That's not been my experience playing sports, the players are every bit as responsible for setting the "culture" as the head coach. These are grown men we are talking about, not some high school or college kids where a dominant head coach may set the culture and the players have to fall in line. In the NFL, your team captains are the ones who players respect in the locker room. The fact that the team captain role was taken away from Hill I think says a lot. He's going to have to earn back the respect of the players after what happened at the end of last year and he knows that as much as anyone. I personally was glad to see Tua say that it was still a work in progress when asked about it earlier this year and this decision reemphasizes it and I actually think Hill may have gotten the message. I'm sure it is still a work in progress and only time will tell, but I think some progress has been made, not just in the captains selected but also in who has left the team and who has joined. There was a commitment this offseason to getting in football players and not just "athletes". It's a step in the right direction for McDaniel, Grier and the team in my humble opinion.
I think all of the Team Captains this season are seen as team-first, me-second, actions louder than words players.
It's a big contrast from Hill, Ramsey & Poyer mouthing off how good and how tough they were before last season, and delivering close to, if not, career lows on (and off) the field.
In our local professional leagues some teams carry a "no dickheads policy". This seems to be the first move towards something like that.
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