I'm in college, it's my first year, I want to become a coach in the National Football League (NFL). I know it will take time, A LOT, but I want to find out more on how to get to my dream. What are the steps, what are the best qualifications, how much can I expect to to earn in my early years as a coach or a coordinator, ect. What courses am I required to take in college along the way?
While there are strategies on and off the field to learn, this is a people business. Knowing how to communicate to people to motivate them to achieve their best is what you want to focus on.
Do your homework by finding out where the current and recent past coaches came from. Find the name of every coach for every team in the NFL over the last 10 years. Find out what their backgrounds were. Did they start as players? Coach college first? Find the coach(es) that you want to embrace as role models, not for their winning record, but for their ability to get the job. A background you can relate to and emulate. Start with coaching right now. City league football or YMCA or HS asst. coach. Try private schools since they're not a govt. agency they may be easier to get started with. There's nothing like doing it to learn to do it. You have to be able to asst. coach HS before you can asst coach college ball. You have to understudy a good college head coach before you can be a College Head Coach. If you can't with a college team, you won't be going to the NFL. You have to prove yourself so you might as well get started. Degrees and resume qualifications won't get you the job.
This is a relationship based business. Start placing yourself in correct environment to initiate, build and nurture those relationships. Look on the sidelines and find out who's there and who they work for. Relentlessly pursue the job that puts you on the sidelines. Read "The 21 Indisputable Laws of Leadership" by John Maxwell. Get a hold of the team Chaplin and volunteer to help him with anything, making copies, running errands, anything. Don't take "no" for an answer. Don't be annoying, be persistent. Did I mention to refine your people skills?