The Patriot way
When the
Patriots earned their fourth Lombardi Trophy in February's
Super Bowl XLIX triumph, Griffin personally wasn't as interested in the four quarters against Seattle that led to New England's title -- but instead the Pats' preparations six months earlier.
In August, Griffin's team held joint practices with the
Patriots for three days during training camp. He saw how they did it. He saw what the players did differently -- what
Tom Brady did differently. And he believes other Washington players did, too.
Funny enough, Griffin says despite a nice relationship with Brady over the years, the
Patriotsquarterback declined to provide his
Redskins counterpart any advice or in-practice tips, politely citing "a competitive landscape" when Griffin would inquire. So Brady didn't directly help Griffin. But indirectly ... Well, that's a whole different story.
"What you do learn from watching (Brady) -- and then watching the
Patriots organization -- you get a big-picture look at it," Griffin said. "Man, honestly, they operate like a high school football team. You remember in high school, how the coach calls everybody up, everybody runs up, gets on a knee and looks at the coach like what he is saying is the most important thing in the world? That's how the
Patriots are.
"They're attentive. They run on and off the field. They run after practice. They do what they have to do -- and everyone understands, whether they like it or not, this is what it takes to win championships. And they
won the championship.
"For us to see that, as the
Washington Redskins -- to see exactly where it starts, and then to see the result -- that's big. We can't ignore that. We don't need to mimic them or try to be like them. We need to create our own culture -- but we can learn from some of those things."
So the question for Griffin, of course, is simple: Did he, his teammates and his coaches ever discuss this? Did they collectively embrace how it impacts each of them -- from the attentiveness of the players to the accountability of the coaches? No, he said, in the immediate wake of those practices, they did not.
But it is something, after seeing how it helped lead to football's biggest reward for the
Patriots, that could now have a greater impact one year later as Washington begins work for 2015.
"I know the players saw it," Griffin said. "I know the coaches and everyone in the organization saw it, as well. I hope everyone saw it. I know I learned from it. I really did. And I fully plan to implement some of those things."