A Study in Team Culture

[Dolfanalyst]

Watch the video here again and pay attention to what happens just after the 0:20 mark:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwkpbbM7NRk

Prior to that you have a 3-7 team, again functioning squarely at the level of failure overall, acting like silly clowns after a single win.  At the 0:20 mark you essentially have McDaniel's endorsement of it, where he gestures "in approval" if you will of what's going on there.

Imagine Don Shula coaching a team with a 3-7 record and watching that nonsense ensue in the locker room after a win.  Do you think he'd approve of it and endorse it?  Do you think any of the most successful coaches in the history of the game would?

Your team is 3-7 and acting like silly ass clowns after a single win.  And you're all about it?  That could have -- and should have -- easily been a reality check by the head coach, where he stops and says something along the lines of, "what are you all doing? -- we're 3-7! -- we got a long way to go and a whole lot of work to do before we can celebrate like this."

You don't have to be an asshole to get serious and get the appropriate message across in that context.  But by the same token you also don't have to stand there and essentially approve of clownish nonsense, without giving the team the appropriate reality check.

This is why this team will always have a low ceiling on success as long as McDaniel is its coach.  He simply cannot command and lead the team as a bona fide leader of men would.  Instead he's simply the "lead clown," and the team follows his lead and becomes clowns as well.

Then they look to him for approval and he gives it to them!  Hooray -- we're all part of a circus here.  Let's celebrate!  LOL.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

^^^^ I am guessing you have never played sports at any level. 

They just beat a division rival nobody expected them to beat.   

If this was a scene in the locker room after a loss, I would agree, but they won. 

Celebrate your wins not losses.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHwZj4BCwC0

[Dolfanalyst]

^^^^ I am guessing you have never played sports at any level.

They just beat a division rival nobody expected them to beat.

Likewise the Steelers in the original post had just won a road playoff game as a wildcard underdog.  No clowning.  All business.  On to the next game.  A bigger goal in mind.  Eventual Super Bowl champions:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpOG9K02F_g

Any of them play sports at any level?

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

Likewise the Steelers in the original post had just won a road playoff game as a wildcard underdog.  No clowning.  All business.  On to the next game.  A bigger goal in mind.  Eventual Super Bowl champions:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpOG9K02F_g

Any of them play sports at any level?

Doesn't matter what the Steelers did.  There isn't one way to do something with everything else being wrong. 

[Dolfanalyst]

Doesn't matter what the Steelers did.  There isn't one way to do something with everything else being wrong.  

I haven't said the Steelers' way was right and "everything else is wrong."  I've merely said the one way in which the Dolphins are doing it at present is wrong.

There are lots of ways to do it right other than the way the Steelers did, but the Dolphins way ain't one of them.

I suspect the Patriots 2001-2019 for example did things differently than the Steelers in 2006.  Obviously that way was right.  Again however, the Dolphins' current way is most definitely wrong.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

Are these guys silly clowns?

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/n7hCvCVlWJo

[Dolfanalyst]

Are these guys silly clowns?

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/n7hCvCVlWJo

Are they celebrating a single win that gives them a 3-7 record overall?

If so, yes.

[Spider-Dan]

So it turns out "culture" is just "your W-L record" after all!

Your defense for criticizing Team A but not Team B when they both act silly is that... Team B has a better record!

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

Are they celebrating a single win that gives them a 3-7 record overall?

If so, yes.

So the problem is not the "style" of celebration but that teams without winning records should not celebrate wins. 

While you are free to hold this opinion, it runs contradictory to every sports team I have been a part of.   And it is not an opinion held by most athletes or coaches.   And it is absolutely NOT an analysis of coaching skill. 

[Dolfanalyst]

So it turns out "culture" is just "your W-L record" after all!

A straw man as usual.

Two teams both have 3-7 records.  One celebrates a single win in the way the Dolphins did in the video in the original post.  The other experiences the win like the Steelers did in the video in the original post.  The two teams likely have significantly different cultures, despite having identical records.

[Dolfanalyst]

So the problem is not the "style" of celebration but that teams without winning records should not celebrate wins.

Teams with 3-7 records should celebrate wins like the Steelers celebrated their win in the video in the original post -- with seriousness, drive, and determination to turn their season around.

[Spider-Dan]

You're losing track of your own argument, which is that a culture of silliness cannot lead to "sustained success" (or whatever your goalposts are today).
Yet when you are asked about the team with the best record in the league displaying silliness, you notably do not retreat into the "They haven't proven anything yet" excuse that you deployed after-the-fact when talking about when the 2023 Dolphins were doing well.  No, instead you just point at the standings!

You are conceding that a team with a good record can be as silly as they like without it being an indictment of their culture.
Which undermines the entire point of this thread!

[Dolfanalyst]

You're losing track of your own argument, which is that a culture of silliness cannot lead to "sustained success" (or whatever your goalposts are today).
Yet when you are asked about the team with the best record in the league displaying silliness, you notably do not retreat into the "They haven't proven anything yet" excuse that you deployed after-the-fact when talking about when the 2023 Dolphins were doing well.  No, instead you just point at the standings!

You are conceding that a team with a good record can be as silly as they like without it being an indictment of their culture.
Which undermines the entire point of this thread!

I didn't say anything at all about the Patriots' 2025 culture.  I said a team responding as they did to a single win that gives it a 3-7 record has a dysfunctional culture.

We have no idea how the 2025 Patriots would express themselves in the locker room after a win that made them 3-7.  We know how the Dolphins did however.

Do you spend as much time erecting straw man arguments and putting words in other people's mouths elsewhere in your life as well?

[Spider-Dan]

You deflected the question by referring to the standings, just as you did with the Rams.  And you're still deflecting: you refuse to address the Patriots' clowning around around after their win, with a weak attempt to pivot into "locker room" expression as a distinction for NE's silliness.

So let's get it on the record: can a team with a silly, clownish culture (as the Patriots just displayed after their Big Win at home against a 2-10 Giants team) be successful?  Get your position on the record now, instead of waiting until after a team fails to pop out of hiding and crow about how You Always Knew They Would Lose (as you did in 2023).

[Dolfanalyst]

You deflected the question by referring to the standings, just as you did with the Rams.  And you're still deflecting: you refuse to address the Patriots' clowning around around after their win, with a weak attempt to pivot into "locker room" expression as a distinction for NE's silliness.

Take it out of "the locker room" then.  We have no idea how the 2025 Patriots would respond anywhere after a single win that made them 3-7.  Certainly the video of them provided above doesn't tell us that -- they aren't 3-7.

So let's get it on the record: can a team with a silly, clownish culture (as the Patriots just displayed after their Big Win at home against a 2-10 Giants team) be successful?  Get your position on the record now, instead of waiting until after a team fails to pop out of hiding and crow about how You Always Knew They Would Lose (as you did in 2023).

A team whose culture revolves around silliness and a clown show at the expense of the ingredients endemic to the game of football -- aggression, drive, determination, etc. -- cannot be successful at a high level.