If you have been following Dan Campbell since the day he was hired as head coach of the Detroit Lions, you are well aware of the fact that he is going to tell you exactly how it is and he is not remotely interested in trying to sugarcoat a turd.
Campbell is all about being accountable for his actions and that is also something he expects (demands) from each and every one of his players.
In the world of professional (and even amateur) sports, you often hear head coaches and players making excuses for why they lost a game. “We just got unlucky” or “If the referees would have made the correct call” are two of the most common excuses that are thrown out by losers.
Detroit Lions HC Dan Campbell will not stand for excuses
But Dan Campbell recently told Peter King of Football Morning in America that he is not about to make excuses for a loss and he does not want to hear it from anyone in the Lions’ organization.
Campbell brought up what happened during the Lions’ last-second 19-17 loss against the Baltimore Ravens. You know, the one where it looked like the Lions were going to escape with a 17-16 win before Justin Tucker blasted an NFL record, 66-yard field goal to silence Ford Field.
“So Baltimore, what I want to get across is that stuff, ‘Ah, the ref should’ve stopped it, the play clock ran out,’ it’s all irrelevant. What matters is we lost. We caused that. They earned it. We didn’t earn it. We had them exactly where we wanted. We had a sack. The clock’s running. We got them in the fourth down and forever. They executed, and we didn’t. I think those things are important. We don’t want guys that have excuses. We don’t want to talk about excuses. We don’t want to talk about ‘we got screwed.’ To me, winners find a way to win.”
Dan Campbell knows that once the final seconds run off the clock and the game is over, the game is OVER and the outcome will not be changed. To make excuses and to say, “what if” is a complete waste of energy.
