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February 1, 2004
He Is What He Is
Coach John Fox has a Drive-By Cliche for every situation, it seems
By John Delong | JOURNAL REPORTER
John Fox doesn't believe in long, elaborate pre-game pep talks. He's not some long-winded orator who goes on and on and on, talking just to hear himself talk.
So, when the Carolina Panthers congregate in the locker room one final time shortly before taking on the New England Patriots today in Super Bowl XXXVIII, there won't be any stirring speech, nothing that would remotely resemble something that Vince Lombardi might give.
But Fox, the Panthers' second-year head coach, will no doubt drop more than a couple of DBCs, as his players like to call them.
It seems that Fox has become the master of the cliche over his 25-year coaching career, an advocate of short, snappy lines that make points succinctly and fit securely into his players' memory banks.
DBCs? That's short for Drive-By Cliches.
"He's got a million of them," center Jeff Mitchell said recently. "I think he's got a book about six inches thick at home, and he references it about every five years. We get the same ones over and over. We often compare it to lobbing grenades. In the locker room, he's walking away, and you think the conversation is over, and all of a sudden he'll lob one more at you from a distance.
"But you know, that's John. And obviously, it works. You're talking about a team that was 1-15 the year before he came here, and now we're in the Super Bowl, so obviously the players have bought into it."
There's no dispute about which is Fox's favorite cliche - "It is what it is."
That's his signature line, his standard response to any question or situation that might not make total sense to someone else. In self-help groups, they talk about acceptance. In the Panthers' locker room, it is what it is.
"I'd say it's pretty self-explanatory," Fox said when asked about the cliche. "It is what it is."
There are plenty of others, for sure.
• "Get ready to get ready."
• "Don't be afraid to be great."
• "Failing to prepare is preparing to fail."
• "Be THE guy, not THAT guy."
• "If you're not getting better, you're getting worse."
• "There's only two types of pressure - the kind you apply, and the kind applied to you."
• "Big players make big plays in big games."
• "No man is a failure who gives his best effort."
• "It's bigger on the outside, but not on the inside."
The last one is in direct reference to the Super Bowl. It's Fox's way of reminding his team that for all the hype and hoopla that surrounds this event, it's still ultimately a game of football.
Somewhat predictably, Fox was to the point when asked about why he is such a believer in cliches.
"I don't know," he said. "I just like to keep things short and sweet, and hopefully they are a little more penetrating to the guys without going through a long dissertation."
Players' favorites
The players always smile when talking about the cliches.
"My favorite is, 'You gotta get ready to get ready,'" linebacker Will Witherspoon said. "You can take that one or two ways, like, you've got to get ready mentally and physically. That's the way it is with a lot of them. You laugh, and you think it's corny, but then when you sit there and think about it for a second and you put it in perspective, you're like, 'OK, I can see that.'
"He just puts things in a way we can all understand, and he puts them in your mind in a way that you're always thinking about it."
Mitchell's favorite - or maybe his least favorite - is "Don't be afraid to be great."
"That's the one he always throws out when he's making us do something we don't want to do," Mitchell said. "You want to complain, but he comes back at you with 'Don't be afraid to be great. Go shovel that fertilizer on the field for a while.'
"But the thing is, he always explains to us what he's doing and why he's doing it, and it does make sense. That's why the players buy into it."
And then, of course, there's, "It is what it is."
"That's the No. 1 of all time," guard Kevin Donnalley said. "And the bad thing about it is, it trickles down. I'm back home with my wife and we're trying to get Super Bowl tickets and we can't get things planned out and the hotel situation is crazy, and I'm like, 'Honey, I don't know what we're going to do.' And my wife says, 'Well, it is what it is.'
"When I hear my wife using a cliche that I brought home because my coach uses it, that says something. But you know, it's true. It is what it is."
Donnalley, a 13-year veteran, can vouch for the fact that the cliches work. He's convinced that they have played a role in the Panthers' trek to the Super Bowl.
"When you go down the list, everything we do, we do every single day," he said. "Sometimes things like that sound too contrived, too planned out, but the thing about Coach Fox is, he's going to stick to his guns. He's got this formula, and no matter what anyone says to him, he never varies. Even when guys complain to him. I mean, guys come up and say, 'We're tired, give us a break,' and that's when you get 'Don't be afraid to be great.' And when you think about it, there are a lot of good teams and good players who are sitting home right now, but we're here because we weren't afraid to be great.
"I'm a veteran player, and sometimes you can think you know it all, but I've learned a lot from him about believing in yourself and sticking to your guns and doing whatever it takes to get the job done. He's made a believer out of me."
What's next?
The question at this point is what Fox will come up with next.
Some players figure he has one or two cliches that he has used yet ready for today, and that he'll spring one on them in his pre-game talk.
"We're waiting for something new," tackle Matt Willig said. "We're all hoping for something very Super Bowl-ish. His big one so far in the playoffs has been 'It's bigger on the outside but not on the inside,' and that's his way of saying even though it's a big game, you can't get caught up in the hype.
"But that's a few weeks old now."
Willig laughs at the mere mention of "It is what it is."
"Every time I hear that, I say, 'It is what it is, but it's never what it should be,'" he said. "But you know what, it comes from the heart. He's a guy who believes in those cliches absolutely. You have to admire him for it. From Day One, that's been his way. And it does work. When you're constantly reminded about the little things, you're going to succeed."
Success, of course, begets success - to use a non-Fox cliche.
And that suggests that the cliches will continue as long as Fox coaches the Panthers, as long as he's in the profession.
So, get ready to get ready, because it is what it is.
"It's humorous," guard Doug Brzezinski said. "Sometimes, it's high school revisited. But it's good to hear. It's funny. The only guy I've ever been around who used that many cliches was my high school coach. And we only lost one game in high school. So I guess it's a pretty good formula."