Babich appears purposely built as a leader of men
The Buffalo Bills have found stability under head coach Sean McDermott and general manager Brandon Beane. For the Bills, as with any company, a key factor in hiring the right person is believing they’ll be able to identify the right someone for any and every role required to complete the team.
By and large, Sean McDermott has found the right people for the right jobs, time and again. Sure, there have been hiccups to reflect on — especially early in his tenure — but absolutely no one will ever be perfect at anything.
Defensive coordinator Bobby Babich may be the first person to tell you that perfect is impossible. That the path instead is to always chase it so that one can grow accordingly. “Until we’re perfect, we’ll never be where we — that’s the way we view it. Until we’re absolutely perfect on every rep, which will never happen, we’ll never be where we need to be. So we’re gonna constantly try to grow.”
It’s perhaps worth getting a bit existential in comparing Babich’s thirst for perfection to the Fibonacci sequence (aka golden ratio). Anywhere you research it, the golden ratio is best explained as “a series of numbers where each number is the sum of the two preceding numbers.”
What train have I taken to get here? Think about it: Babich understands that to attain perfection, one must continually learn to grow through pursuit of the ideal. That once you get where you believe perfection lies, it’s time to continue on to the next level. Remember that for the golden ratio to continue, the previous sums must learn to grow to form the required next number.
And on, and on, and on, to infinity. Yes, it’s a gigantic leap, but something about Bobby Babich led me to consider the Fibonacci sequence. So is it possible that Babich is the perfect coach for the Bills’ defense? He’s tireless, always expecting each person’s best yet realizing that’s different for everyone, and keenly aware that best will never be perfect — just enough to continually and successfully chase the need.
xn = xn-1 + xn-2 EQUALS Bobby Babich
Certainly, some of what makes us who we are as humans follows the Fibonacci sequence (actually as well as symbolically), but the golden ratio doesn’t apply to our innate tendency to make mistakes. Those mistakes make us perfectly human. They also fuel us to be better, to try again.
Bobby Babich understands that as a professional football coach. To aim for perfect is necessary. It’s the standard for Babich. It’s also impossible to ever reach. But so long as you endeavor to try, you’re on the right path, success won’t be far off. With Babich, he simply wants — probably demands — that players to be the best version of themselves.
Babich told reporters during Monday’s press conference that “we expect every player that’s on the field, we expect them to be a reason we win. We’re not winning just with ‘em. We’re winning because of them. And that’s what we want from every player on our defense.”
So just how intense is Babich in pursuit of perfection? When asked about his thoughts on how injured linebacker Edefuan Ulofoshio was observed motioning through every linebacker rep for each role to stay mentally involved, Babich point-blank stated:
“That’s the standard. That’s the standard. If you wanna make it in this league, you have to do everything that you know is right to make it in this league. If you really wanna make it in this league. You know, I remember a long time ago... got to the Panthers and Steve Smith was there and I’m like ‘that’s Steve Smith’ — and it was Steve Smith when Steve Smith was Steve Smith. And one of the coaches that knew him really well, I was just like ‘God, he —’ when he practiced he practiced hard. He was competitive. He played physical in practice, and all these type of things. And I’ll never forget, one of the coaches told me, that was close to him — Steve walks in the building every day scared to death that he’s gonna get cut. That someone’s gonna come down and say ‘grab your playbook and follow me.’ And this was — he’s gonna end up in the ring of honor or whatever in the stadium if he hasn’t, But I mean, that’s the NFL. That’s what makes the great great. So, in a roundabout way getting back to your point: There has to be a sense of urgency of what you want your career to be, and time is fleeting. Time is fleeting. It’s the most precious thing in life, so you’ve gotta take advantage of all your time.”
For football defenders, it all comes down to hitting. There isn’t a position on defense that asks a player to avoid hitting an opponent. Perfect hits are measured in outcomes, not strength. Though you’d be hard-pressed to tell anyone on the Bills that the strongest hit wasn’t the most important. When meeting with reporters, Babich had on a Bills shirt that exclaimed “SLOBBER KNOCKER of the WEEK” in huge letters. Babich explained it as such:
“So I’ll give a little shout-out to my dad... you know Sean wants a physical brand of football and I guess this is an old-school term. But this is something that you see that was established in 2019 — and actually that was a guess by me. But every week that we win, we give out the most physical hit of the game. These guys make a lot of money but they get very excited about this t-shirt.”
You might expect that Bills defenders would describe earning that shirt as executing the perfect hit. The reality is that a perfect hit results in a tackle with a negative outcome, be that a turnover for points, a stop for a loss, or a tackle that ends a drive. All a player can do is focus on the fundamentals and search out a bit of luck to make perfect possible. Babich of course made certain to mention that only “clean, legal” work is awarded.
With Bobby Babich, it’s clear that he’s never going to be content where he’s at, and that’s the type of mentality that could pay dividends to the Buffalo Bills’ defense. Professional football is a game tied to the constant pursuit of perfection, where each season, perfect or not, one team will stand above all having completed its goal to win the Super Bowl. For those in professional football, that’s what perfection looks like. Each season. And to build a legacy for yourself as part of a team that stood above all others season after season is the ultimate destination. It’s as perfect as perfect gets in the NFL. Bobby Babich may just be uniquely built for the quest.