Send 'em packing - why Belichick was right
by MaPatsFan on Dec 11, 2009 8:29 AM EST
in Opinion/Analysis
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PrintNot unlike Bill Belichick, I manage people for a living. Well, it's not a pro football franchise and I don't have a boat and millions... you get the point. Like Bill, I deal with performance issues, family problems, strange requests, and motivational stuff. Sometimes it's a lot of work to keep the ship sailing smoothly and sometimes it's not. When you have key people on your team who are mature and lead by example, it makes a manager's job that much easier. And sometimes you have problems.
I've seen it time and time again. Many managers are not professional managers. That is, they didn't STUDY to be a manager. In the environment I work in, a large Fortune 50 company, people rise to the top in a technical ladder and are then "promoted" to manager; the thinking is if they can build widgets really well, they can manage people to build widgets. If the newly minted manager doesn't take some sort of management training, the percentages are rather high that they will fail miserably. Why? Because managing people is less about keeping track of all the tasks they're doing and more about leading them.
One of the hardest skills to learn is delivering negative feedback. Very few people thrive on confrontation; most times we shy away from it, but if you don't do it in a timely manner, it can fester. Such is the case with the Adalius Thomas, Randy Moss, Gary Guyton, and Derrick Burgess. The transgression was slight - missing an 8am meeting on Wednesday morning by minutes. Some have stated a fine would be more appropriate, that taking 4 key players out of practice for a day is actually punishing the remaining players. Those "some" are wrong, IMO.
As I mentioned above, things have a way of festering, of spreading like a bad cold. A manager needs to nip these things in the bud quickly. Why? Because others notice. You may not think they do, but they most definitely notice. First, they feel like they're commitment matters, that showing up early for a meeting is recognized as a good behavior. People will respond to that and continue that behavior. Second, and most importantly, it sets a tone. It sets a tone of what is tolerated and what is not allowed. By publicly flogging a few, the many quickly realize what's acceptable. Most of the time, they will elevate their performance as a response.
Hunger, fire, whatever you want to call it, is a carefully cultivated asset; it's an intangible that is so important to an organization. Like a campfire, it takes work to keep the embers glowing and the fire roaring. Sometimes you need to discard that "green" piece of wood that's dulling the fire, robbing the nice, seasoned pieces. Sometimes you need to send a message. Sometimes you need to raise the bar.
Bill was right. Let something like that go and it festers, spreading to the rest. Set a tone and those that are smart enough to hear it will learn. Others will not. And they'll be gone.
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You make good points MaPatsFan
yet I would be concerned about Thomas point about management not caring.
As he said separately to Albert Breer, “I mean, I could’ve been in a ditch. They really don’t give a damn. Hey, as long as you aren’t in that meeting, they really don’t give a (bleep).”
This is the exact same tone Kris Jenkins struck with the Panthers leading to his trade. If the team thinks those in the invory tower look at them as numbers it can fester as you say. There are times you have to show understanding…like when there is a blizzard! Who can predict the weather? It sounds like an ass thing to do on the surface, just saying…;) Bill might need to smooth things over before Sunday…
I blog the Carolina Panthers at www.catscratchreader.com
I'm guessing you've never lived in New England
First of all, that was a “blizzard” only if you have no experience with snow. In reality, that was a run-of-the-mill hard snowstorm of the sort we get around here at least a couple times a winter. It’s not that big a deal as long as you don’t do anything stupid, like try to commute in the same amount of time as you normally do.
Everyone here — everyone — knows you leave home early in bad weather. And so everyone here knows that Thomas complaining that “they really don’t give a damn” is bull. The truth is that management expects the players to do what anyone else with a job has to do — get up earlier and leave the house earlier to make sure they get to work on time.
I manage a division of a small to medium sized company in the Boston area. Not one of my people was late to work on Wednesday. In fact, the vast majority were 30-45 minutes early. And they had to commute in the same bad weather as Thomas, and I would bet Thomas has a vehicle better equipped to deal with heavy snow than most of my people. If they all made it on time, and most of them early, he has no excuse.
And frankly, if he wants to force a trade, he’s welcome to it as far as I’m concerned. He’s acting like a prima donna, and you might put up with that from a player who produces, but he’s been horrible this year and hasn’t lived up to his contract since he’s been here. If he wants out, I’m sure Belichick can find a linebacker on someone’s practice squad who can duplicate his production this year.
Great points RSNexile
I live in Minnesota, and people that commute from 100 miles away made it in on time. My people were all in to work on time. The people that weren’t were the people we have issues with anyway.
As someone put it so eloquently on CSR, there are three kinds of people:
1. Those that bring something to the table.
2. Those that bring nothing to the table.
3. Those that take things from the table.
Only group number 3 were late where I work. Half the vehicles in the parking lot are 4 wheel drive, and you can call anybody and get a ride. It just part of the “we’re all stuck with the weather” mentality.
