While the Washington Redskins newest coach, Ron Rivera, has been highly active in his first week with the team when it comes to filling out his coaching staff, he also made a statement in the early days of his tenure by removing the ping pong table from the Redskins’ locker room.
The table, which many of the players used to blow off steam in between meetings or practices, was removed so that the team would be able to further eliminate distractions and focus more on football. While this is probably a good thing for many of the players on the roster, there are a few — mainly the special teams players — who might now be looking for a new way to pass the time.
“That was kind of our time-passer, that sort of thing,” long snapper Nick Sundberg said, via NBC Sports Washington. “We used it to compete with each other and try to get better; me and Hop would always try to beat Tress because he’s so dang good. But I can’t argue with Coach Rivera. I think if that’s something that he thinks is going to make a difference, then I’m on board, 100 percent. I’m hoping maybe someday we can earn it back.”
It’s possible that the team will start to show improvement now that fun and games are eliminated from the locker room; it’s also possible that the ping pong table was never really the issue in the first place. Still, it makes sense that Rivera had to make a culture change on his first day with the team, and the ping pong table was the easy choice. Now the special teams players will have to find something else to do in their downtime.
