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At the Jets recent minicamp, Aaron Glenn was asked about about leadership, and who stood out to him as a good leader during his Jets playing days. Glenn played for the Jets from 1994-2001 after joining the team as a first-round pick out of Texas A@M.
“Oh, that was easy. I mean Ronnie Lott was a guy that, I mean not being with him and seeing how he operated and then getting a chance to have a locker right next to him and seeing how he operated, and listen, back then it was totally different. So, when you had injuries, some of the things that I saw him do was just, I don’t know if I’d have done that (laughter), but he was the real deal,” Glenn said.
“Boomer Esiason was another guy, James Hasty was another guy, man Johnny Johnson. I can go down the line of the guys that I looked up to here, being here, who I thought really showed leadership skills. And even then, I really didn’t know what a leader was or leadership was, but as I go back and think about how those guys operated, I mean I thought Ronnie Lott was one of the guys that, to this day, I would say, ‘Yeah, this guy’s a leader,’ because of his influence.”
The Lott thing is interesting.
Because while he’s one of the greatest safeties of all time, he came to the Jets at the end of his career, and wasn’t the same player as he was during his prime.
And older Jets fans out there will remember that linebacker Mo Lewis, a man of few words, in 1995, the year after Lott’s two-year stint ended, spoke his mind about Lott’s leadership with the Jets.
Lewis essentially said Lott’s speeches fell on deaf ears because he wasn’t a great player anymore.
“It’s a different type of leadership from last year, when you had guys who were in the league for a while and tried to force what they learned on you,” Lewis said. “Rah-rah in the locker room, beating your head against the wall . . . I’m not for big speeches, grabbing guys together and saying, ‘Hey, we gotta get it done. “Hell, we’re paid professionals. If you can’t get it done, get out of here.
“I would never bad-mouth Ronnie, but when you’re trying to build a team with people past their prime, other guys say, ‘I’m not going to let him come in here and talk to me like that,’ ” Lewis said. “They say, ‘He’s had his glory, he’s done his time, what can he do for us?” ‘ We had a lot of problems with that.”
This is a very important lesson about leadership in sports – if you aren’t playing well, your speeches will fall on deaf ears.
That is why you typically need your best players and performers to be your leaders.
Late last year, seeing some of the players giving speeches to the team before games was illustrative of that club’s leadership problem.
An example was before a December game last year, journeyman safety Jalin Mills rallied the troops before the game.
It’s possible that not all the players even knew who he was. He signed during the season and was on his fourth team. He’s an okay NFL player, but not a standout.
Speeches can ring hollow when they come from players not playing well or journeymen in-season additions.
You need your best players, most consistent performers, to be your leaders.
When guys like Ray Lewis in Baltimore and Tom Brady in New England gave pregame speeches, they worked. They were great players and great leaders. Their leadership connected with their teammates on a high level.
That is why, with all the talk this off-season about Glenn challenging linebackers Jamien Sherwood and Quincy Williams to be better leaders, if that is going to work, they need to play better in pass coverage.
So while there is no doubt that Lott helped Glenn as a rookie in 1994 with some valuable tips about playing in the NFL, his leadership clearly didn’t work with other teammates, because he wasn’t playing well.
Bottom line – you can’t lead well as a player unless you are playing on a high level.
June 18, 2025
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