This wasn’t about fixing the people that were late. This was about sending a message to the other people.
My life has been a trivial pursuit. Trivia: where three roads meet.
The more you know, the more you know that you don't know.
by SlotMachinePlayer on Dec 11, 2009 10:43 AM EST up reply actions
I liked that analogy too
Is Thomas truly the malcontent?
I blog the Carolina Panthers at www.catscratchreader.com
He has been this year.
In 2007, when they were winning every game, he was a model citizen. Across from Vrabel, he was contributing (6.5 sacks vs 12.5 for Vrabel).
In 2008, he was injured for much of the season but still got 5 sacks.
In 2009, he hasn’t done much (he has 3 sacks and no motivation).
My life has been a trivial pursuit. Trivia: where three roads meet.
The more you know, the more you know that you don't know.
by SlotMachinePlayer on Dec 11, 2009 11:30 AM EST up reply actions
Chris Gasper had a good point about the "malcontents" in the locker room.
He said something to the effect of there being too many Hessians on the team, and not enough leaders and carriers of the ‘Patriot way’. The turnover might have been too drastic this off-season, especially on defense.
Keep the faith!
No...never been in the NE for winter
In SC just the mention of snow sends everyone into a panic (and a beeline to the store causing a run on milk and Budweiser products). If that storm happened in Charlotte the only Panther on time would be FB Brad Hoover, being the WCU redneck he is.
It’s not that big a deal as long as you don’t do anything stupid
Remember who we are talking about here, NFL players. Not too many Rhodes Scholars in there, prima donnas yes…
I blog the Carolina Panthers at www.catscratchreader.com
It's also not so simple as "they were a few minutes late"
1) They knew the coaches were demanding extra this week. In that context, on time is late. If the first meeting of the day was at 8, they should have been in at 7.
2) Two of the players who were late have sucked this year despite being expected to play key roles on the team. If they have any pride in their work at all — if it’s not just about ego and the huge paycheck — they ought to be at work early every day. And they ought to be staying late every day.
3) People in New England who do their jobs like professionals know that when the weather forecast is bad, you have to leave home earlier than normal to get to work on time. They know that traffic will be backed up, the roads will be slick, they won’t be able to drive as fast as they normally do, and it will take longer to get to work. They account for that and leave home early enough to ensure that they’ll get to work by the time they need to be there.
Whick two players are you referring too?
Thomas? Who else?
I blog the Carolina Panthers at www.catscratchreader.com
Derrick Burgess
Another Non-pass rusher.
My life has been a trivial pursuit. Trivia: where three roads meet.
The more you know, the more you know that you don't know.
by SlotMachinePlayer on Dec 11, 2009 11:31 AM EST up reply actions
yeah but...
I can almost give Burgess a pass on this one for the tardiness (not the suckiness he has displayed this season). This is Burgess’ first NE snow storm, so i can cut him some slack for not figuring out the code and knowing he had to leave significantly earlier to make it in on time. Also, the reason I am willing to give him a pass is his response… he didn’t say anything, he took the hit on the chin, and I can bet you he won’t be late again.
Now if only he could perform up to standards as well…
He was with the Eagles from 2001-2004
Philadelphia isn’t exactly tropical. It may not be New England, but they get snowstorms. He doesn’t get a pass for lateness.
But he also doesn’t get the disgust so many of us feel for Thomas because he didn’t react like a petulant infant.
I'm also a manager
and I agree with a fair number of elements in this thread, but I also disagree in some respects. I wasn’t in New England, so I don’t know to what extent the storm really hindered the players or if it was just an excuse. From my perspective, that the rest of the team made it on time and these guys didn’t reflects poorly on those players.
However, if there was an extenuating circumstance that would have been impossible to anticipate within reason (due to the weather or otherwise), I feel those players should at least have been given the opportunity to explain that before being dismissed for the day. Maybe a plow crashed and blocked their driveway, or a family member was in an accident. Perhaps the players were given this opportunity, and the explanation didn’t pass muster, or the players have a history of being late and negligent. In that case, sending them home is appropriate. But managing on an absolute, with no room for flexibility, can be as dangerous as allowing bad attitudes or lax work ethic to foster.
As far as sending messages and treating everyone equally, I agree in principle that it would be wonderful if the rules were the same for everyone. And that it is, unequivocally, fair and just to apply the same discipline to your biggest stars as it is to the guys at risk of getting cut (whether in the football locker room or in a corporate workplace). It’s a fundamental issue of right vs. wrong that we learn from childhood on up.
