Oh no, there seems to be some unrest and fighting amongst the Kansas City locker room as some of the defensive and offensive players had to be pulled apart. While Andy Fantuz tried to avoid some of these issues, he wants to try bring about some peace and understanding within the locker room to help them both on and off the field. One of the sticking points between the two that arises is the recent play between the two groups as they both feel the other could be doing better. Andy Fantuz suggest holding a meeting between some of the offensive and defensive captains in order to hash out some of their differences and to open up an opportunity for dialogue and conversation about what should happen and how each respective group thinks. One of the teammates that Fantuz would go to for some guidance and help is their quarterback Gimmy, who is a send down and has been the focal point of this team this season through his strong play and leadership. While addressing some of the key members of the team is important, it is also equally as important to address the whole team in such a situation because if you don't the issues will continue to exist and can even morph into bigger problems and fights in the future.
A fight between teammates is a pretty normal occurrence, especially if you think about the sheer amount of time the players spend with one another. Between practice, film room, game days, and other charity or non-football related events that go on, most players end up seeing their co-workers on the grid iron more than their actual families, which is more or less how many teams become as close as families. And anyone with a big enough family can tell you that brothers and sisters do one thing better than anyone else, and that's fight when there's competition involved. Being a rookie on the Yeti certainly put Cole in an awkward position when he was approached to help resolve a conflict that sprang up during a live hitting session in practice as he thought one of the more established veterans and leaders of the team should be the one to speak up about appropriate behavior on and off the field. But alas it was no one else but him who was asked to set things straight, and he decided the best approach would be to address the whole locker room at the start of the next practice. He brought up the incident that occurred the previous day and mentioned the players by name, but also that it wasn't the first time that something like this had happened when things got heated during drills. The drills and practice were designed to help make each other better, and the team only hurts itself when it starts to fight among themselves.
Its been a very emotional year for the 2-10 Bondi Beach Bucaneers. We've had people get upset at one another, coaches frustrated with results, some players just leaving the locker room completely to never be heard from again. Needless to say there has been some conflict within the somber locker room. Being a newbie on the team it was hard for me to adjust and find my place to speak seeing as that some of these players have been here for a few years and many are wanting to just abandon ship and start from scratch. I remember one incident very clearly. It was just after a horrendous loss to the Birdogs where we lost by almost 3 touchdowns and on the way to the locker room one of the locker room staff made a joke at our quarterback, Dexter Zayrlen, saying something along the lines that he could be a better QB for the team. Dexter had a really rough game throwing 3 interceptions, but our young wide outs are still learning and our line is also still struggling to find chemistry. Anyway enough was enough and Dexter lashed out and threw some Gatorade jugs at the poor staff. I see both sides of the story but in the end the issue wasnt Dex vs the young staff member it was us vs ourselves and what our expectations are for the team. We can't win every game we just need to try our best to develop together and we'll get them next year.
06-23-2021, 10:06 AM (This post was last modified: 06-24-2021, 05:05 PM by Drizzy.)
Consdierng that he is known to so many as such an aggressive and powerful player on the fied, you know that an argument would have to get really heated for anyone to look at Marcus Jones as the man to come in and split things up. Perhaps all the tequila and cocaine in Tijuana pushes people's tempers to an extent we've never really seen before, but who knows what the exact detail behind it is. If it was the case that Marcus was called in to separate a fight and get things back to normal, he would probably just physically separate the players involved and threaten to beat the shit out of them if they didn't calm down. It's the most effective method of conflict resolution and definitely one that has a proven track history of working in a wide range of situations. Because of Marcus' status on the team and the way that he fucks up his opponents, the guys would definitely take note and no way do they try anything like that again in future unless they fancy the same kind of humiliation for a second time. There's not many situations that can't be resolved in this way, and maybe the fact that his team know that this is an option means that there's never many arguments in Tijuana
I feel this depends on the fight, really. Was it that it came to blows? I mean, that's a bit far but it also happens sometimes. Often in sports that actually makes you respect them a bit more, maybe even brings them together a bit. It could be a good thing.
Let's assume that it's the example I have recently seen in Tijuana. We were having what some people call a spirited debate when they don't want to go too far, and it was really obvious there was a correct side in all of it -- mine. So to handle it, obviously, I would have us get together and I would order something like Panda Express per se and watch as they begrundgingly ate it because they're good people and don't want food to go to waste.
Now if it's something that happened on the field, that can be a whole different story. If we see two teammates fighting during practice, the initial response is typically to try and 'break it up.' However, it could be good to let them get that out a bit. Everybody will get frustrated, we spend more time with our team than we do our families considering practices and games and flights and hotels and everything. If we're to expect nothing to ever bother anybody, then we're living in a utopia.
Thankfully, we don't. Instead, let them get that frustration out a bit. Step in when it's getting a bit too far, or if one has an obvious upper hand. Break them up, talk to both sides and ask what the issue is to them. Ultimately, we have sports psychologists for this kind of reason, to help us better handle these issues. We can get into a room, talk it out and probably come to a conclusion that can leave both parties either satisfied or unsatisfied -- but equally so!
There are so many ways to handle conflict in what is our work environment. I have no fear over a little fight, but I do fear it festering into more and so an open discussion with all the cards on the table is guaranteed once the two have had some time to settle down and calm their minds a bit.
When team chemistry is high, and everything is running smooth you can often see that in resulting in wins and team success. A well-oiled machine will still have its kinks the longer it works. So expecting tension on a team is to be expected. The management of this tension and the outlets provided for this is what makes a good team great. I see this issue being broke down into 3 different steps. Preventative, adjustments, and overhaul.
1. Preventative for me is team building activities and allowing different platforms for discussion. This allows for issues to be brought to attention rather than players bottling up their complaints and just exploding at some point.
2. Adjustments – This is where the coaching staff has noticed the players have not taking the opportunities to bring their issues into discussions and have started creating tension between players. At this point the coaches evaluate the situation and strategically place these players vs each other in varies drills and competition to allow for a natural release of some of the anger and tension. This often leads to some of the best competitions in practices. If you are going to complain about someone you better be able to beat them.
3. If the in-practice competitions no longer work. A coach will take aside the 2 players along with the team captain to discuss the matters at hand. I hope at this point the players will realize that the proper conflict resolution was not taken advantage of and this is the last effort before severe changes must take place. My team along with my coaches would prefer great team chemistry vs a great player / athlete. If the conflict cannot be resolved one or both of the players would be removed from the team to regain a conflict free team. I'll assure you the treat of being removed from a winning team is more than enough for players to find any way to fix the conflict and move on.