Jason Witten – Why NFL locker room leadership, success is complicated

On a recent ESPN special, Nick Saban was talking to Kobe Bryant about leadership. Saban summarized a point Kobe made by saying, “Everyone wants to be the beast, but not everyone wants to do what the beasts do.”

Nick nailed it.

Hope and optimism are everywhere around the NFL, even for teams that did not win a game a year ago. That is actually part of what makes the NFL so great. The parity, which exists more than in other leagues, offers plausible hope that the Cleveland Browns can turn it around and go on a surprise run. You laugh, but ask Kurt Warner’s Rams. This stuff happens.

We usually see a surprise breakthrough every year — do people remember that last year’s Eagles were coming off a 7-9 season? How quickly we forget. In 2017, the only team in the NFC to make the playoffs from the previous season was the Atlanta Falcons, and they sneaked in on a wild-card berth. In the AFC, only the New England Patriots, Pittsburgh Steelers and Kansas City Chiefs were able to repeat their 2016 playoff success.

But, let’s get back to Saban’s point. What separates teams that consistently contend each year? It is how those organizations construct their rosters, and it isn’t just the talent.

Start with the illusion: Anyone who follows football in August knows that nearly every team has had its “best offseason training program” ever, a new O-coordinator or defensive wizard is on board and has the secret sauce that was missing from the previous coach. Guys who got in trouble off the field are ready for a second or third chance and saying how much they’ve grown up. There’s a “newfound chemistry,” and, of course, a new yoga program is going to take a player to the next level. Did I forget the rising star ready to take on a new role? OK. Check.

We hear these stories every year. Then the season starts, and one by one, what was once a season full of promise and hope fades.

The differentiator? Leadership, from top to bottom, is critical. No joke: This is way more crucial than a lot of those other clichés. Here are some aspects of it.

The layers

The roster glue: It’s called “Not For Long” for a reason. The average career length of an NFL player is three to four years. The majority of the league is made up of those guys. They’re critical in a given year but very much replaceable the following year as economics change and younger, more talented and cheaper players enter the league.

Then you have a batch of rock-solid players — not superstars — but they hang around for a very successful run. Those guys are often glue guys: smart, disciplined, hardworking veterans who are able to discern and master a role on a team, such as a core special-teams player who can be a spot starter, a utility lineman or a receiver who can play all three spots. When the organization signs these guys, it knows exactly what it’s getting and exactly who they will be in the locker room.

The stars: Then you have the next batch, the world-class superstars. These are the guys on a second contract, major guaranteed money — the faces of the franchise. These are guys you are rely on to be difference-makers on the field and off the field. Mostly, these are the captains of your team. Speaking of …

The captains: It is an honor bestowed upon four to five players voted on by their peers. The organization counts upon these men to instill the culture and standard of work ethic, how to treat the support staff and how to live life outside the building. The irony is it’s actually a rare combination to have a star player who is also an effective team leader. It’s more common on the great teams.

There is an old saying that goes: “Your actions speak so loud that I can’t hear what you say.” As a leader or captain of a team, it is not just saying the right things. That is the easy part. It is the challenge of having your actions be congruent with what you are saying. It is damn difficult to strain every day. No one sets out to perform below the standard during practice, but that’s because it takes an incredible amount of mental discipline and physical fortitude. Every player, especially the captain, is highly scrutinized, and after a bad game or a bad practice, the rigor of flushing out all that mental clutter and not allowing it to have a negative effect is not easy, no matter who you are. You have to train your mind.

Confrontation matters

The emphasis is on responsibility, and often that means having to make a difficult decision in confronting a player or players not living up to the expectations set in the locker room beyond playing well or not. As a captain, you aren’t there to be loved. You hope to be respected. If you are concerned about being everyone’s friend, you might succeed in that popularity contest, but your team probably won’t be worth a damn.

We saw this recently when Aaron Rodgers publicly called out his receivers after practice.

Now, I get that some saw this as breaking the code, but not me. Guys know Rodgers has earned the right to handle it the way he wants it to be handled, not because of the contract he just received, but because of how he has performed on the field for so long. He knows what good looks like. He knows what it takes. He knows what he expects, and he demands it from those men in the huddle.

Tom Brady does it, too. You see him yelling, but guys believe he has earned that right. And it’s not just the quarterbacks. Antonio Brown brings some flash and an end zone dance or two, but he is the hardest-working wide receiver on his team. He knows the standard of what he needs to do to prepare himself to be among the game’s best. Guys see that.

The biggest thing: You don’t have to be the loudest. No joke, the loudest guys are often among the worst leaders I have seen. They think their voice is a substitute for the work, but it just isn’t. Nobody wants a hype man.

Pushing buttons and taking heat

You have to understand how to be effective, how to connect to certain players. Every player on a team responds differently. One of the reasons Bill Parcells was arguably the best coach there ever was in turning around losing organizations was that he understood how to push the right buttons.

It is easy to watch Parcells’ clips and believe he led with fear or intimidation, but he also understood how to get you to believe. He coached you hard every day. He was a master psychologist and knew exactly what was necessary to prepare his team for the boxing match come game day. You could feel he cared about you as a player. It is an art form.

Then there’s dealing with criticism. Recently, Jalen Ramsey lit up a number of quarterbacks in an interview, including Eli Manning. I actually have no issue with a player expressing himself, but it also puts a target on his back. As for Manning — he showed why he’s a leader. He had fun with it.