How Good Teams Become Great

Foreign. Let's talk about how good teams become great. Perfect example, this past weekend, John Fox, head coach, NFL coach, Denver Broncos, got fired. And he'd been the coach for about four years, had gotten them in the playoffs, they'd won division championships, even got them to the Super Bowl. But when they got to the super bowl, even with legendary hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning, they got slaughtered. And so, see, this is really the story of a guy named John Elway. John started out in his life, very super talented, very desirable quarterback at a high school, went into college, Stanford, Got drafted by Baltimore, didn't want to play in Baltimore. Big brouhaha. Got. Went to Denver. So he moved up. Now he's. He won championships. He was used to being All Star. That stuff didn't make. He wanted championships. This is what he was always interested in. And of course, the team wanted championships, too. So what happened after he goes to Denver? They go to three Super Bowls, okay? And first, when he lost, he lost worse. The second time, third time, slaughtered. Now, you got to look at this third. 32 teams in the NFL, 32 teams playing to make it to the Super Bowl. Obviously, they knew winning. He knew winning. The team knew winning. But there was something they were missing, because when they got to the super bowl, disaster. So with that in his background, this became a very raw deal for him. Great. To go to the super bowl, but to get killed three times, not good. Embarrassing, humiliating. The whole world stops to watch the super bowl, and it's like, please don't go again. But what happens? They earn the right. He's 37 years old, and remember, John wants. He's played his whole thing. He wants the Super Bowl. He knows he's going to the hall of Fame. I mean, he's been a Hall of Fame quarterback since he was in junior high, but he wants championships. That's how you cement your legacy. So here's what happened. They go in and he. They qualify again for the fourth. Their fourth Super Bowl. He's 37. What happens? He calls his mom and his mom, he says, mom, we're going to the Super Bowl. Unbelievable. She said, yeah, you know, I noticed. But, John, do I have to go? His own mom says, do I have to go? Because, John, you were. You know, your tears, you crying, and I just can't see you put yourself through this again. And John says to her, mom, if I don't go, I can't win. Can any of you all relate to that? You've been beat so many times, you're wondering, why should I even Try again. It's because if you don't go, you can't win. He said, mom, if you don't go, you don't. You're going to miss a chance to see me finally win this thing. They not only won the fourth one. The fourth, and he finally won. Unbelievable. But he's got a lifetime of anger and hunger and desire built up. What happened? They went back again, and they won again. They almost never happens. They went back and so he retires. He retires at 38. His body was just beat to death. He retires at 38. Super bowl double champion, MVP. The whole thing solidified his legacy. Here's the thing about Elway, and this is why John Fox got fired. See, John Elway over here, when he started, he was down here. He started out. He wanted Super Bowls. He wanted championships. He tried his entire life where they went up and down, up and up and down. When they finally won it, say four times, they were like, up to the top, got beat up to the top, Got beat up to the top. Finally they went, bam. And then with what he learned, they were able to go start the new year up. And bam, did it again. Got two of them. So now he retired. His father was a football coach. He. His father said, let's buy an arena football team. You know, like a minor league foot team. So they. His father then wound up dying before they could do it. So John buys it when he. But now he's a gentleman. He's an executive. Now, what does John Elway want? Championships, team sport. He don't want to just play. All his life, he's been able to play it at a high level. He wants to win. So he gets into the arena football. See, this was his playing career. Now. Now he's an executive. He's an executive. And in that situation, owner. So what they do, like in, you know, the first year or two, they get out there and they get almost up to the top and they lose. Now, get a load of this. His uncle, who is his father's best friend, was the coach of the team. He had several other relatives with him and personal friends. You know what he did? He fired them. John Fox was just the first one. I mean, these were people. He seasoned you. He see reunions. He'd known all of his life, had known him from the time he was a baby, maybe changed his diapers. But here's what he did. He said, if they're not willing to drive themselves, if they're not good enough, you got to do what it takes. So he Fired them, got in some better people. Guess what happened? They won the Arena Championship. And he said, you know, family's family, friendships is friendships, but I'm doing this to win. People come to the stadium, they don't care if that's my uncle or brother or father in law, you know, running the the team. And you got these blood things. No, they want the team to win. My job is to put a team out there, put them in a position to win. I got to be able to make the tough decisions. So, see, you had this phase of his life. See, what's happened is when he finally got up here, he saw the difference between almost and doing it. He saw the difference here between almost and doing it, winning it. And so now what's happened for the last four years, you know, they got Peyton Manning to come join the team, they got Fox. And so here you have, that team is gone and they've won their champion, won the playoffs, got close finally last year, made the super bowl and then got slaughtered. But now the coach is doing this, like doing a pretty good job again. There's 32 teams. Only two made it up to the Super Bowl. See, you think, like, he would be satisfied. No, because what John Elway wants championships. That's his job. He takes it serious. So they go out this year, they spend free agent money. They, you know, they spend another 20, 30, 40 million getting better players in they go and they go to this. They. They go up this year and they don't even make, you know, they get knocked out. They just got knocked out. They didn't even make it to the Super Bowl. So now they go home. That was last Sunday. What was Sunday was 11th. You go home the next day, he meets with a coach, they have a talk, and he sees something in the coach. He said, this guy never. Now they were. They were close. I mean, they travel the country in the off season, playing golf, going here, going there. They become like brothers. But after the super bowl