ST. JOSEPH, Mo. For years, one of the final rituals of Steve Spagnuolos offseason was a family trip around the Fourth of July to Avalon, N.J., known locally as downtheshore from where he met his wife, Maria, in Philadelphia.
That last respite heralded the imminent arrival of football, part of a seasonal rhythm that had become hardwired into Spagnuolo after 36 years of coaching and immersion in the game since his teens.
Grind that it is, the first part, training camp, had become his favorite part of the year and the essence of the job in many ways.
So imagine how discombobulated he was at this time last year when NFL training camps opened and he was in Avalon, unemployed at 58 after being snubbed by the New York Giants following a stint as their interim head coach.
The disconnection from coaching was somewhat by design, including turning down an unspecified assistant coaching offer.
But there was some disorientation before it became the reset Spagnuolo was seeking and that effectively led coach Andy Reid to turn to him in February to resuscitate the abominable defense that sabotaged the Chiefs Super Bowl prospects last season.
You do feel a void, because youre not at training camp But I tried to fill the void the right way, he said Tuesday at Chiefs training camp at Missouri Western University.
That meant trying to do things that I wouldnt normally have been able to do, like spend more time with family and going to his 40th high school reunion in Massachusetts. Not to mention what may or may not have been deep-sea fishing expeditions so much as being out there on the boat or whatever, as he put it.
He did go drop in on some camps, but it just wasnt the same as the precious part he loves: being around the guys and non-stop being around football 24/7.
That perhaps helps explain why Spagnuolo is crackling with energy here, so much so that he says he feels like a little kid. Thats how I feel. I feel 12 again. Smiling, he added, Sometimes, I act 12.
And its why hes proud to say that hes wearing players out about the little things.
Talk about 24/7
They need that in their ears when they fall asleep at night, he said, smiling.
Contrasting somewhat with his more low-key predecessor, Bob Sutton, Spagnuolo is ever-animated and hands-on.
He also is clearly resonating with players only a week after Reid offered a playful reminder of the challenge entailed in radical simultaneous changes of defensive staff, scheme and personnel.
In my mind, were all coming up for our seventh camp (in St. Joe), Reid said, and then I have to keep reminding myself that these guys dont even know how to get up to the practice field.
When it was suggested to Spagnuolo that this makes for a lot of new under his jurisdiction, he acknowledged the challenges that come with that. The players, he said, will dictate to some degree how many packages and schemes can be employed by demonstrating that theyre not thinking and theyre playing without being tentative.
