Ron Rivera is taking a page out of Bill Belichick’s book of coaching.
Following the embarrassing and humiliating 40-20 loss to the Bears last Thursday, Rivera had a new sign placed in the Commanders’ locker room.
When players, coaches, and trainers walk into the locker room this is now the first thing they see. In all caps, it reads, “DO YOUR JOB”.
Rivera, in his fourth season with Washington, has yet to have a winning season. The result of looking at the Bears game film, Rivera felt like “sometimes the obvious needs to be said.”
Many close followers of the NFL will recall the 2014 New England Patriots documentary of the team’s season. The chief narrative of the season had become, for players, coaches, trainers and personnel, “Do your job.”
Belichick is seen early in the video proclaiming to all within his hearing distance, “There is no shortcut to being in condition, no shortcut to being mentally tough.”
There is no question who has been in charge in New England running the Patriots. Yet, what is shown in the documentary is how Belichick is quite demanding of his staff, insisting they do their job. He admits he makes mistakes and is quicker to see the mistakes of other people and not his own. Thus he, too, needs his assistants not merely nodding their heads but being in Belichick’s ear with observations and suggestions.
The Commanders won their first two games, and excitement was tremendously increasing in the DMV. However, excitement and quick starts don’t get it done in the NFL.
Consequently, the Commanders are in the midst of a three-game losing streak. It would be part of our fallen human nature to succumb to the easiest option… to point fingers. To see the faults other players and coaches are making.
Rivera certainly knows this and has no doubt, to some degree, witnessed this in the NFL. Rivera began playing in the NFL in 1984 and began coaching in the league in 1997.
During that 2014 season, the Patriots played a road Monday Night game at Kansas City and were soundly defeated 41-14. The motto became, “Do your job,” and the Patriots regained their focus, won the division, defeated the Ravens and Colts in the playoffs and then the Seahawks in the Super Bowl.
Looks like Ron Rivera watched and liked the 2014 story of the New England Patriots, “Do Your Job.”