01-13-2022, 09:51 AM
(01-13-2022, 09:42 AM)pally Wrote: One of the reasons I’ve supported Zac was because it was obvious when listening to the players that he had not lost the locker room despite the losses. I’ve heard players giving lip service support to their coaches and that’s not what these guys were doing. These guys were genuinely supportive of Zac. When I saw all the back stabbing going on with Urban Meyer all I could think was no one on the Bengals did that even when their record was that bad. People who didn’t want to buy in are gone unlike in the Marvin years where they hung around setting up a two tier systems. We all heard the stories about people half assing it at practice or sleeping through meetings and sloppy play reflected that. Not saying that they weren’t good players still but that they weren’t all in on changing the Cincinnati culture. The players Zac has selected have led what he’s been trying to do. How many of the current players resumes open with “former team captain” or “coach’s kid”? It takes guts to reject a potentially really good player because they were looking like locker room poison.
We’re having fun because for the first time in a long time the team is having fun. Every time you see the players interact it is easy to see they actually like each other and are not just co workers. There have been lots of interviews these past several weeks with former coaches and players. To a man, they are all saying this team is different from those other teams of the past. They have confidence, swag, joy to go along with talent. We are heading into this game, as fans, thinking our team CAN win. I don’t think any of us, including the team, thought that in any of those 5 straight playoff appearances.
I love this feeling. I love the excitement. I love the real hope. I love the belief. I don’t want it to end.
This is exactly right. For the last two years I got barraged for supporting Zac with his horrible record. But I could listen to his vision, and see that he was working toward that with the players he drafted and brought in. He told us his plan from the beginning. His players love and respect him, and I think he feels the same way about them. I don't get the feeling there is even one player on the roster who is mailing it in to get a paycheck. No more taking plays off. No more divas. No more back biting when a play goes wrong. No more locker room distractions. Players performing their roles, whether that be holding a run lane instead of going for a sack or making a downfield block instead of catching the ball, and then celebrating their teammates making the play instead of worrying about their own stats. This team is the very definition of a team.
