Team culture

It’s been a tough football season so far for my Washington Huskies and an incredibly one for my San Francisco 49ers. It’s been an interesting tale of two cultures and teams.

My Huskies had a weird offseason with our Head Coach seemingly looking for ways to get out of Seattle. He flirted with the UCLA, Michigan, and Florida jobs, and got none of them. Then our “star” QB hopped into the transfer portal only to be brought back because of a contract he signed.

My worst fear was that the locker room had been lost and he players weren’t going to respond well to either of those. At the half way point of the season, it seems that things have gone worse than even what I thought was possible. We are simply too talented to be 3-3 and the coach has lost the locker room.

On the other end of the spectrum, the 49ers also had a weird offseason. Our head coach got into a car accident and was absent a lot of training camp. Injuries and jokes about the substation causing those injuries were everywhere. But the team has excelled all expectations and is currently the Super Bowl favorites and undefeated after a big win against rival Seattle on Sunday.

It’s clearly a tale of two cultures and locker rooms. One in the Huskies where there is no team chemistry when your coach and QB, two of the highest paid people in the building wants to leave. The other side with the 49ers shows a team that clearly loves playing with each other. They seem to be playing with a chip on their shoulders. The way they hit sand played on Sunday with unsung rookies making huge plays shows that type of culture in that locker room.

As a big sports guy, I’ve always tried to bring that locker room team mentality to work. There’s a lot of lessons to be learned here, but chiefly amongst them is that if someone doesn’t want to be here, it’s not worth it no matter how talented they are.