticed that the players' numbers actually dropped. The drills include: OL vs. DL, where the d-linemen attempt to get past the o-linemen and to the quarterback; WR vs. DB, where a receiver is matched up against a defensive back and the quarterback attempts to complete passes to the receiver; RB vs. LB, where the linebacker attempts to get to the tailback before the tailback jukes, spins, and bursts past him for a score; contact passing drills, contact running drills, and contact play calls. The contact drills can boost a player's numbers more than the non-contact ones, but with the contact comes the added risk of injury. There are 10 reps per drill and in the contact ones, you can choose between the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd team on offense and defense. After these drills, the coach has the option of altering the depth chart and moving players around according to how they're performing. Even during the weekly meeting, coaches will suggest that one player start in front of another, because of how they're playing. Some players' numbers hold steady. Others bounce around like a pinball. Yet others, who have a potential to be great, don't wake up for a while and need a boost of some sort (no, not steroids). Some respond well to being moved from 1st to 2nd team. Others finally get it going with extra reps. Some just don't wake up until pre-season, as I've noticed. So, if you're getting frustrated with a star player of yours, don't give up. As training camp winds down and pre-season begins, a much clearer picture emerges on who will be starting.

I should mention, that during the drills, a percentage is tallied based on the number of reps a team has had of a certain play. When that play reaches 100%, it's called a money play. If a play is at 13%, then there's still a lot of work to do, a lot of reps that need to be taken in order for the offense or defense to get comfortable enough to be effective on gameday. So, if you don't decide to sim ahead past the drills, keep this in mind. Before the games each week, the offensive and defensive coordinators will waltz in and show their gameplan. As coach, you can add and subtract however many plays you want, but from what I've seen, the plays in the gameplan are pretty indicative of what has been practiced during drill sessions. Meeting with the scout director take place, as well, where the two of you can scout players from the opposing team and when a manual is provided for the coach on what needs to be done to win the game. An overview of the opposing team and their key players is provided, as are the year and previous game's statistics, and the goals of the week.

Then, it's finally off to pre-season. When on offense and defensive, the coordinator's suggest plays to pick, but you, as the head coach, have the final say. During plays, you can talk to anyone over on the sideline and talk motivationally or strategically. There are usually only three options given for a motivational chat, but several options for a strategic one. The only risk for the motivational speech is the fact that players will respond differently. Green pluses and red minuses will be placed over their heads to illustrate this point. The coach can also alter the depth chart, which is smart during a pre-season game. I usually play my starters for 2 quarters and the back-ups for the final two. Approaching my final pre-season game, I may have my starters in for 3 quarters. But, be careful, as they can get injured. The coach is also in charge of timeouts and challenges. I've challenged one play thus far and got the call overturned, which I was surprised by. After I saw the replay via the challenge video, I thought the refs called it correctly and that it was incomplete, but they overturned it for a completed pass and a first down. There are also pre-snap options on offense and defense, where you can set a man in motion (to either side), tell the quarterback to pump fake, to scramble if he has to, to look short, to look deep, to look toward the sidelines, tell him which receiver to look for first, amongst many other options. On defense, line and linebacker shifts can be put on, and the secondary can be adjusted. Audibles, of course, can be called, as well. As all this is going on, a game is being played. This past game, where my team won 55-25 over Tennessee, I think half the time I was paying attention to the sidelines, altering the depth chart, and strategizing and the other half of the time, I was watching the game. My first pre-season game against New England, I really didn't know what all I had the opportunity of doing, but, I've noticed more and more through each and every game, and oddly enough, when the regular season begins and the players are about to finally be ready, so will their coach.

This is one of those games, where I can't decide if I like it, yet, I can't stop playing it either. I think it may be for the fact that I honestly haven't played any video games for a while. The more I play it, the more into it I get. For those that are interested in buying it, just know what you're getting yourself into. They call the game "NFL Head Coach" for a reason! It's like a football version of "The Sims," where your job is not to build a house, but to build a football franchise. I'm just starting one in Atlanta and we'll be tough to handle with Vick and Bush in the backfield! Game on!

Overall grade: 7.5/10