How deliberate distractions in Maui minicamp helped Rams focus on football

The Los Angeles Rams are crazy like a fox. No, seriously. They are a shrewd football team, willing to take the team and the roster in new directions to see what happens. It's not to try to shake up the team just for the sake of change. Rather, the Rams are adept at stumbling onto a path of improving the team in unconventional ways that lead the team to try again. And again.

So when the Rams announced the location of the 2025 minicamp, at Maui, Hawaii, the logical reaction was to see the decision as complicating the efforts of a football team to improve at football. There are too many non-football distractions baked into an exotic beach location, and with a roster bursting with young athletic young men, the chance to do and see things for the first time in their lives was not something that eluded them.

If a normal NFL minicamp is akin to fishing for crabs off the coast of Alaska, this Rams minicamp was a trip on a Silversea cruise ship. It was anything BUT football in its focus. So, how crazy are the Rams' decision makers?

Like I stated previously: Crazy like a fox.

There are many objectives to an NFL minicamp, but one goal that gets little acknowledgement is the creation of chemistry between players, players and coaches, and football members with family members. The goal is to forge a team from the presence of individuals. I could cite the cliche mottos like 'Teamwork makes the dream work,' but you cannot manufacture goodwill and friendships.

But you can place everyone at a location that fosters lifelong memories, and just sit back and let memorable experiences happen.

And happen, they did.

Karaoke singing has nothing to do with football. Nor does volunteering time for Habitat for Humanity. But the Rams players filled their time on Maui with these distractions. Or, were they?

Technology has allowed the arduous task of flight training and space exploration to be simulated in video game experiences that are fun, not work. So too, virtual reality technology can allow a golfer to play 18 holes in the office, to have tennis players compete in a match in their living room, and athletes to participate in a decathlon with various viewscreens and attachments.

But building a team is still left to simpler means. It takes shared experiences to build familial bonds, and the Rams are beginning to wade into the depths of that reality. The true benefits of this team's training at Maui for minicamp have less to do with favorable football weather and more to do with distracting young players from the reality of their situation.

For a brief pause in time, players were teammates, not competitors. Laughter and mirth were the emotions, not determination and frustration. For several days, this was about something greater than football, a pinprick of reality that bursts the bubble that football creates around players and coaches.

It's never a bad idea to keep both feet on the ground. The Rams did more than that. The team grounded every player, coach, and family member to demonstrate that life, not just football, is all about the journey.

As always, thanks for reading.

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