Lions Swap Crowd Noise For Music In Practice, Keep Playlists Clean
By Ashley Dunkak
@AshleyDunkak
ALLEN PARK (CBS DETROIT) - Persistent rain pushed practice to the indoor facility for the Detroit Lions on Monday, and the team worked out to some music -- though not necessarily the kind to which many young people often listen.
Head coach Jim Caldwell has veto power.
"Oh yeah," he said with a smile. "Absolutely."
In accordance with the NFL's policy on language, Caldwell makes sure the selection of music is appropriate. The mandate extends not just to the practice field, where the team is observed during the preseason, but even to the locker room.
"Anywhere in this building, we try to make certain that we keep it clean," Caldwell said. "I think that's the atmosphere we should have. It's a workplace, and it should be conducive to anybody and everybody. We have men and women working in this building, and music is overheard everywhere, so we try to make sure that we stay in line."
The players can pick the songs, or at least suggest them, but the choices are vetted before anything goes out through the speakers.
"We do allow them to bring in playlists, but [senior director of player development] Galen [Duncan] will work with them and they'll put together playlists and things of that nature," Caldwell said. "We don't play anything that's not clean, that's for sure. These guys listen to a lot of different music than we listened to in the past, but I also remember my mother talking about some artists that we used to listen to that she didn't care for back in our day, too. It hasn't changed that much, to be honest with you."
Though the mood in practice seemed light, particularly with some players bopping around to the beat of the music, Caldwell said the purpose behind the music is purely distraction -- just a departure from the same old crowd noise.
"Everybody kind of used to get bored with crowd noise that was a bunch of yelling and screaming and all that kind of stuff and you really couldn't make hide nor hair of it, but it did obviously create some distraction for you," Caldwell said. "We're trying to do the same thing, basically, with the music. One day in here we had a Motown session. We use different music to try to accomplish the same thing. What we're trying to do is simulate crowd noise, so they can't hear, they have to communicate a lot louder with one another, and it just so happens if there's something that they like, they seem to catch the rhythm of it."
Caldwell emphasized, however, that any enjoyment players get from music during practice is secondary; the idea is to give them a better representation of the environments in which they will play on Sundays.
Whether songs make practice fun, he said, is beside the point.
"I've never ever even thought about that part of it because this is work," Caldwell said. "This is a business. I don't really care if the mood is light, to be honest with you. I'm more interested in results, getting our guys ready. I don't think they hired me to be a social director, you know, in that sense. What we try to do is just work. Along the way if we can adjust and maybe play some music that they may have a sense of understanding as opposed to a bunch of crowd noise, we'll do that."
The coach did agree, however, that there was a cheerfulness to practice, but he thought it had little to do with the tunes.
"These guys love being around each other," Caldwell said. "That's what you're seeing. That's what you're sensing. You sense the mood is light because they're galvanizing, they're gravitating toward each other. And it's not anything that's orchestrated. It's not anything that I'm doing. It's them, and as you can see, they enjoy one another, they enjoy what they're doing. They're optimistic about where they are, and they have a good feel about them. That's the thing that you're sensing, and hopefully that keeps going.
"When you have good morale, you can accomplish anything and at this stage of the game, these guys have great morale," Caldwell continued. "Here's the real key -- whether or not we can have great morale when things get tough. That's the real key, whether or not these guys will have the kind of resilience after disappointment. In this league, there's always going to be some disappointment, so right around the corner, sometimes the next day or the next minute, depending on the scenario. But overall, I think these guys have shown that they've got the zest and zeal to get that done, so it'll be interesting to see what happens when things get just a little tough."
Center Dominic Raiola said at least one of the songs Monday was his pick -- maybe the whole playlist -- and he seemed to think the music added at least at little bit to the atmosphere of practice.
"That was sweet, wasn't it?" Raiola said with a grin. "Puts a little extra pep in your step, I guess. Dealing with the noise, concentrating, and it's fun, same time you're getting work done but creates a fun atmosphere."
