Sunday worship with Todd Downing: Ousted Raiders coach finds calling in start-up church

(Click here, if you are unable to view this photo gallery on your mobile device.)

SAN RAMON — Todd Downing is nowhere near a football field, standing behind the pour-over coffee set he brought from his office at Raiders headquarters. He brewed cups for fellow coaches while they talked about football, life, anything.

Now he’s serving anyone interested, some people he doesn’t even know. Instead of wearing Raiders gear after being fired as offensive coordinator last month, Downing sports blue jeans, sunglasses and a white T-shirt with the Eastown Church logo — three thick, horizontal gray lines.

Eastown is a startup church run out of Windemere Ranch Middle School, 25 minutes east of the Oakland Coliseum. Downing’s close friend Clint Dupin, whom he met while coaching with the Detroit Lions at the beginning of the decade, launched the church in December. Congregations gather in a small, dimly lit auditorium.

Downing assembles his coffee station in a courtyard outside, this day in the beaming February heat.

Former Raiders assistants Brent Vieselmeyer and Bernie Parmalee, both fired last month, hold Downing in such high regard that they’re here, too. Former wide receivers coach Rob Moore made appearances at Eastown before the Tennessee Titans hired him in late January.

It’s Super Bowl Sunday, so Downing would rather be coaching in Minneapolis. Some even thought before the season he might end up calling plays in the Super Bowl, given the Raiders’ presumed trajectory entering 2017. Downing was promoted from quarterbacks coach last offseason, and his offense scored 71 points during a 2-0 start.

Instead, he’s still unemployed while his sport takes center stage. Meanwhile, the Raiders coordinator fired nearly two months before him (Ken Norton Jr.) found an upgrade as Seattle Seahawks defensive coordinator. But today he’s not Todd Downing, the once-trendy offensive coordinator who didn’t get the job done. He’s Todd Downing the coffee maker, Todd Downing the husband of Julie Downing, Todd Downing the committed church volunteer.

This Sunday’s church discussion centers on handling conflict. Downing is the featured speaker for over 100 people in attendance. Did he envision imparting wisdom to parishioners of different ages, backgrounds and races in the wake of his own conflict — losing his job? Certainly not.

But this Downing, the 37-year-old community man, husband and church-goer, is core to the one who rode a public rollercoaster along the sidelines every week.

Downing sits at the front left corner of the congregation, only raising his left hand to acknowledge the crowd when he’s introduced.

Otherwise, he absorbs Dupin’s teachings with unwavering concentration.

Dupin begins, “The root of all conflict is pride and fear.” He mentions three main causes of conflict: unchecked jealousy, unchallenged superiority and unidentified insecurity. Conflict arises everywhere, Dupin harps, in relationships, school and the workplace. The most telling sign is how one handles it. That point hits home with Downing.

Throughout the session, his mind spins to connect his own experiences with the preachings. Downing wants to extract as much meaning from the hour as possible.

When asked later what he thinks of during such a discussion, Downing mentions an NFL workplace. “Especially in that profession, in our industry, these alpha males and the bold personalities … if you know that going in and you can kind of anticipate those roadblocks in communication, then you can have more success getting through that stuff.” Downing doesn’t mention any specific conflicts or power struggles that occurred with the Raiders, but he acknowledges they happened. He stresses they’re bound to.

“It’s something that comes up, not just when things aren’t going well,” Downing said. “Sometimes conflict comes up when things are going great. It’s something that I think we need to anticipate in life.

“I think everyone’s human instinct is to look to blame others or to point the finger at somebody else or evaluate where somebody else could’ve done something differently. When that happens, it can create conflict because it generates this kind of culture, if you will, to throw somebody else under the bus as opposed to just figuring out how to do your job better.”

So how does he prefer handling conflict, especially when that roadblock in communication isn’t expected? How then does the phrase “methods of handling conflict” become a tangible application based on what he learns in church and not just a cliche term?

Take Downing snapping at a reporter (this reporter) the Thursday after Oakland’s Week 14 loss to the Chiefs, the only time all year he reacted to a question like that. The Raiders opted for short passes down 11 with under three minutes remaining in the game and the ball inside their own red zone.

I asked why he repeatedly threw short just to get his perspective on the drive. In Downing’s defense the question was lazily phrased with a tone implying fault. He suggested I watch film to better understand the play calls.

We found common ground Sunday with more time beyond a brief press conference exchange to navigate that tension. However trivial, Downing finds satisfaction in that minor instance. Two people — forget the titles of offensive coordinator and beat writer — engaged in a healthy give-and-take to solve conflict. Just as his main takeaway from Sunday’s service advises.

“I think there’s two ways that you can deal with an apple that’s got a blemish,” Downing said. “If you’re willing to take out the knife and come out with a little bit of a bruise, you can enjoy the rest of the apple. But if you let that bruise sit there, that apple will rot from the inside out.”

Downing smiles as if he just called an Amari Cooper touchdown bomb. See, in his life, he appreciates a game plan for conflict resolution going from pastor’s mouth to real-life interaction just as he appreciates a game plan going from play sheet to points on the scoreboard.

Downing hopes to be an NFL offensive coordinator again soon.

For now, he’s an integral part of a startup church that holds movie nights, hosts group dinners and visits farmer’s markets. He’s perfectly content.

In the courtyard, kids toss a football while the backup coffee maker spares Downing. His wife, Julie, just put on an impressive singing performance for the congregation. She strolls over, and shyly confesses her husband’s voice is nowhere near as polished.

“Look at this here,” Downing says as he pans around with a smile. “We’ve got pour-over coffee, we hand out coffee mugs and let the kids play in the back and just have a blast. We’ve got as many volunteers as we have people in the congregation because people love being a part of this.”

Adam Sandler had his “happy place” in the movie Happy Gilmore, and this is about as close to Downing’s happy place given his current job status.

“These last few months were tough,” Downing said, “and there were tough conversations.

“You also better be prepared to expect the unexpected, if you will. If you have kind of a model of how you’re gonna navigate that, it really helps in the moment.”

Downing admits the church’s teachings — especially those on this day — have helped put a tumultuous last few months in perspective.

“I remember having these conversations with him,” Dupin said. “‘How do you maintain? How do you keep moving forward? How do you not allow your identity to become about your position or your staff’s?'”

“Man, it’s a fight,” Downing would respond.

His tenure with the Raiders officially ended about a month ago, but Downing has found value in other ways since. Not only has he piqued the interest of fellow former Raiders coaches toward this new church venture, but he’s also secured donations for the church from friends who don’t even know Eastown’s founder.

Related Articles Why Paul Guenther’s first coordinator job at 25 years old relates to the Raiders

How childhood poverty prepared her for life as an NFL agent

Raiders’ Derek Carr passes AFC to victory in Pro Bowl

Raiders linebacker Bruce Irvin opens up about Ken Norton Jr.

Of teams with new coaches, Raiders best positioned for bounce-back season Downing’s dream job is still to coach in the NFL — don’t think otherwise just because he’s enjoying life away from it now. Until that dream job comes calling, though, Downing is more than happy showing a different side of himself.

“I hope that people that came across me in Alameda or on gameday or whatever see the same version or the same person when they see me here today,” Downing said. “One of the things that makes me most proud of my impact on those around me in Alameda is that you saw a bunch of our coaches in there today. Start your day with the news you need from the Bay Area and beyond.

Sign up for our new Morning Report weekday newsletter.

“I hope that my influence and what Eastown does for me permeates to other areas of my life.”

Share this: Print

View more on The Mercury News