The Mission featuring NFL Special Teams Coach Brad Seely: "Special Teams the Forgotten Unit"

By Jamir Howerton
Producer, Hall of Fame Productions

It might be the most underappreciated unit on the gridiron, but it can impact and change the course of a football game in a blink of an eye. Special Teams make up nearly one-quarter of the game and are extremely important to the character – and ultimately the success – of an NFL team.

Hall of Fame Productions was treated to an exclusive football lesson by three-time Super Bowl Champion Special Teams Coordinator Brad Seely, who broke down the inner workings of a unit that often gets overlooked not only by media pundits but also by fans as well. 

“The thing we always talk about on special teams is 80 percent of the field position that is changed in a football game is done in the kicking game, and that’s a lot of field position,” Seely said.

“But what we have is one play to get it right. Either we get it right or we don’t get it right, and we have to move on in the football game. But everyone will remember if our punt was blocked, no matter what,” he explained.

Seely, who started his NFL coaching career with the Indianapolis Colts (1989-1993), New York Jets (1994), Carolina Panthers (1995-1998), New England Patriots (1999-2008), Cleveland Browns (2009-2010), San Francisco 49ers (2011-2014) and Oakland Raiders (2015-2017) before joining the Texans in 2018, knows a thing or two of how his units impact a game.

“We were always looking for smart, tough and dependable guys,” Seely said.

“Guys that were going to do their job, and really in the kicking game you would get some guys that were mad. Mad at the fact that they weren’t playing on offense and defense,” he said, “and we would use that energy to coach them up.”

After coaching 31 seasons in the NFL, Seely retired from the Houston Texans in early June. He served as a team’s special teams coordinator in every season from 1989 to 2019 and totaled 41 years of overall coaching experience, which included climbing the college ranks. Seely coached in nine conference championship games, won three Super Bowls and coached 10 different players to 17 special teams Pro Bowl selections.

“Brad Seely is one of the best Special Teams coaches in NFL history, and his contributions to the game have been unparalleled,” former head coach Bill O’Brien said in a statement courtesy of the Houston Texans.

“I first met Brad when we were both assistant coaches in New England and immediately recognized his ability to connect with his players and teach them about the game in his own unique way,” O’Brien said.

Also during the podcast, the former special teams coordinator made his case for Buffalo Bills Legend Steve Tasker and why he should be enshrined and mentioned among the greats in Canton, Ohio.

“Steve Tasker should have been in the Hall of Fame a long time ago because of what he did on the football field. His talent was something different that doesn’t come around every day. He’s a guy who changed the game, and someone in that room (HOF Selections Committee) has to stand of the table and explain what Tasker has done for the game of football,” said a confident Seely.

Tasker has made the semifinalists list seven times. The former Bills special teamer was first named a semifinalist in 2004 and again in 2008, 2010-2013 and is mentioned again in 2020, among 130 Modern-Era nominees.

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