When Charlie Coiner’s phone rang in 2001, he had no idea the call would shape the next two decades of his career, and beyond. On the other end of the line was Chicago Bears head coach Dick Jauron, giving Coiner some of the best news of his roughly twenty years of coaching football. Coiner was offered a position on Jauron’s NFL staff.
Three days later, Coiner was on a plane to Chicago. A lifelong dream had come true.
“I’d gone through a long interview process with every coach on staff,” Coiner recalls. “There was a sense of pride that I’d passed the test, but the real test was about to begin.”
As the Bears’ offensive quality control coach, he worked in the quarterback room assisting offensive coordinator John Shoop. Coiner’s main responsibility, though, was creating the offensive playbook.
Every route, blocking assignment, and game plan installation had to be diagrammed and ready before anyone else arrived at the facility.
“There were no days off,” Coiner says. “Even in February, I was still in the office drawing the playbook for OTAs (organized team activities). Most nights ended with me sleeping at the office just to keep up.”
That routine continued through nine years in the NFL with the Bears and Bills. But amid the grind, a thought kept nagging him.
“This doesn’t have to be this hard,” Coiner says. “So much of our time was eaten up by inefficient tools. We were using an engineering software to draw football plays. It just didn’t make sense.”
There had to be a better way.
“After the NFL, I came to realize all coaches have the same issue.”
When Coiner eventually stepped away from coaching, he couldn’t shake the idea of fixing the problem that had frustrated him and so many others. He realized that coaches at every level, not just in the NFL, were struggling with the same thing. There was no affordable, football-smart way to build playbooks, game-week installations, or create practice cards.
“After the NFL, I came to realize all coaches have the same issue,” Coiner says.“We’re all trying to teach, prepare, and communicate, and we need the right tools to do that.”
That realization became the foundation for FirstDown PlayBook, a comprehensive digital platform built by coaches, for coaches.
Fifteen years later, that idea has grown into one of the most trusted digital coaching platforms in football. FirstDown PlayBook gives coaches access to over 35,000 editable plays, including offensive, defensive, and special teams schemes, all professionally drawn by experienced football minds.
Tasks that once took hours now take minutes, freeing coaches to focus on what really matters: teaching and winning.
NFL-Level Tools at a High School Price
Coiner’s mission when he started FirstDown PlayBook 15 years ago was to make NFL-level tools accessible to coaches everywhere. “We go out of our way to let coaches actually get their hands on the tool before they buy it,” Coiner says. “Coaches are ‘show me’ people.”
High school, college and NFL coaches can get a one-week free trial to explore all of the features and capabilities for themselves. FirstDown PlayBook offers a variety of memberships,giving programs of all sizes the same digital resources once only available at the highest levels of the game.
A Full Team Membership includes unlimited users for $750/ year, allowing head coaches to bring in their entire staff, players, and even feeder programs under one digital roof. Coiner emphasized, “unlimited means unlimited.” This is a significant feature when you look at the importance of vertically aligning your entire football program.
For individual coaches looking to build their personal playbook library or prep for future opportunities, a single-user membership gives them access to the same powerful tools for $250/year. “We have a lot of coaches who are preparing for an interview who purchase our single-user membership to begin saving their coaching resume.”
Over the past 15 years, Charlie has poured his coaching experience into making FirstDown PlayBook the top solution for coaches at every level.
To start your one-week free trial, click here: https://firstdown.playbooktech.com/free-trial/signup