It’s a word used at every level of sport. Something teams preach as they try to either improve what is a losing standard or continue winning ways.
Culture.
You have heard it time and again. How important it is to build a successful one. How it can come to define a program. The Las Vegas Raiders are no different. And with a new coach in Klint Kubiak, players are sure theirs is already better than it has been in some time.
Training camp has really just begun, but it’s never too early for a team that won three games last season to search for any level of motivation to cure its ills.
There hasn’t been a player made available this week for media interviews who hasn’t addressed culture and how he believes Kubiak’s approach is more than a positive one.
“We have a professional group of players that care about getting better,” Kubiak said. “We don’t have any turds. We’ve got guys who want to win and want to change this place. I’m really happy about that.”
Good for them. Turds never help. Turds are bad for culture.
Winning helps
I know. Culture has become almost a cliche when it comes to this stuff. Sort of like high school recruits (or transfer portal athletes) who say they signed with a specific college program because it made them feel like family.
Do you know what creates a good culture? Winning games. There’s nothing like it.
But in the meantime, it certainly can’t hurt the Raiders if they believe Kubiak’s outlook and actions and expectations will make them a better team.
Positive attitudes have been known to create better results.
“I don’t want to disparage anybody that has previously been here or any of the cultures or staffs that we’ve had,” punter AJ Cole said. “But it does seem to feel different this time and it does seem to feel like we have a really cohesive buy-in. And I think the number of people swimming in the same direction is at an all-time high.”
Another take from Kubiak: Players define culture. That while it’s talked about in meetings, words are just words. That the most important thing they do is watch tape and discuss what is acceptable and what isn’t. What effort looks like and what it doesn’t. Then, you let players go play and set the standard. That it’s their game and not that of the coaches.
And it has to be that way, especially in football. It’s far too tough a game not to allow those playing it to set wherever culture it is that will define a locker room. Kubiak might lay out what a strong standard looks like, but that doesn’t mean a thing if guys don’t accept and believe it.
“You see your teammates and guys around the locker room buying into what it going on right now to help build this team,” wide receiver Tre Tucker said. “One thousand percent — everyone is the building, from the strength staff to nutrition to athletic training — everyone has 100 percent buy-in.
“That’s what you want. That’s going to help us win games … This is the first year I’ve ever felt it this completely. Hats off to all the people fighting to make this a reality for the Raiders.”
Very efficient
Thomas Booker’s last full training camp came with the Philadelphia Eagles, the defensive tackle traded to the Raiders last August. But he has seen enough of how Kubiak runs the program to know it has more than a puncher’s chance of succeeding.
How many wins that will translate to is anyone’s guess, but it’s a start. And when you’re coming off three of them, that’s really all you can ask for at this point.
“Everything is so efficient here,” Booker said. “From period-to-period, individuals, team-to-team, 7-on-7, special teams periods … it all goes so quickly and feels so efficient. It feels intentional. It feels purposeful. And obviously physical.
“Accountability. No matter who you are, no matter how much money you are making, whether you’re a 1, 2 or 3, (Kubiak) is big on accountability. That builds the foundation of a team to be successful. The guys know the standards. Everyone is being held to them. There are no questions. There’s no gray area.”
And, thankfully, no turds.
Ed Graney, a Sigma Delta Chi Award winner for sports column writing, can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com. Follow @edgraney on X.
