04-11-2024, 05:14 PM
(This post was last modified: 04-12-2024, 04:06 PM by xenosthelegend. Edited 1 time in total.)
Oxford, a very well-known sports college, defines locker room culture as "Forms of behaviour that are characteristic of sportsmen within the confines of the changing room or the locker room." I'm here to suggest that altho NOLA has had horrible records my entire time in the ISFL, it has not built up a losing culture within the locker room. We'd obviously have to look towards examples of losing cultures and winning cultures and compare the two. Because I'm not privy to any locker rooms outside my own, I'm going to instead draw upon NFL examples in order to so.
The team I'm most familiar with that has what I'd argue is a winning culture would be the Baltimore Ravens. They're almost always in the playoffs conversation near the end of the year, and have had success in the middle of the Brady/Belichek era. Ed Reed brings up the point of the divide between players and the coaching staff early on into Harbaugh's stint as Head Coach. To not get away from the point; Reed's entire argument was that everyone was there to win a championship. There's no reason to finger point or place blame as long as everyone is holding themselves accountable. And there's no reason to become high and mighty about who's right or wrong. The Ravens continue to choose best player available in the draft, or even trading down for better value. They're always playing the compensatory pick game as well. They're not figured on big splashy moves but will grab a veteran on a discount. Everything is about value and fit.
Compare this to the Browns who seem more focused on dominating narratives as opposed to games and you start to see why these teams are so different at their success. The Browns have made many moves that are questionable not only at the end of the bar but even to the common person. Drafting/Signing based on how hyped a player is is an absolutely devastating thing to do to a team. Personalities conflict, people become more focused on individual stats vs team success, and leaks start to happen everywhere. Versus a team like the Rams who went all-in and not only were and to have success, but able to stretch that out as much as possible as well. Thankfully the ISFL is much more cyclical and geared towards sustainability, so those issues aren't as present.
During my tenure at NOLA, at no point did anyone think this wasn't leading somewhere. It was very much reminiscent of the entire 'Trust the Process' time in Philly. We're bad during the moment, but not only was that expected it even helps us in the draft. We were able to grab key players, and with some amazing drafts recently it almost even looks sustainable. I believe this is why the trades get put under such scrutiny. Like Honolulu this year, everyone knows you're tanking. But you need a foundation to be able to grow on. When swoosh left, it was an apparently huge hit to the team and war room(which I joined only after that trade happened) and because NOLA wasn't really in a position to ask for more draft capital since swoosh would leave that offseason anyways, the optics of it all looked so bad that HO stepped in and made them give up another pick. Inside the war room tho the entire reaction to it only made the team feel more resolute. We felt we did right by swoosh without being unreasonable, and the league even started investigating the team because of the reaction to it. It was hard not to start to develop a persecution complex at this point. Especially since we didn't even have to chance to enjoy wins amongst all this.
From here it looks very dismal to be part of NOLA. But the GMs kept the chat very active still. And remaining focused on our objectives. Toof is obviously very vocal, and was a perfect personality to plug in during our time on the up. He also does a good job keeping us in line. As a GM myself, it was absolutely miserable having to address the team after a loss. Baz' commitment to not only the team but a positive experience should really be commended and I'm almost upset it's contained to our locker room. Also getting old users like Jack Sloth and my London buddy Tom Hanks have sent the locker room to being absolutely hilarious and delirious. Overall, the users have really been the reason I've stayed in my locker rooms. It's going to be hard to not want to prefer NOLA for my next player. And that has to be a sign of a good locker room at the very least. Wherever this team ends up this season, it's been a great ride and I'm glad to have contributed my shitty edits and copypasta to this team. Hopefully this will now be enough money for me to be good the rest of the season.
The team I'm most familiar with that has what I'd argue is a winning culture would be the Baltimore Ravens. They're almost always in the playoffs conversation near the end of the year, and have had success in the middle of the Brady/Belichek era. Ed Reed brings up the point of the divide between players and the coaching staff early on into Harbaugh's stint as Head Coach. To not get away from the point; Reed's entire argument was that everyone was there to win a championship. There's no reason to finger point or place blame as long as everyone is holding themselves accountable. And there's no reason to become high and mighty about who's right or wrong. The Ravens continue to choose best player available in the draft, or even trading down for better value. They're always playing the compensatory pick game as well. They're not figured on big splashy moves but will grab a veteran on a discount. Everything is about value and fit.
Compare this to the Browns who seem more focused on dominating narratives as opposed to games and you start to see why these teams are so different at their success. The Browns have made many moves that are questionable not only at the end of the bar but even to the common person. Drafting/Signing based on how hyped a player is is an absolutely devastating thing to do to a team. Personalities conflict, people become more focused on individual stats vs team success, and leaks start to happen everywhere. Versus a team like the Rams who went all-in and not only were and to have success, but able to stretch that out as much as possible as well. Thankfully the ISFL is much more cyclical and geared towards sustainability, so those issues aren't as present.
During my tenure at NOLA, at no point did anyone think this wasn't leading somewhere. It was very much reminiscent of the entire 'Trust the Process' time in Philly. We're bad during the moment, but not only was that expected it even helps us in the draft. We were able to grab key players, and with some amazing drafts recently it almost even looks sustainable. I believe this is why the trades get put under such scrutiny. Like Honolulu this year, everyone knows you're tanking. But you need a foundation to be able to grow on. When swoosh left, it was an apparently huge hit to the team and war room(which I joined only after that trade happened) and because NOLA wasn't really in a position to ask for more draft capital since swoosh would leave that offseason anyways, the optics of it all looked so bad that HO stepped in and made them give up another pick. Inside the war room tho the entire reaction to it only made the team feel more resolute. We felt we did right by swoosh without being unreasonable, and the league even started investigating the team because of the reaction to it. It was hard not to start to develop a persecution complex at this point. Especially since we didn't even have to chance to enjoy wins amongst all this.
From here it looks very dismal to be part of NOLA. But the GMs kept the chat very active still. And remaining focused on our objectives. Toof is obviously very vocal, and was a perfect personality to plug in during our time on the up. He also does a good job keeping us in line. As a GM myself, it was absolutely miserable having to address the team after a loss. Baz' commitment to not only the team but a positive experience should really be commended and I'm almost upset it's contained to our locker room. Also getting old users like Jack Sloth and my London buddy Tom Hanks have sent the locker room to being absolutely hilarious and delirious. Overall, the users have really been the reason I've stayed in my locker rooms. It's going to be hard to not want to prefer NOLA for my next player. And that has to be a sign of a good locker room at the very least. Wherever this team ends up this season, it's been a great ride and I'm glad to have contributed my shitty edits and copypasta to this team. Hopefully this will now be enough money for me to be good the rest of the season.