happened, in the follow up conversation, he found out that guy did not have the same burning desire for championships. He wanted to do a good job, want to have a good team, a good culture, have a great record. But here's what John Elway said in his press conference after firing John Fox. So at the end of the meeting, they said they had. Well, forget fired. I guess they'd say left. You know, mutually decided to leave the Broncos. And as all the sports writers say, whenever they mutually decide to leave, it's that coach and agrees that the owner has decided to fire him. So they mutually agree that it's time for him to leave. But anyway, all right, let's say he didn't get fired. He mutually decided to leave. But why did he leave? Because here's what Elway explained. He said, here's what I found. He said it's one level to go in, like when you start the year and you know you want to go. He said, if you have a winning season, that's one thing, and then go. And if you want to win your division, he, you know, a winning record, more wins than losses, that's one thing. It's another thing to get up where you win your. Your division. It's another thing to win games in the playoff. You know, the Dallas Cowboys, they have won like one playoff game in the last 20 years when they're all excited because they won another one this year, but then they got beat, too, after one playoff game. To win a playoff game and do well in the playoffs, that's good. And then it's another level. He's holding his hand up. He said, now it's another level higher to get up to where you go to the Super Bowl. You're one of those two. See, that's another layer. See, this is really good. Really good. But he said, let me tell you what I've learned. This is what he had learned from all of those experience of going for championships as a player, getting beat three times, going through the last four years. He said, to go from here to actually winning the super bowl, he said, is a huge gap. He said it's not just a little bit more. I'm sure what he picked up out of that meeting with John Fox is that John thought it was just a little bit more and they could have won it. And he wasn't willing to push himself, push the team, make the extra effort or whatever to do this, what it took to win. And so, in spite of how close they were, doing, John, not because he doesn't like John Fox, because he knows what it takes. He's seen it, and he wants to win Super Bowls. He doesn't want to have a winning season, win the division, win the playoffs, get an All Star, everybody pat them on the back, or go to the super bowl, they did that last year and got slaughtered. They want to go and win. Here's what he also said. He said what I want. And this is how you go from good to great, he said. Here's how he analyzes season. We started every year, the last three years. We start strong and we finish weak. What does that mean? Not growing, not improving. So when they get to the final game, they got slaughtered. They got slaughtered Sunday. It wasn't even close. You know, the players were weak, they didn't seem to be making a great effort. End of the year, you should be at your best. And they just kind of limped, limped in there, got trashed. On the other hand, look at what you know, the most consistently high performing team over the last, you know, 10, 15 years there is New England Coach Belichick, however you spell Belichick. Anyway. Bill Belichick. Now here's what happens every season. They did have one almost undefeated season, but here's what they usually do. They usually start the season because they make a lot of changes, bring a lot of new people. When they start the season, they fumble, they stumble, they get a lot of criticism, but every week they improve. You know, they start the season where they win or lose. Like they started this year. They got beat by Miami of all teams, but they get better. See, the thing is, every player, every day, every week you got a 16 week season. The whole idea is not where we are now. Of course you want to win now, but you got to improve. And the emphasis in New England, and this is how you go from good to great, is you're constantly improving. You're improving, every person, every phase, getting better. And so it's not how good they are here, it's how good they're going to be. So if you have 16 weeks of improving, doesn't matter how you're doing when you start the season, it matters how you finish. And guess what? Guess who's still in the playoffs. Four teams left, New England. And the deal is this, if they get in a game, they almost get beat, they're gonna fight. I mean, it's a dog fight. They're not going to be given up and get slaughtered at the end like Denver. So that's why John Fox got fired or mutually, whatever, because he's the leader of the team. And as Elway said, there's such a big difference. It's great. If you want to have a good team, wonderful. You want to make a good income. You know, there's levels of being good. But if you want to be great, if you want to win championships, if you want to be number one, there's a big gap there. And so it comes up, you know, are you willing to fight for it, are you willing to work for it, are you willing to push yourself? And if you as the leader, not willing and don't have your goal, if you don't have a burning desire for greatness to be number one. You're not going to fight, you're not going to work, you're not going to push yourself. And I think when they had that meeting, John Fox and John Elway, John Elway found out John Fox wasn't as bothered by it as he was. He didn't have the burning desire. And so Elway's looking down the road and said, this is two years in a row we've gone out limping, weaker, worse than we started the season. He said, I don't have a guy who's pushing and driving our people to get better, to improve every day. He said. Until we get that, he said, I don't even have to win the super bowl, but I want to be in the game. If we lose, I want somebody to know they were in a fight, a dog fight, they had their hands full. You don't want to be fighting with a fury right to the end. And if someone beats us, they earned it rather than what we've done for the last couple years. So John Fox got mutually whatever you want to go from good to great, it starts with a burning desire to do something great and be willing to push and test and challenge the people around you to pay the price and not be satisfied with just being good and pats on the back and a little plaque every now and then just to be satisfied when you go to the top. That's how good teams become great. John Elway saw it. He learned it painfully. Took his entire career. Took him playing football till he was 37 years old and he never will forget it. Hopefully you can win some championships. Call me. Let me know when you do.