They’re not up on a plaque at the team’s training facility in Allen Park just yet, but Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell stressed the four rules he demands of his players.
Campbell laid them out in his press conference at the beginning of Lions training camp on Wednesday morning.
Don’t be late
Keep your weight in check
Don’t disrespect your teammates
Don’t disrespect the game
They’re common-sense rules, though it can be hard for some to remember the common sense in the pressure of training camp and the physical demands of the NFL. It seems the team is off to a good start in following the rules.
Campbell, whose press conference started exactly on time at 8 a.m. to the very second, raved about the physical condition his Lions players arrived in for camp.
“They crushed the conditioning tests,” Campbell said proudly.
It definitely feels like they’re going out of their way to show an “anti-Patricia” training camp.
Not a bad thing, I just hope they’re spending enough time on “being a better football team”.
I don’t think they are intentionally doing it as a reaction to Patricia I just think it speaks to how bad Patricia was and how different things are when you have a staff full of former players vs guys who barely played above pee wee level. It also speaks to how different the Patriot Way is from how NFL players have experienced and see things.
I remember I had a bad boss years ago. I saw on Yahoo someone posted the 6 traits of a good boss - with explanation of what a bad boss looks like by describing the opposite of what the good boss did with that trait. The bad boss descriptions nailed my bad boss in 5 out of the 6. I forwarded it to one of my co-workers and only said “what do you think?” He responded “holy cow the bad boss sounds just like Ryan!!!”
Juxtapose this to Patricia, who liked to chew out reporters for their posture but was routinely late to his press conferences and even to team meetings.
I would revise the the rules to be more encompassing and positively framed (corporate speak?).
Show up mentally ready, physically fit, and on-time
Respect your teammates, coaches, and the game
One thing I find interesting is just how much negative press there is around Patricia. Normally when a coach leaves there is some amount of good and bad. For instance when Fisher left the Rams: Good (motivated defense, caring coach) Bad (no acumen for offense, country club atmosphere)