The reality is that this principle is not applied unilaterally. Any workplace is rife with inequity, and no set of rules can fully shield that from your workers. Not to take anything away from guys like Tom and Wes, but I’m sure there are at least a few other guys on the roster who work even harder than they do and have an even better attitude towards the game and its preparation. Ask the practice squad guys in any organization what they game means to them, and how hard they work for just the chance to get on the field for a play or two on Sunday, and you’ll be stunned at how bad they want it. Those guys, based on their skills, are still not paid a salary that even remotely approaches Brady’s.
Part of being a good manager, beyond inspiring and tracking productivity, is recognizing the makeup of the talents and personalities on your teams and making sure your systems and processes enable them to be the most productive. And there are certain people, in any industry, who have the talent to do things other people can’t. Knowing how much to accomodate these “stars” is a fine line to tread as a manager; there are cases where transgressions are severe enough that the negative impact on other workers morale/productivity outweighs their contribution, in other cases the transgression (and the impact it has in terms of setting an example) is slight enough that it gets overlooked. Where tardiness ranks on this varies from organization to organization.
Again, I’m not saying Bill was wrong in this case. I don’t know the full story. And I think there have been a lot of very solid, smart contributions to this thread. But I do also think that managing a large team involves some amount of recognition that the individual parts aren’t perfectly interchangeable; every decision you make is a balancing act with ramifications beyond the immediate situation. People don’t always fit as easily into the 3 categories (bring to the table, nothing to the table, take from the table); I’d argue that many of even the best workers fit into 1 and 3 simultaneously, and knowing where the scale tips is crucial to maintaining a strong synergy of happiness, productivity, and discipline.
Well said
But managing on an absolute, with no room for flexibility, can be as dangerous as allowing bad attitudes or lax work ethic to foster.
We all appreciate it when someone cuts us slack for good cause. Maybe it wasn’t good cause in this example, but comments and the associated attitude expressed by Thomas can spread to other players if not addressed by Management. I still think to this day the reason Julius Peppers wants to leave the Panthers is because of the way Panther management responded (or failed to respond) to the Jenkins complaints. Jenkins and Pep played side-by-side for several seasons and were/are good friends.
I blog the Carolina Panthers at www.catscratchreader.com
Cutting slack for a good cause
is different than those who for instance “work from home” every Friday. Talk about a morale-buster to the schmucks who make it in to a half-empty office that day every week. You better believe the players who made it in were watching to see what Belichick would do to the late-comers.
Keep the faith!
Exactly
Besides which, I’m pretty sure Belichick would have cut them some slack had there actually been extenuating circumstances. But everyone else was there on time, including Tom Brady, whose son was just born the day before. If he could be there on time, why couldn’t these guys?
And then you have Thomas turn around and say he was late because of traffic and bad weather. But again, everyone else in the area had to cope with traffic and bad weather too. Professionals don’t get to work late because of the kind of traffic and bad weather we had on Wednesday.
How much snow did you get?
We had around 8 – 12 inches, but it was blowing so bad that there were places with no snow and places with four foot drifts (like my driveway).
My life has been a trivial pursuit. Trivia: where three roads meet.
The more you know, the more you know that you don't know.
by SlotMachinePlayer on Dec 11, 2009 3:48 PM EST up reply actions
We had nowhere near that much
We got a few inches. No big deal.
I got married in January (won't tell what year)
and my best man was a military buddy from Georgia.
He called from Indiana to say he was snowed in and wouldn’t be able to make it.
I asked how much snow was on the road. He said about an inch.
I told him that cars still worked in an inch of snow, and I-74 would be clear.
He drove in for the wedding, but he told me it was “white knuckle” all the way.
Everybody thought that was funny. I took my driver test (my Dad made me) in a storm that was worse than that. Life goes on.
He’s great. He has more common sense than anyone I know. He wants to bring his Georgia Boy Scouts up to Minnesota in the winter so they can see some real snow.
My life has been a trivial pursuit. Trivia: where three roads meet.
The more you know, the more you know that you don't know.
by SlotMachinePlayer on Dec 11, 2009 4:41 PM EST up reply actions
I know what you mean
I grew up in rural Wisconsin. I know from snow. Anything less than a foot isn’t worth talking about, and anything less than two feet is barely worth a mention.
sure
And as I mentioned, Belichick may have very well been right in this individual case. As more details come out, it looks like he indeed was. Hopefully it was because he did know that there were no extenuating circumstances, rather than guessing and being correct about their absence.
I just wanted to make the larger point, that a manger’s responsibility isn’t to just always impose a concrete set of rules and be done with it, and that there is a responsibility to evaluate and understand the situations of the people he or she is working with before taking action in different situations — it seemed like that was getting lost in some of the discussion.
I have never saw snow
I live in Orlando, Born in boston, but have not remembered any snow other than a winter break visit to see my cousins.
