Ron Rivera reportedly gave an incredibly inspiring speech at practice on Thursday
In a wild offseason where there are about 20 different things that you could say about the Washington Football Team, the word that has meant the most for the team and the new coaching staff to focus on ‘culture.’
It’s been preached over and over by Ron Rivera, and the players have come out and said first hand that the culture that’s being built in the franchise now is one that matters and something that can last for years and decades into the future. Another instance of culture-building came on Thursday in Washington, when Rivera addressed the team in person for the first time with everyone together. According to Washington WR Terry McLaurin, it was extremely powerful.
“He hit us with a pretty big message this morning,” McLaurin told reporters Thursday. “Not to get all the way into it, but just the way that we come out onto the field every day is something that we can control. Our attitude, our preparation and our effort are some things we can control on a day-to-day basis, and we’re going to be a physical football team that attacks people on both sides of the ball, and it starts out front with our offensive and defensive line.”
With the number of distractions that have taken place off of the field so far this offseason, it would be understandable for much of that to seep into the locker room and affect the players, and the product on the field, but McLaurin knows that Rivera is not the type of coach to let that happen.
“That’s what you want to hear out of a coach,” McLaurin said. “That’s kind of what I’ve been accustomed to with my background with football, just that attack style of play. I think it’s going to suit us well as long as everyone continues to do what we’ve been doing so far, allowing ourselves to be coached and continue working to be better. I feel like we can make the strides necessary to be ready for Week 1.”
Rivera can talk his talk and walk his walk all he wants in Washington, but it won’t mean anything unless the players buy-in from the jump. They got the chance to start that strong on Thursday, and hopefully it will continue into the regular season.
