NFL Head Coach Career Mode: Part 1

With the last couple of entries, I've given you a glimpse of what the "coach now" mode of NFL Head Coach looks like. With this next couple of entries I'm going to try and address the career mode portion of the game.




Creating Your Coach

You start out by creating your coach and deciding on his physical features and wardrobe. This part didn't have a million options, but I believe some may have been missing in the build we played. There were some problems in the build with giving the coach facial hair and certain other physical attributes, so I didn't get a great look at everything that was available. One thing I found out was that there is at least somewhat of a limit to what your coach can wear because of the NFL's policy on what coaches can wear on the sideline. There is some official head coach apparel made by Reebok that you can go through.

Once you've got down the look of your coach, you have to decide whether his background was as an offensive or defensive coordinator. You also get a chance to choose a voice for your coach, which is somewhat similar to the voice pitch feature in Tiger Woods Golf. Then it's time to pick your offensive philosophy. You can choose from Balanced, West Coast, Vertical, Spread, and Singleback. For defensive philosophy you can choose from 4-3, Cover 2, 46, and 3-4. Once you have completed your head coach, you will take a trip to your office at home where you'll begin the hiring process.

When you want to begin the hiring process you go to your phone. In the phone there is a list of all 32 NFL teams that you can call. If there is a certain team you're interested in, you had better call that one because they will automatically give you an offer. You will also receive offers from four additional teams. This part is not very realistic because you do just one interview and then receive offers from five clubs, but I think EA wanted to steamline it and also make sure that you could start with whatever team you wanted to.

The interview process is pretty basic. There is an interface where the owner asks you questions and several responses are available. The responses aren't"right or wrong" type of answers, but football philospphy questions. There might be a question about whether you like to play it safe or go for broke on offense for example. You are asked questions about which past coaching legends' styles you most respect as well. You'll also get questions on your thoughts about how each position should be handled. Your answers to these questions will shape your coaching attributes in the game. Tthe coaching attributes are as follows: motivation, strategy, work ethic, and, player evaluation. You are also given ratings for the various positions. QB knowledge, HB, knowledge, etc.

After the interview you will get an offer from the team you interviewed with, along with several other offers. Each offer comes in a folder where you can compare the contracts and goals for that team. Some teams have much different goals than others. For example, one person who was trying out the game got an offer from the Texans. Their big goal was to go 8-8. Not exactly reaching for the stars. Other teams aim a bit higher than that. In the couple of careers I started I noticed that there seemed to be some variety in the offers available. I'd get the one from the team I interviewed with, then one from a club that was not very good, and one from a team that was pretty decent. I don't know if this was a coincidence or by design, but it was nice to have options. This part of the game isn't necessarily that realistic, but when it comes to choosing your team I don't think EA wanted people to feel handicapped.


Inside Your Office

Once you've accepted an offer, you see a cool ESPN highlight reel of this past Super Bowl and then hear about the announcement that you've been hired. It provides a good bit of atmosphere. Then you go to your new office. The offices are very cool looking and are all done up with your teams logo. We were told that when you become successful several years down the road, your office becomes a little nicer. We didn't get to see that because of our limited time, but it sounded like a neat touch. In your office there is a computer where you do a lot of your daily tasks. There are several options available on the computer. They are as follows:

Calendar: This is where you see your schedule. Each day is mapped out for you with a number of different tasks that much be completed. These can actually be changed which is kind of cool. It's not a rigid set of tasks by any means. You're the coach and so it's up to you to customize your daily plans.

Email: You will be contacted via email by a number of different people. Your owner will remind you of tasks you need to complete early on so that you don't miss anything. There is a lot of ground to cover as coach so these reminders are pretty helpful when you're first starting out. Don't worry, Terrell Davis will never send you a message in this game.

Playbook: In here you can design plays and add and delete plays from your playbook.

NFL.com: This is where you'll find the latest news stories on what's happening in the league as well as any stats, scores, or weekly and yearly awards that have gone to players and coaches in the NFL.

Roster: The roster is where you can see your player roster, depth chart, roster breakdown, injury report, salary cap, and substitutions.

GM Roster: This section is where you handle the hiring, firing, and promotion of your other coaches.


Also located in your office is your phone. This is one of the more important tools you will use in the game. You can phone other coaches to make trades, phone agents of your players and free agents to get deals done, or call assistant coaches from other teams to try and woo them away from their current club. There is also a giant video screen on the wall of your office. If you select this option you can view tutorials about how to get around the game. This part was not completed yet in the build we previewed. Finally there is a trophy case. When we were being shown how to get around the office by Jeremy Strauser before we played, he chose to start a career with the Eagles. All of the trophy cases start out empty, but I thought that it was appropriate that the Eagles didn't have anything in there.


Getting Around on the D Pad

Just like when you're on the field coaching in this game, the D pad is used to get around a little faster so that you can avoid going through a ton of menus. Once again you can press up, down, right or left in order to navigate. Here is what each direction does:

Up (Calendar): This will take you to the very same calendar that is on your computer. The calendar is used an awful lot in this game, so it's nice to be able to do that.

Left (Coach Status): This is a place where you can quickly view your overall status as head coach, level of job security, and your level of trust as well.

Down (Keys To Victory): This is where you can track your goals and how many you have completed towards becoming the greatest head coach of all time.

Right (Legend Status): This is where you can track your status as a legend by your accomplishments in the regular season, playoffs, championships, and your lineage. All of these things become very important in your pursuit of being the greatest coach ever. Not only do you have to win the big games, but when your coaches leave your team for their own head coaching jobs, it's important that they are successful as well.


You now know how to get started as a head coach and the basics of getting around your office. In part 2 of my career mode write up, I'll get a little more in depth as far as what you can do as a head coach. Stay tuned.