Adalius Thomas lives in North Attleboro
and depending on which end of town, he is 3-5 miles from Gillette Stadium straight up route 1. Belichick reminded the players that this is New England in December, to plan accordingly, and an 8am meeting means an 8am meeting. Thomas and the others didn’t get their sorry arses out of bed and out of their homes early enough, plain and simple.
Keep the faith!
He lives 5 miles away?
Okay…maybe it was a reasonable expectation and response. If its usually a 10 minute drive but today it took 20, then he is at fault.
I blog the Carolina Panthers at www.catscratchreader.com
I've never even seen snow on flat land, let alone a snowstorm
but even if they were otherwise held up by circumstances, surely they could call ahead? Just like anyone who’s going to be late for work would do in any other job.
I remember stories about Bill letting off senior players who’ve had unforeseen circumstances remove them from training – in fact, I believe Adalius Thomas missed a week of training either last year or the year before for family reasons, and wasn’t punished by Hoodie. The difference is that Thomas asked permission beforehand – this year, presumably he didn’t ask for foregiveness in advance.
Token southern hemisphere guy - 14,688km from Foxboro. That's 9128 miles, for you heathens.
by Comedic.Sans on Dec 11, 2009 6:06 PM EST up reply actions
Discipline
Discipline has its appropriate applications in any organization. The performance of the New England Patriots in recent weeks has been dissapointing at best. This is certainly not a time to overlook flagrant trangressions of authority. Coach Belichick was holding a meeting at 8:00 AM and team members were expected to be in attendance. Nine minutes or even one hour tardy is irrelevant to the argument. The weather is also irrelevant to the argument.
However, discipline is relevant to this football team and perhaps this team is lacking the aforementioned in some respects. Speaking of respect, it is also disrespectful for a player to arrive late for a Coach Belichick meeting. End of story!
A noteworthy quote from the movie “Platoon” seems applicable in this instance. Tom Berenger explains within the context of his character in the movie: “When the machine breaks down, we all break down and I can’t let that happen.” Perhaps Coach Belichick is making a similar statement by his utilization and public display of discipline.
Dahlialama
there's a lot of epeen going on
about how NE folks all know how to handle snow commutes. Yet there were 4 wrecks on the side of the road when I went in on wednesday ….
You call that snow? You had it easy! Why in my day we had to walk 20 miles in a blizzard to school every day from November 1 to March 15 and make sure we arrived 20 minutes early to just to have time to thaw out before they called attendance!
Oh yeah? That’s nothing! When I was a kid our father would purposely take the battery out of the car to protect it from the cold. He would then get in the car without putting the batteryb back in and make all of us kids get out and push it 10 miles through 40 inches of heavy, wet freezing snow all the way to school THIRTY minutes early so he had time to push start the car for his ride back in case the battery didn’t start it.
Pushed a car through a little snow? You were lucky! In my day, it was the last major Ice Age. Everyday we would have to chip through 40 feet of reforming ice that surrounded our house in order to reach top of the glacier. From there, our father made us pull the dog sled 50 miles across the ice to school to which we were always late so he would beat us and make us immediately drag him all the way back home, which had moved inside the glacier, forcing us to chip and dig again with our bare hands, bleeding to the bone, until we found it again.
Pshaw! What an easy life ….
You joke...
…but I went to grad school at the University of Wisconsin. The way the campus is laid out, everything really is uphill both ways!
I've been to UofWisc campus.
Its a freakin’ tropical paradise!
You spoiled kids – don’t know what a hard life is!
And did you check the license plates on those wrecks?
Tens of thousands of cars, four wrecks — and I guarantee you at least one of them had New York plates.
but the problem is, those four MFNYers
put the delay on for thousands of fine New Englanders….
I like the message sent by BB
I dont care about the right or wrongs, but the message he sent! NO MORE B – S! Lets do it men!
Jack of all trades-Master of None.....
by Yardpenalty.com on Dec 11, 2009 7:28 PM EST reply actions
This was about getting their attention to do their jobs.
Not only on the field, but off of it as well. Plain and simple, end of discussion. If the team was 10-2 instead of 7-5 and lost 2 games in a row since time out of mind, there probably would have been a little leeway, but Belichick drew the line in the sand. This is really the first time there has been any real discord in the team in a while, including last year’s loss of TB. BB wants to find out who wants to be here and who doesn’t. AT won’t be here next season. I’d be willing to bet on it. I was excited when they signed him, but have been sorely disappointed since.
It’s about getting back to basic BB Patriot football. The entire team seems to have forgotten the mantra “Do Your Job”. BB is trying to get them to wake up and smell the coffee; It’s my way or the highway.
"Pain heals. Chicks dig scars. Glory...lasts forever."-Shane Falco, "The Replacements"
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