Raheem Just Went All Hank Stram On Us
November 05, 2009 at 10:26am by Scott • 7 Comments »
And not in the “Hall of Fame coach” way. Raheem Morris just instituted a dress code for showing up to games.
Raheem’s new team policy is players must wear suits to games. No more t-shirts and baggy jeans.
This was a common policy in the 1960s and 1970s. Vince Lombardi did it. “A game day is a business day,” he said. Hank Stram did it. I’m pretty sure Tom Landry did it. And, I’ll be honest with you, there is something to the “dress for success” philosophy, at least for me. If I am dressed like a pig, I am less motivated to get out and do productive things. But if I take the time to get dressed properly, I get more done.
But, see, the difference is that I’m wearing those clothes all day. The players who show up to the stadium get out of their clothes and put on an actual UNIFORM to work in. And that uniform that has to conform to a very strict dress code — a code they get fined thousands of dollars for breaking. I can’t imagine what difference it’s going to make for the players to show up to the stadium in suits. Public perception? Barely anyone sees them when they pull into the stadium. This looks like just another one of those “tough guy” changes Raheem is making to make it look like he has some level of control over this team or to make him seem old school. Everybody accused him of being soft because he was young and wanted to be known as a player’s coach. But that isn’t working, so now he’s doing the opposite. But this isn’t the way to do it.
George Allen had a sign on his desk when he was with the Redskins. Paraphrased, it said, “Is what you are doing right now helping the Redskins win?” I don’t think this change helps the Buccaneers win.
elsewhere:
Watching:
Reading:
Listening to:
Listening to right now:
Twitter Update:
7 Comments to “Raheem Just Went All Hank Stram On Us”
forthntwint (November 05, 2009 at 11:05am) :
JUST FIRE HIM PLZ…IT’S NOT THE CLOTHES THAT MAKE YOU SUCK IT’S YOU.
PeaceDog5294 (November 05, 2009 at 11:28am) :
Maybe if they all wear tuxedos they’ll score an extra 3 points?
Louie (November 05, 2009 at 01:20pm) :
If he had instituted the dress code from day one, I would have thought it was OK. But, why now? This is like busy work. It’s not going to have any effect on the scoreboard. If by some miracle they win, do you think they’ll say it was because of the dress code?
This will just give Talib one more apportunity to screw up.
Slow Joe (November 05, 2009 at 02:28pm) :
Remember how the XFL started losing more and more credibility because they kept making changes to the rules as the year went on? That’s what this and many of Morris’ decisions remind me of.
Morris would engender a lot more confidence in the team if he made a plan and stuck to it, the way Dungy did. All these changes smack of Morris being unsure of himself.
wordy_sanchez (November 05, 2009 at 05:27pm) :
:: yaaawn ::
I listened to him for a while on the WDAE call in show and while I don’t think I personally dislike him, he just seems out of his depth. I’m trying to wrap my head around whether ownerslook at what Tomlin did @ Pittsburgh and think that its an EASY thing to do. If they do think that you can just jack any ol’ position coach into the captain’s chair and take home a Lombardi trophy then I guess I feel like they’re giving short shrift to the extraordinary leadership Tomlin has. I mean… that literally says it, he was extraordinary. Uncommon.
JScott (November 05, 2009 at 08:51pm) :
I’m not ready to throw him under the bus, but between this nonsense and the puppetry that took place when the Glazers called him and made him play Freeman, I’ve lost a little respect for him…
Mark S (November 06, 2009 at 07:41am) :
I lived in the DC area or 23 years and for all of the Joe Gibbs first era. One year the players decided to re-emphasize commitment by wearing battle fatigues. The entire team dressed in battle fatigues for the Dallas road game. They beat Dallas and kept wearing the fatigues. I throw this out there just to show that there is a possibility of a pre-game activity influencing play. But note that it was instituted by the players and the fatigues sent the message we are going to war. In today’s world with a real war going on it would not be politically correct to wear battle fatigues.
Comment on this post:
You must be logged in to post a comment.