Asked Ron Rivera about Eric Bieniemy … pic.twitter.com/vdKy6qMjDu
— Nicki Jhabvala (@NickiJhabvala) August 8, 2023
I’m sorry, I thought this was the NFL. Somewhere along the way, have players become entitled? Thinking they’re too good for some old-fashioned, hard-nosed coaching? You’re finally free from the grimy clutches of Dan Synder and you’re complaining about a coach being too hard on you? Grow up and get hard. There’s a reason this organization hasn’t had a winning season since 2016 when they went 8-7-1. There’s a reason they haven’t made it past the Wild Card round since 2005. What Eric Bienemy did in KC (with Patrick Mahomes, mind you) should be enough to buy in and see where you land. It’s not up to the players to dictate how he does things as long as it translates to wins. If it doesn’t, then that’s a conversation for the new ownership to have. Going to the head coach before preseason Week 1 is jarring and now it’s morphed into a mild distraction. A culture change has been long overdue and you’ve finally got someone trying to streamline that so you don’t get embarrassed again in 2023, take it in stride.
Also, why is Ron Rivera even elaborating on this question in the first place? He doesn’t HAVE to spill the beans on this internal matter. He’s the head coach, he should be protecting his guys and deflecting questions like this that might lure him into saying something dumb. It was a relatively harmless prompt, but he decided to diarrhea it all out for the world to see. This is where Bill Belichick is the unequivocal master of the podium – releasing as little information as humanly possible with his trademark lackadaisical, robotic delivery.
Sometimes things are simply best left unsaid. This really wasn’t something that the media needed to know heading into Week 1 of the preseason, but I guess “Riverboat Ron” isn’t known for biting his tongue. He bragged about winning the division with a 7-9 record in 2020, a super-rare feat that’s only happened three times ever. It should be noted that he also managed to pull this off as head coach of the Panthers in 2014, so he’s responsible for two of those three unsavory accomplishments. Not exactly something to be overly proud of. Ron Rivera might just be the king of doing the absolute bare minimum en route to winning shitty divisions with a losing record.
Okay but seriously, how soft are these Commanders players? We’re talking about NFL athletes complaining to their head coach about how intense the offensive coordinator is. They’re “concerned”. They’re acting like legitimate scorned high schoolers, telling on a coach for being too mean and having their parents intervene. Ron Rivera could’ve avoided airing it out but the fact the players are coming to him about this in the first place has to be a big concern if you’re a Commanders fan as it begs the question: Are the Commanders softer than high schoolers?
Back in my day as a football player (high school), we ran gassers if we botched an assignment. It’s pretty simple. Coaches weren’t particularly nice when it happened but you don’t see us crying about it. Sure, lots of times the dipshits and stoners were the ones doing most of the running, but anyone could get it.
Not to unearth the “glory days” material but in my glory days, I was a middle linebacker (no big deal). Needless to say, I had *responsibilities*. I loved the pop of the pads and a good form tackle had me moist beyond belief. Leader of the defense if you can believe that much. Now, I wasn’t traditionally “fast” or “strong” so I had to rely on my brain to get by. I was in the business of taking elite angles and assaulting people’s kneecaps, and business was good. I also used to point and yell stuff, so people respected me and knew I was about that life.
There was a standard to meet – oh yes, there was a standard. Missed gap coverage, fumbled snap, bad read, missed tackle, lack of hustle… whatever it might’ve been, we were running. At the very least, depending on the coach’s mood, we were doing it until we got it right and practice would drag out even longer. The point is we were in high school and our coaches were demanding whatever perfection looked like for us, even at that level. Them big-titted county boys were cornbread strong and anything less than our best wasn’t gonna be good enough to handle their sweaty wishbone backfield on a Friday night. There was always one or two guys on most teams that were getting lightly recruited by Tennessee or some other D-I program that we had to prepare for. It was epic, straight out of “Friday Night Lights”. We shoulda took state.
Granted, I was a bit of a legend back then but even still, if I wasn’t meeting expectations they’d make me run. I wasn’t above that. With great power comes great responsibility (-Spiderman). There was also extra running after practice with burpees and hills mixed in if you were especially shitty. They called them “county fairs” where I’m from and I had to do several of them when I was spotted drinking beers at one of my friends’ older sister’s wedding. A lot of the coaches were in attendance and I thought they were chill. I caught a nice buzz as an 18-year-old but then on Monday after practice they punished me for being out in public and drinking beers, underaged, in plain sight. As it turns out, this is frowned upon and many in the community saw me pounding suds as a high school senior. Some would say I forced their hand, so I accepted the extra conditioning that the coaches told me I had to do. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger (-unknown). To make matters worse, our practice field became a dusty wasteland throughout the season and the heat + the dust made me cough a LOT. Later that night, I puked up a blue Powerade from the exhaustion. Pain is just weakness leaving the body (-Vin Diesel).
This is all a long-winded way of saying: Maybe, JUST MAYBE, Eric Bienemy recognized that a change needed to take place and is demanding more from his guys? Maybe he knows there’s only a month before real football kicks off. Maybe he doesn’t want to get humiliated and he’s taking it upon himself to get things running the way he’d like. Weird concept given the fact that this team was run by an actual incompetent scumbag criminal that used his wealth and influence only to fondle cheerleaders and serve fans rotten peanuts, not win games.
On the outside, it sounds like Bienemy is doing his best to shift the culture away from federal investigations and sexual harassment and more toward actual success on the field. Hopefully we see a reformed Commanders team this year that takes the next step and returns to relevance. Or maybe the Commanders squad isn’t ready for that and they’d rather remain a laughing stock. Either way, it’s a bad look for players to be whining about their offensive coordinator’s intensity level during training camp.