Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff has regularly praised Dan Campbell for being one of the best leaders he has ever been around.
Appearing on the “Glue Guys” podcast, Detroit’s franchise quarterback again shared his appreciation for the Lions being accepting of him, when he was dealt to the organization back in 2021.
The 30-year-old, in an interview that lasted over 60 minutes, revealed what he enjoyed most about Detroit’s popular head coach and what he has learned from being around a leader of Campbell’s caliber.
Goff expressed that on multiple occasions, Campbell will decide to play music during organized team activities to break up the mundane nature of meetings and reviewing things that will not take place until the fall.
“You’re in these meetings in April for stuff that’s going to happen in the fall. And in those meetings and even some in training camp that get even more mundane, he’ll just put on, just start playing his favorite music or music that makes him think of certain things,” said Goff. “And this will go on for like ten minutes. He’ll just kind of be flipping through some songs. We’re all kind of sitting there, waiting for, all right, ‘What’s the message here? What’s he getting at?’ And he’ll kind of be like, all right, this song was playing when I was going to my senior football game in high school.
“And he’ll kind of sit there and envision that. And he’ll kind of go through, it’ll play for a minute. It’ll be AC/DC or Metallica, who he likes. And then he’ll play another song. …. And then he’ll play like modern stuff that like our guys like. He’ll be like, ‘I heard you guys like this song.’ He’ll play that song and guys will kind of start going, and we’ll do that for like 10 to 15 minutes. He’s done it a few times in the last few years. And then it’s just over and it’s like, ‘All right guys, break it up.’ He’s got such a unique leadership ability to know when it’s time to like dig into us and let us know that we need to do this better. We need to do that better,” Goff commented further. “And then to know, hey, these guys need just like some fun and some relief from what’s going.”
Emotional intelligence
Goff indicated that the former NFL tight end just has a keen awareness of how players are feeling and what they need to thrive and survive a grueling NFL season.
“I call it emotional intelligence,” said Goff. “It’s the highest I’ve ever been around, that I’ve ever seen, or probably will ever see. Just to know when guys need what. He’ll have fun team meetings like that, but then at the same time, he holds guys extremely accountable and is really, really, really smart in the football sense and can handle all of it. It’s really it’s really special.”
Detroit’s starting signal-caller noted he has also learned from Campbell how to deal with a variety of different people. Being around such a solid leader has taught him so much about leadership, which is paramount for a quarterback.
Goff expressed, “I think from a leadership standpoint, I’ve learned so much from Dan, as far as knowing how to approach different people and meeting everyone where they’re at, type of thing.”
