Chapter 429: Comprehensive Equals Mediocrity

Zhao Dong came to know Edward as the head coach before coming. He is a person with a strict coaching style.

Moreover, he led the team to win the division championship last season, and his position in the team has been stabilized, and he has a strong voice.

Sure enough, Edward's next words were: "Feilong, although you are a rich man, and you were even the boss here, but this is a professional league, the NFL, and I hope your only identity here is as a player.

I hope you can obey any arrangement made by the coaching staff here, any arrangement, and execute it unconditionally. There are no billionaires here, only player Zhao Dong, do you understand? "

"Understood." Zhao Dong said seriously.

Edward nodded sternly, let go of his hand, and said no more.

Johnson smiled apologetically: "Feilong, Henman has only been with the Jets for one season, and his coaching style is very harsh..."

"This is good. I didn't come to the NFL to play. Coach Edward's attitude is also what I want to see." Zhao Dong said.

"That's good, that's good." Johnson breathed a sigh of relief.

He doesn't want to offend Zhao Dong. To offend Zhao Dong is to offend Mrs. Lindsay. That is someone that any billionaire absolutely does not want to offend.

He is just a small investor in Tianlong Investment Bank. There are at least a thousand investors like him in Tianlong Investment Bank.

Next, Zhao Dong signed a contract with the New York Jets for $350,000 a year, which was a pre-tax amount and a standard basic salary contract.

The NFL and NBA are different. Although the NBA's rules are all learned from the NFL, some changes have taken place since the NBA formed its own rules.

For example, the salary cap. After the NBA learned from the NFL's hard salary cap, it created a soft salary cap. In recent years, there has been a luxury tax, which gives wealthy teams a lot of room to operate. Create a luxurious lineup with your own financial resources.

The NFL only has a hard salary cap. No matter how rich the teams and owners are, they cannot exceed the salary cap, so they cannot forcefully configure a luxury lineup.

Of course Zhao Dong can also sign a larger contract, but it is completely unnecessary. A larger contract will only occupy limited salary space and affect the team's lineup reinforcement. This is definitely not the result he wants.

Moreover, his current strength is third-rate. If it were not for his status, he would not be qualified to enter the NFL. He also requested this contract on his own initiative.

This year’s NFL draft has ended.

The offseason has now entered. The new season will start on September 5th, and the preseason will begin in August. During the offseason, coaches and players are not allowed to use the training base.

Of course, before the first preseason game, the league allows teams to conduct full training for up to 15 days, but it only started in mid-July, and it is still half a month away.

So what Zhao Dong has to do now is to discuss his position with the coaching staff and let the coaching staff formulate a training plan for him, and then he will find a venue to train on his own.

There is no problem with the venue. When I went to Stony Brook University yesterday, I had an agreement with the school and we will train there.

In terms of coaches and trainers, he can also pay for the team's coaches himself, or he can hire those from the Stony Brook school team.

After dismissing the media, Zhao Dong followed Edward and the coaching staff to a conference room, accompanied by boss Johnson and general manager Maureen Phillip.

As for the media, they did not follow up and could only wait for news outside.

"Feilong, which positions have you practiced technical training before?" After sitting down, a staff member brought coffee and Edward asked.

Zhao Dong smiled and said: "When I was at Stony Brook University, that is, after completing basketball training, I joined the football team when I had time. I tried every position and my skills were relatively comprehensive."

"Comprehensive? Comprehensive equals mediocrity."

Edward's face darkened. If it weren't for Zhao Dong's identity, he would have roared at the general manager and boss at this time.

Isn't this a joke? There are only 53 official quotas for the team, and each one has its use. If a person who knows nothing comes in, a quota will be wasted. Will the team not have a record next season?

The NFL is not the NBA. If an NBA team gets a superstar, they have a chance to win every one of five games, but that kind of thing will never happen on the football field.

The football team is divided into a defensive team, an offensive team, and a special teams team. The offensive team is responsible for offensive scoring. When it is the opponent's turn to attack, the offensive team goes off and the defensive team comes on.

Therefore, in football games, offense and defense are separated. No matter how strong a player is, he cannot conquer the world by himself like basketball.

A football team is just like a real army. All players are parts of the machine. If there is a problem in one position, the whole team will lose.

Therefore, football cannot be like basketball. Once you get a superstar, you have a chance to win.

The area of ​​​​the football field is thirteen times that of the basketball field. It requires the cooperation of all players to execute a defensive or offensive strategy. Even a superstar is only one part of it.

Zhao Dong has no skills now, but he has to occupy a position. Even if it is a substitute position, it cannot be wasted, so Edward has a headache.

Zhao Dong was also very embarrassed and immediately said: "I can start from the bench."

