Dawgs By Nature
Despite rumors, the Browns and Kevin Stefanski are tied together thought he culture he’s built
What is a culture? Culture can be defined in many different ways. In sports, having a strong culture is important. Coming from someone who has played football (from HS football all the way to Division 3 college football), I’ve experienced my fair share of being in locker rooms with both good and bad cultures.
It’s been a difficult season for the Cleveland Browns, the team has underachieved as they sit 3-8 considering the expectations they had leading up to the season. Some will blame the majority of the shortcomings on the inept quarterback play (which is fair) but some have thrown blame at the head coach for why the team is where they are.
Head coach Kevin Stefanski has had his share of criticism, some of it’s fair while other times it has been ridiculous. Some Browns fans want Stefanski fired this season for many reasons.
Notice how I put one of the bullet points in bold. Stefanski has been questioned by many fans for not building a culture conducive to the team’s success. It’s a disingenuous argument and I am not the only one that believes this. If for some reason Cleveland was to fire Stefanski, not only would it be a bad move but you would be destroying something he has built:
A culture that’s stable and competent.
What defines a culture?
Kansas City Chiefs. Baltimore Ravens. San Francisco 49ers. What do these teams have in common? Strong, stable team cultures. What has Cleveland lacked since the team has returned? You guessed it. A Strong, stable team culture.
Cultures aren’t defined by just wins and losses. There are more components to it. These three things come to mind for me:
Has Stefanski built a culture with the Browns?
As mentioned earlier, many fans want Stefanski to be fired because he hasn’t built a culture conducive to the team’s success. Let’s hear about this narrative from a national perspective:
I ask this question? Is Ross Tucker lying about this? Go back to last Thursday night when the Browns played divisional rival, the Pittsburgh Steelers. Everyone watched that game, and everyone saw how the team played.
Considering how they collapsed late against the New Orleans Saints, they could’ve easily not shown up that night.
They didn’t.
We all saw a team, sitting at 2-8 with nothing to play for at this point go out and battle. Guys competed, uplifted, and showed energy and passion which the team has shown this season (just not consistently). If you don’t believe me this clip embodies it:
Tucker also agrees.
Remove the wins and losses for one minute. Stefanski has built a culture that Cleveland has lacked for quite some time. Stability. Resilience. Stefanski didn’t win coach of the year last year by accident, he won...
