Trying to Put The QB in Coach

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The Redskins continue preparations for the regular season by clipping the Buffalo Bills, 17-14, in their second preseason game Saturday at FedEx Field.

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Zorn, asked about the issue, said he hadn't "thought about that."

"I just know that for me, I've been around some very sound coaches in Bobby Ross and Mike Holmgren, especially, and they have come from some very sound teams themselves and come from outstanding backgrounds," he said.

"The history of quarterbacks that became coaches?" Zorn asked rhetorically. "I'm not going to think about that too much. That would worry me."

No one has a concrete theory on why everyone from Allie Sherman to Frankie Albert couldn't cut it on the sideline, or why Gary Kubiak and Sean Payton are hanging in there at the moment. Beyond the NFL -- from Ted Williams to Magic Johnson -- former greats throughout history have had lousy patience. Or at least zero tolerance for players not of their ilk.

Van Brocklin once coached Sonny Jurgensen. For about a week.

"They got rid of him before the season began," Jurgensen said. "He started firing people in the front office. He wanted to fire the PR guy, everybody.

"I don't know why quarterbacks aren't better coaches, because I know how smart they are."

Flores believes it has something to do with the ability to take and give instruction.

"I don't really have a theory on why Otto Graham or Bart Starr didn't work out, why I was the only one successful in that way as a former quarterback," he said. "I'm as mystified as you are. Coaches have to lead and quarterbacks are good leaders. But I do know that some weren't as good as teachers as some other coaches. You have to be a teacher to be a coach."

Coincidentally enough, Flores helped make Zorn a teacher. After former Seahawks coach Chuck Knox told Zorn after his playing days that he should try to look outside his former organization for a coaching job, Flores backed up Knox and told Zorn essentially the same thing while he was president and general manager of the Seahawks before Paul Allen owned the team.

"He came in for advice and told me he wanted to get into coaching and I told him I didn't have room for him, so I said, 'You ought to start out at any level and find out whether you like it or not before you get into it,' " Flores said.

Zorn started small, taking his first job coaching quarterbacks at Boise State in 1988, before working his way back to the NFL.