(Editor’s note: This story was originally published on Nov. 7 and has been updated to reflect the New York Jets’ hiring of Aaron Glenn.)
Three years ago, when Ben Johnson was elevated to be the offensive coordinator of the Detroit Lions, he got a direct challenge from Aaron Glenn, the team’s defensive coordinator.
Bring it.
In every head-to-head between the offense and defense, from training camp to a midweek practice, bring it all. Bring the creativity. Bring the trick plays. Bring everything Johnson could conjure up.
Mainly bring the competitiveness.
Not only would it help make each unit better — and help Detroit go 15-2 this season and secure the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs — it would make Johnson and Glenn better, especially when they eventually became head coaches.
“It’s always iron sharpens iron,” Johnson told Yahoo Sports this season of Glenn’s attitude. “He has really challenged me to stay cutting edge, attack him. We’ve gone back and forth during training camp and in the springtime, we’ll make some adjustments and he’ll make some adjustments. It’s just constant competition between the two of us.”
On Monday, Johnson, 38, became the new head coach of the Chicago Bears. On Wednesday, Glenn, 52, took over the New York Jets.
Glenn will now need to bring that same attitude to the Jets — competitiveness, pressure, relentlessness. The same attributes that drove him as a Pro Bowl lock-down corner, including eight seasons (1994-2001) with New York and then as a grinding-assistant coach that he demanded be reflected in his Lions defenses.
He takes over a five-win team in New York that hasn’t sniffed the playoffs since 2010. He does it with the only mentality he’s ever known, one that drove him from an unlikely place to NFL head coach.
Glenn grew up in the Bordersville neighborhood of Humble, Texas, just on the outskirts of Houston. It was built in the 1920s, a settlement of wooden shacks, created so African Americans could work at a nearby sawmill.
The mill eventually closed. Houston Intercontinental Airport was built next door, cordoning the neighborhood off from modern development. The people stayed in those old rickety houses, living in poverty on dirt roads and without even basic services. The area didn’t have dedicated waterlines until 1981, the year Glenn turned 9.
“It is not the best area to grow up in,” Glenn said earlier this season. “But it was a great area for me because it taught me a lot of lessons on how to operate, how to react, how to protect myself. I have a lot of love for where I grew up at. That’s me.”
Football lifted Glenn out of Bordersville — first as an All-American at Texas A&M, then 15 seasons in the league. His mentality led him to learn football from everyone he encountered whether his playing days (Bill Parcells, Bill Belichick, Al Groh) to his coaching staff years (Sean Payton, Dan Campbell) to even the young OC down the hall.
“I am ready to sit in that seat and handle whatever challenge comes at me,” Glenn said. “I’ve always wanted to be the best I can be, whether I was a player or a coach. And I think that will serve me as a head coach, because I don’t want to just be average.”
Glenn began to turn heads as a viable head coach this season, when his Lions defense began to shine despite numerous injuries.
“A tough, physical, violent operation that loves to play man coverage,” Glenn said of his defense. “That’s who we are. That’s our identity.”
Even by NFL workaholic standards, Glenn was known for his dedication. When six starters (including star Aidan Hutchinson) and even more key reserves were lost to injury, he worked longer to design a game plan to compensate. That includes a Week 17 defensive masterpiece that helped Detroit secure the division crown via a 31-9 victory over Minnesota.
“First off, he’s salt of the earth,” head coach Dan Campbell said. “He’s an unbelievable human being. He’s a man of high character. … The things we go into a game with to attack opponents I think is some of the best in the league. And then when you start losing some pieces here or there and you are still trying to attack them, you have to use what you have on the roster.”
Some of that is Bordersville, Glenn says. Some of that is just him.
Nothing was ever easy, so he’s lived his life like he played and coached. He’s never been into excuses, so he never tolerated any. When Hutchinson was lost to injury, Glenn gathered his players and refused to call it a setback. Instead, it was an opportunity.
“Coach Glenn maintained his composure and rallied everyone together,” safety Brian Branch said. “Opportunity presents itself. You have to take your opportunity.”
“Just means someone else has to step up,” cornerback Terrion Arnold said.
That’s Aaron Glenn. It isn’t supposed to go smoothly, so why worry when it doesn’t.
“We don’t have a first and second team,” Glenn said. “I don’t call them that. We have players. So if one player goes in, I expect you to play like a starter. It’s one thing to teach scheme. It’s another to have an identity. This is how we are going to play. If you are not up to that then you are not going to be on this field.”
Glenn seems to thrive amid the chaos. And he will build a team that can do the same — which may be a prerequisite for a Jets franchise that seems mired in chaos.
“We have a true identity on this football team,” Glenn said of the Lions this season. “And it’s not for everybody. Everybody doesn’t fit with what we do because not everybody can take it. It’s for the tough, it’s for the grinders, it’s for the gritty, it’s for the guys who want to improve on a day to day basis. And you are never satisfied.”
Now comes the opportunity Glenn’s been working toward; head coach of the franchise that once drafted him in the first round.
However it works out is how it works out (you never know in the NFL). But as always with Aaron Glenn, there will be no excuses, there will be no easing into things, there will be no corners cut.
He’s coming full throttle, same as always, same as he got off those dirt roads back in Bordersville.
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