NFL Oakland Raiders

Oakland Raiders Interim HC Tony Sparano Quickly Forging Connections To Team

Fresh Videos

By @Kevin_Saito

Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

Call it hokey. Call it campy. Call it cheesy. You could certainly call Oakland Raiders interim HC Tony Sparano burying the football — thereby presumably burying the team’s 0-4 start along with it — many different things, and you wouldn’t be wrong. Granted, it wasn’t the most original gimmick around — both New England Patriots HC Bill Belichick and New York Jets HC Rex Ryan pulled the same stunt — but you can’t say Sparano didn’t give it the old college try.

Original or not, though, what Sparano did with the football gimmick was to rapidly begin forging a connection between himself and his team. And the early results have been encouraging. One thing that was glaringly obvious over the last couple of seasons is the fact that the Raiders, for whatever reason, never seemed very connected to former HC Dennis Allen. From the things they said — and didn’t say — as well as from their play on the field, it seems clear that the team never bought into Allen’s program, his way of doing things or in him as the head coach.

The early days of Sparano’s tenure have been marked with acts heavy in symbolism, such as the burying of the football and internal shake-ups like moving the locker room around. He’s instilling his philosophies and coaching style in speeding up practices and rearranging the week’s practice and meeting schedules. Thus far, Sparano has seemed to do everything he can to distance himself from the first four weeks of misery and put his own stamp on the club.

Sparano has also attempted to bring inspiration and encouragement to his team in the form of DE LaMarr Woodley, who addressed his teammates and related the story of how his Pittsburgh Steelers — just last season — started the year 0-4 before rebounding to finish a more respectable 8-8, narrowly missing the playoffs. Though it’s obviously too early to tell whether or not Sparano’s efforts will help yield any wins or whether the Raiders will be able to rebound like Woodley’s Steeler’s squad, it’s clear that he is forging connections to his team in a way his predecessor was never able to. He believes he’s lit a fire under the players, and so far, they seem to be buying in. DT Antonio Smith, in an article that appeared on ESPN.com, had this to say:

“His message, and his key thing he wants to do for us is to see us smile out there and win on Sunday, said that’s his main job. You can’t do anything but respect that, because that is a wonderful thing in this game. Winning is a wonderful thing, and to see the faces of the men you bleed and sweat with every day, with those smiles on their faces, it’s something that’s unbelievable. When he said that, it kind of lit a spark in my heart. I think that energy, that energy that he brings even when he’s just talking, addressing the team, it just commands a presence, like a respect.”

Sparano has addressed the team’s strengths, as well as their weaknesses, their good points and their bad points. And he hasn’t sugarcoated a thing in what he’s seen. Among the veterans, there has been tremendous support for Sparano, for the changes he’s making in the culture that exists in the locker room, for the energy he brings to the team and for his commitment to winning and turning the franchise’s season around. The ultimate test of course, in determining just how far the team is buying into what Sparano is preaching, will come on Sundays in how they perform on the field.

While motivational gimmicks like burying a football might not win a lot of games on its own, having a team really respond and find a motivation that has been lacking thus far very well might. We’ll know more as the rest of the season unfolds, and while a playoff berth might not be very realistic at this point, Sparano and the Raiders can still salvage some respectability out of the wreckage of the first four weeks of the season.

Kevin Saito is a fiction writer, sports junkie, history nerd, and NFL contributor to www.RantSports.com Follow him on Twitter, Facebook, or on Google

Share Tweet
Trending Now on