Some owners either by choice or necessity will wish to have another person
help with running the team. The other person, the "assistant", has full
powers over the team, although the two can and should make an agreement
as to who will do what. Typically, an assistant is brought on to do some
combination of the following three jobs. These job descriptions are for
guidelines only; any owner/assistant pair may divide the jobs for running
as they please.
Head Coach
A head coach is the responsible for sending in coaching templates and
scrimmages. He is probably also the one with the final say on position
changes. This is an easy arrangement to operate, as one person gets the
players and the other manages the lineups. It is also nice for
inexperienced assistants, as a mistake in one game can generally be easily
remedied for the next game.
GM
A general manager is essentially responsible for all duties of roster
management, namely cuts, drafting, free agent signings, and trades. The
GM is busiest during the team's offseason, although trade negotiations
and free agent signings can continue during the season. As with a
head coach, this is an easy arrangement to operate, although an
inexperienced GM is more likely to make a costly mistake than is an
inexperienced coach.
Assistant
An assistant will serve more as a second mind for running the team, and
will be in communication with the owner as to strategies, draft lists,
potential trades, and so on. An assistant may also fill in when the
owner is out of town or otherwise unable to run his team.