A Different Look At Losing

Does your team always seem to have an injury problem? Does your team always seem to draft or sign the wrong players? Does your team always lose? Most people blame these things on team management, coaches, or just bad luck. It may go much deeper though. You always hear about teams being celebrated or criticized for their coaching hires, trades, and free agent signings. Those don’t always produce winning results though. I firmly believe professional organizations need to hold their athletic training staff and scouting department more accountable. You never hear about a team making changes to the athletic training staff or scouting department. Think about how important those two are though.

The athletic training staff assists with injury prevention, injury recovery, medical history, etc. If this part of the team is inadequate, players will miss games and have shorter careers, which leads to losing in most cases. The scouting department is just as if not more important. They lend their voices to drafting players out of college and signing free agents from other teams. If their scouting reports are wrong, it leads to players being ineffective and being considered busts.

It’s easy to blame problems on the general manager, coaches, or players, but really look at a team’s problems. You’ll find that things are not always as they appear on the surface. Most losing franchises have an organizational problem. Everyone in the company needs to be evaluated.