The mentor thing is overblown to me. I'm going to coach the player. I'm not going to have another player coach the player. They can be friends but when it comes to what I want him to do on the football field, that's my call, not another player's call.
I've always wanted to buy a bookstore. You know, sell some of those muffins and a little coffee. I don't care if we make any money. I don't want to lose a lot of money, but we could visit with people and get books.
I was teaching history and coaching both tennis and track along with football. I felt like I had the best of both worlds. I was pretty comfortable. I thought I would be doing what I was doing for the rest of my life.
Everyone has to understand what the role is - what the role of the player is, the role of the coach is. You're hired to do something. You're paid to do something.
I had a rule - I didn't have a lot of rules - and one of them was we're going to operate from a mutual respect. I won't embarrass you, and I don't expect you to be embarrass me.
I get the job with the 49ers, and I'm four years removed from my high school coaching days, and I'm going to be coaching Joe Montana, and I'm going, 'How do I approach this? How am I going to do this?'
As an organization, I think you owe it to the vast majority of people who go to the game and want to watch the game and enjoy the game and feel good about bringing their kids or their wife or their grandma to the game.
The important thing, I think, going into any organization, is that all of the principles, all of the decision-makers are pointed in the same direction, with the same motives, the same desires, and then you have a chance.
The teams that are successful from ownership to management to coaching - there is a singleness of purpose. There's enough credit for everyone. No one gets territorial. It's just good - and it shows on the field.
When I was coaching, I was out there, and you're doing press conferences, and the fans see a lot more of the head coach than they do either the general manager or the president.
After being on the field for so long and feeling like you have some control over the outcome or what's happening out there, now I'm upstairs, and I have no control over anything. I'm working through that.