"The position of the substitute is also very important." Edward said stiffly.

At this time, an old coach named Melos who was very familiar with Zhao Dong said: "Coach Edward, although Feilong's skills are not very good, his physical condition and athletic quality are excellent. Even in the NFL, his overall quality has reached the top. In fact, there are many positions suitable for him.

And he is not too old. Some rookies who only participated in the draft in their senior years are not much younger than him.

In addition, there are some players who play basketball in the NCAA and also participate in the NFL draft. Some of them have successfully joined the NFL, so I think Feilong is just an older rookie. Although he has played in the NBA for seven years, But he still has the potential to play good football, and we got him at no cost, which should be something to be thankful for. "

Zhao Dong laughed when he heard it, but he felt that Melos was right. Although his current skills are not very good and he thinks he has no strength, it does not mean that he has no confidence in himself.

Although he has played professional basketball for seven years, his body has very little wear and tear, and his injury immunity has protected his body. Therefore, his body is still very young and his physical condition is at its peak. He is confident that he can play well. football.

When Edward heard what Melos said, he shook his head and said: "Although Feilong is only 26 years old, you just said that he has been playing professional games for seven years. Do you know about his physical injuries? So he and those who are It’s different for older rookies who play basketball in the NCAA and end up joining the NFL.”

When Melos heard this, he could only be speechless because Zhao Dong signed the contract directly without undergoing a physical examination. How did he know what injuries Zhao Dong had?

Hearing this, Zhao Dong could only say: "It's very simple. Take a physical examination. If I'm really not suitable, I can choose to leave here."

"NONONO..."

When boss Johnson heard this, he spit out a series of disapprovals and said to Zhao Dong: "Feilong, based on your performance in the NBA, you have never been injured. I believe your body is very healthy."

At this point, he said to Edward very seriously: "Henman, don't say you don't know about Feilong's performance in the NBA. Even if you don't watch NBA games, you must have heard about it."

Edward thought for a while, nodded and said: "I'm sorry, I'm not picky, because NFL games are ten times more intense and cruel than NBA games. Every year, many players are injured or even die from injuries. Off the field There are constant fights, this is the battlefield, I prefer to call it the Colosseum, I don’t want the flying dragon to have problems under my hands.”

He really doesn't want Zhao Dong to become his player. It's not entirely a matter of Zhao Dong's lack of skills. There are other more important issues.

To put it simply, he cannot shoulder that responsibility. If Zhao Dong is maimed, killed, injured or beaten to death on or off the field, he must not be skinned by Mrs. Lindsay?

The NFL environment is a hundred times more barbaric than the NBA. Compared with here, the NBA is a civilized world. The most barbaric NBA players who come to the NFL are gentlemen.

Over the past century, countless NFL players have become disabled due to injuries and can only lie in bed and linger after retirement.

The fights on and off the court in the NBA are so childish compared to here, just like playing house, and not worth mentioning at all.

Fighting here means fighting to death. The so-called Pistons Bad Boys, who were famous all over the United States, would be nothing if they were in the NFL.

There are more players injured and disabled in off-field fights here than there are players disabled due to injuries on the field, and many of them are even killed.

In the decades since the league was founded, there have been dozens of recorded player deaths, but more death cases have been covered up. For example, as long as they do not die on the field, it will only be counted as injuries. Otherwise, this The numbers will climb significantly.

In the past few years, many lawmakers have begun to call for changing the rules of the game to reduce off-field violence because of the brutal NFL games. This is enough to illustrate the problem.

As a former NFL player and current NFL coach, he is all too aware of the harsh environment here.

Racism is everywhere here, a hundred times worse than in the NBA. In the eyes of those NFL players whose hormones are extremely high and every cell in their bodies is filled with violence, Zhao Dong's social identity may be useless, or even He suspected that some extremely violent elements full of racial discrimination must have targeted Zhao Dong.

To be honest, even within the Jets, there are many players like this, and he knows this very well.

"Coach Edward, I have made all preparations. This is my choice." Zhao Dong could only promise this.

In the end, Edward had no choice but to accept Zhao Dong's existence, and then began to discuss Zhao Dong's position.

At this time, coach Melos added: "Feilong is very fast and his impact is the most powerful in NBA history. I think he can focus on the wide receiver position."

Edward thought for a while and said, "Well, let's do a physical test and physical examination first."

"Okay." Zhao Dong said.

Although the training base cannot train now, it is still possible to take physical tests. Zhao Dong immediately followed Edward and the others to the training base.

A large group of media reporters naturally followed.

When boss Johnson, general manager Philip and other management saw that head coach Edward accepted Zhao Dong's existence, they went about their own business first.

During this period, NFL team management is very busy, mainly to control the salary cap and deal with some contract details.