Jason Avant writes on NFL Locker Room Behaviors

Submitted by JeepinBen on

As a good follow up to discussions in this thread: http://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/michigan-man-jason-avant-acting-partpeter-king-article-nfl-standards where Peter King quotes Jason Avant on behavior in NFL locker rooms, Jason wrote his own article for Peter's site the MMQB:

http://mmqb.si.com/2014/02/18/jason-avant-eagles-ted-wells-report-locker-room-culture/

I wonder if Michigan Football has more of an "orientation" for freshmen now than they did back when Jason started, but this is an interesting read none the less:

 

I began playing football my sophomore year of high school in Chicago. I got pretty good pretty quickly, and by senior year I was the top recruit in the state of Illinois. That’s when I noticed people started treating me differently. One day I was just a regular person. Now I was kind of given this position of power. Students, staff members and teachers looked at me in a different way. They kind of winked at my mistakes, instead of trying to correct me. That’s part of the problem: too much empowerment without proving we’ve earned it. A lot of players aren’t used to being held accountable. The other part is of the problem is a lack of education about diversity and tolerance.
I think back to my freshman year at Michigan, and what it’s like at pretty much any college program. In high school you’re with kids from the same town who are a lot like you. In college all of the sudden your locker room is filled with guys from every background—a guy from inner-city Bronx, another one from the backwoods of Iowa, a guy whose parents were nourishing, a guy with gang issues, a guy who is very religious. You put us all in the locker room and expect us to get along with each other. Yet there’s no orientation, and barely any discussion of it. That’s why a lot of times you see the black kids sitting on one end of the lunch room and the white kids on the other.
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JeepinBen

February 18th, 2014 at 1:42 PM ^

Actually, thinking about what Jason said with regards to orienting oneself to the team, I have to think that social media helps players make the transition. Between recruiting, more open lines of communication, the camp circuit, and the earlier people are committing I think there's a lot better chance to develop relationships between all the players as they enter ann arbor than there would have been 10 years ago when Jason was going through this. While there will still be differences between the inner-city Bronx kids and those who grew up in Iowa, Junior Day, SMSB, etc. I think couldn't help but bridge that gap.

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LSAClassOf2000

February 18th, 2014 at 1:43 PM ^

"There need to be mandatory workshops and programs. Maybe it’s at OTAs, or in training camp, but it has to be for everyone—whether it’s Peyton Manning or the bottom guy who is playing special teams and barely making the game-day roster. Education needs to be across the board, and consistent. That’s the only way we will respect it."

Totally agree that the education needs to be consistent and mandatory for everyone who is likely to see playing time, whether they are drafted or not. Even making a minor change like that - making it a required training if you're on a roster - can potentially go a long way. It would be interesting to see an equivalent of this at the college level too, although I am not sure quite what it would look like, but it seems there could be an upside given what Avant has said. 

It's interesting really - we do this in the corporate world, particularly here in the regulated world where many positions have required training when you hire in and then continuous training throughout yout career (recertifications, refreshers, etc...). The NFL could benefit from building something similar perhaps. 

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JeepinBen

February 18th, 2014 at 1:49 PM ^

I'm kind of surprised that there isn't a football orientation already. We had quite a few orientation type things at Michigan when I started in 2005, there was the actual orientation over the summer, as well as welcome programs with your dorm floor, sexual assault training, CTools training, etc.

If there isn't already a freshman football program (tours of various faciliites, academic help, training table, etc) I'd be surprised. They could add to it pretty easily.

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BubbaT33

February 18th, 2014 at 1:52 PM ^

. . . Really!  Not too much to read about.  Would anyone have thought it different than the way he describes it?  It is what it is and I am surprised that it is shocking to anyone!  REALITY CHECK!

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bacon1431

February 18th, 2014 at 2:12 PM ^

Not surprising. I think about how much myself and my worldview changed from the age of 18-22. It didn't change because people were slobbing all over my knob for four years (though that is a common experience for many, I mean it in a figurative way). I just think of all the players with maturity issues in the pros. It's mostly because they're never challenged mentally or socially IMO.

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