In Week 17, the Indianapolis Colts saw their season come to an end at the hands of the struggling New York Giants. And on Tuesday, we perhaps got a glimpse into why the Colts didn’t come to play in that game.
Shortly after the game, former Indianapolis Colts punter turned ESPN personality Pat McAfee took aim at the Colts organization, blasting their work ethic and effort throughout the season and claiming that players are even being tardy to practices and team meetings.
Perhaps this lack of effort played a role in allowing Drew Lock to have the game of his life against the Colts in a game that most Giants fans didn’t even want their team to win.
On Monday, Colts head coach Shane Steichen was asked about this in his press conference, where he largely absolved Colts players of any responsibility to be on time for team events.
“I think with any team, right, not everyone’s gonna be on time every time, but there is accountability and guys are held to a standard and that is talked about in-house,” Steichen said via James Boyd of The Athletic. “And I don’t think that. And I think, you know, with anything — I think Pat, you know, he’s a former alumni who wants to see the Colts do well, just like all our fans want us to do well, and when the standard is not getting in the playoffs, it’s frustrating. So it’s frustrating for a lot of people, myself included. And that’s where we talked about the standard being raised so we’re not in these situations.”
The problem here of course is that Steichen is just accepting players being tardy as a fact of life instead of making it a point to hold them accountable.
Maybe something is truly being done to reprimand tardy players behind the scenes. But regardless, this kind of comment to the public certainly isn’t the best look.
It certainly lends to McAfee’s original complaint about the team. The bottom line is that if a head coach isn’t going to hold players accountable, how can you expect fellow players to hold their peers accountable?
The Colts sure seem to have a big culture problem with Steichen at the helm. So it will be interesting to see if we potentially see Steichen lose his job sooner rather than later due to these poorly-timed comments.
Regardless, Colts players will have one last chance to end the season on a more positive note in their Week 18 game against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
