– A football team’s “culture” and how to recognize it?
I always go back to the famous definition of pornography offered in 1964 by Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart: “I know it when I see it.”
My modern-day sports-related spin on that? “I’ll know it after I see the team win.”
The Dallas Cowboys have hired coach Brian Schottenheimer to run this team and to fix its problems – which, maybe for the first time, includes a self-admission about “culture.”
COO Stephen Jones put it into words for us the other day when he said, frankly, “We have a good culture. But we don’t have a ‘championship culture.”
I don’t know what a “good culture” is.
I do know what a “championship culture” is: It’s a team that can make that claim only after it wins.
Therefore, it’s impossible to know if a) Dallas is sincere about making changes in its “culture” and b) if Dallas, if indeed it is sincere, has any idea what to change.
Lift more weights? Firm up curfews? More pats on the butt? More kicks in the butt? More inspirational slogans on T-shirts? Who knows?
Notably, asked how he hopes to be remembered as the Cowboys coach, “Schotty” said the boldest of things.
“A champion,” he said. “And builder of one of the greatest cultures the sport has ever seen.”
That’s … lofty.
Schottenheimer, Stephen Jones and Will McClay have all in recent days talked of an “aligned vision” on the management side.
“Obviously,” Jones conceded, “we hadn’t gotten it right in quite some time because at the end of the day our goals [are] what our fans want, which is we want to win playoff games, we want to win championships, we want to win Super Bowls.”
This is powerful stuff. And the Cowboys fan base would love to be able to trust the feeling that maybe the Cowboys have recognized their shortcomings and are, indeed, trying to implement change.
So, the Dallas Cowboys need to fix the “culture.” And maybe they will, something we will be excited to recognize and acknowledge …
After Schottenheimer’s Cowboys win a playoff game or two.