A NFL Coaches Guide To Changing a Culture

How does Ron Rivera really change the culture in Washington? How do NFL coaches in general go about it?

It's been done recently with startling efficiency. Sean McVay cleaned up the Los Angeles Rams and put them on a temporary rocket ship to success, winning the division title in his first year and then making it to the Super Bowl the year after that.

Remember McVay Washington Football fans? The one that got away.

A coach that Rivera is more than familiar with, because he helped groom him is Sean McDermott, who has turned around the Buffalo Bills with a couple of playoff appearances in the last three years after an 18-year drought.

Conor Orr of The MMQB has his five easy steps to flipping the script in any situation.

So you just became an NFL head coach and want to change the culture? Follow these 5 easy steps and before you know it...POOF! https://t.co/RppkH7jAfM
— Conor Orr (@ConorOrr) September 1, 2020

Orr starts with something that Rivera has already done in immediately releasing Derrius Guice upon official charges after he managed to sucker the entire fan base.

Rivera went 2-for-2 on Orr's list with the removal of the silly ping-pong table in the locker room, an almost immediate change.

As for No. 3 on Orr's tongue-and-cheek list, I can't say that Rivera has exactly regressed into his past while acting like 'wild out-of-date mentors of your childhood', but Rivera often brings up his love for this area and what attracted him to this crazy as bleep environment.

No. 4 on Orr's tip sheet was to share a bagel with a 'geriatric veteran' from the past to 'legitimize the operation.' Look I have no idea if Rivera and Thomas Davis are having breakfast together, but I do know that Davis is the classic definition of what Orr is getting at here.

The final key was to "alienate a high-profile player who you cannot cut and hold him as an example."

Hmmm...

I don't know if anything that Rivera has done so far in Washington would qualify as this. Sean Davis doesn't count. If Adrian Peterson gets benched, that would probably be it.

In my very unofficial count, so far Rivera has accomplished three-out-of-five on Orr's comprehensive list with the possibility of going to an 80% clip (4/5) at some point in the season.

As we discussed in this SI.com video with Robin Lundberg in this video, we've heard about culture change and we've talked about Rivera's culture club often here, but I've now seen evidence of what we've heard so much about.

Good luck, Ron. Coaching football might be the easiest task on his list.

Chris Russell is the Publisher of this site, a part of SI.com. He can be heard on 106.7 The FAN in the Washington D.C. area and world-wide on Radio.com. Chris also hosts the "Locked on Washington Football Team" Podcast and can be read via subscription to Warpath Magazine. You can e-mail Chris at russellmania09@Gmail.com or follow him on Twitter at @Russellmania621