Content available exclusively for subscribers
He made news last week by saying this . . .
“In my opinion, 32 coaches stand in front of their teams every year, talk about winning a championship and then realistically there’s maybe six or eight teams that have an actual chance to do it, and I do think we are one of those teams,” Robert Saleh said last week. “But none of it matters unless we take care of it today.”
As we mentioned on Friday, former NFL executive, Mike Lombardi, who worked for Bill Belichick in New England, for Bill Walsh in San Francisco and for Al Davis in Oakland, wasn’t totally comfortable with this quote. Here is more of what he said on VSIN about Saleh’s quote that garnered so much attention:
“Becoming a champion is an evolution,” Lombardi said. “It takes day after day after day. It doesn’t take, ‘See, we are there already.’ See, subliminally, to the players, you get the sense, “Oh, we’re there – everyone just look to Aaron (Rodgers) to make a play. Well, we’ve got Aaron Rodgers, we are going to win.’ Well, that’s not really how it goes.
“The Jets are a good team, I’m not arguing that, but the Jets have to be taught how to be a great team. I think that is the job of the head coach.
“I think, to me, one of the things that affect teams is the ability of the leader to lead, and I just see Saleh as a guy who doesn’t understand leadership.”
Let me unpack some of this. Let’s start with the end.
I think Saleh does understand leadership. Guys play very hard for him. I just think, perhaps, it’s more of a messaging issue from time to time, which is something a lot of young coaches struggle with. You don’t become Bill Parcells, Vince Lombardi or Walsh overnight.
Part of this is the skill of using the media in your stratagem to get messages sent.
“This is a guy who goes into press conferences without a prepared statement, without a prepared plan – he’s just winging it,” Lombardi said.
I have to disagree with the premise that he goes into press conferences and is just “winging it.”
He does prepare. The man is a very hard worker.
However, perhaps, even though he prepares, he needs to borrow from some of the great coach communicators with his media strategy. As Tony Robbins likes to say, “Success leaves clues.”
I’m not going to lie, when he made the comment about “six or eight teams” I was a little surprised and thought, “Why go down that road?”
Maybe I was around Parcells and Bill Belichick too much over the years. Maybe I’m too old school and times have changed, but I’m such a believer in “process thinking” that I don’t understand how you benefit from saying those kinds of things in the spring. Make your next lift in the weight room your best, make your next drill your best. Just focus on what you are doing now, and if you do a great job with that stuff, good things will follow.
Robert kind of said that with the last line of his quote – “None of it matters unless we take care of it today.”
But some would argue that line was watered down by the “six or eight” team part of the quote.
May 29, 2023
Premium will return by May 30, 2023
