This season, the Indianapolis Colts’ culture within the organization was brought to the spotlight, and GM Chris Ballard was asked about it on Friday.
Pat McAfee sharing his thoughts on this year’s Colts drew quite a bit of attention, but an “embarrassing” Week 17 performance against the then two-win Giants, along with players sharing their frustrations with the media being a part of that conversation around the Colts’ culture as well.
“I’ve heard everything that’s been said, especially by ex-players,” said Ballard. “You cannot fool players. You can’t do it. I don’t agree with everything Pat (McAfee) said, I don’t, but there’s some truth to it. You can’t fool players. You can’t do it.”
In regards to some of the speculation around players being late to meetings or missing treatments, Ballard does not have an issue with how head coach Shane Steichen handles any of that. The accountability component is there.
“I know there’s been a lot that’s been said about accountability,” said Ballard. “Let me tell you this, Shane–and I do believe this–does a good job of holding guys accountable.”
However, what does have Ballard frustrated is the voicing of any frustrations to the media. Particularly one player, who remained name-less, for sharing his observations in an article with The Athletic, but did so anonymously and said, “there’s no vision,” here.
“Do I like all the things said in the media and not held internally? No, I don’t,” Ballard said. “And the team heard my thoughts on that. I brought those players into the building–that directly falls on me, without question.
“And the one thing I’ll is, at least all but one put their name on it. The one that didn’t put their name on it, that’s even more damning on me, because that chicken-(expletive) wasn’t man enough to put his name on it. That is losing football. Distractions are losing football.”
In addition to addressing the Colts’ culture, Ballard also said that not not bringing in more outside competition in 2024 was a “mistake.”
Competition, in theory, should elevate the play of a team with each player being pushed and those who are underperforming seeing their playing time reduced.
But in addition to that, there’s value in bringing in players who have won before, particularly for a team like the Colts who don’t have many players with that background.
That could then potentially help with some of the off-field issues the Colts ran into this season. As Ballard referenced, that outside noise was created by players he brought in, and he acknowledged that he didn’t do a good enough job of setting the expectations.
“All the guys we did, they played well and deserved to get second contracts but bringing them all back and expecting them to hold the line of accountability and standards,” Ballard said. “I either didn’t make the message clear enough of what I expected from them and that’s where I have fell short and that’s where change is good.”
However, ultimately, it’s wins and losses that can play the biggest factor in determining a team’s culture.
In a recent meeting, Ballard addressed the team about these issues and challenged them to be a part of solving these problems as they arise rather than further voicing the issue.
“Players in that locker room, they can B.S the media, they can B.S. their family, but they cannot B.S. each other,” Ballard said. “And Pat was on good teams, Pat was a great player, Pat knows what it looks like, so he saw the cracks.
The biggest issue and our players know this because I voiced it, how about solving the problem? Like it’s easy to voice the problem in public, but how being part of solving the problem. That’s what we need.”