It’s likely even the most casual football fan has had a fiery Dan Campbell locker room speech come across their social media feed.
The impassioned speeches, going viral week after week as watchers are moved by his powerful, heartfelt words. As part of a new initiative “Peak” that covers leadership and personal development through sports, The Athletic’s Rustin Dodd analyzed some of these clips with the help of speech experts and other members of academia.
“Campbell’s speeches have all the hallmarks of Aristotle’s theory of classical rhetoric, said James Holtje, an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s School of International & Public Affairs, who teaches speechwriting and public speaking. There are elements of pathos (or emotion), logos (data) and kairos (timing), and there is a physical performance aspect that calls to mind a one-man show,” Dodd writes.
Dodd explains he asked the professor to analyze a handful of Campbell’s public talks — Holtje expressing some hesitation because, well, he’s a soccer fan. But subject matter did not matter when it came to the efficacy of Campbell’s words. One speech in particular he looked at was from Detroit Lions training camp in 2022 that aired on HBO’s “Hard Knocks.”
“Like most Campbell speeches, it was passionate, mesmerizing and a little unhinged. To Holtje, though, it was filled with elements he teaches his students: eye contact, vocal projection, emotion, storytelling and a slew of rhetorical flourishes, including alliteration, the rule of three, and the power of the particular,” he writes.
Dodd also spoke with Patrick Barry, a clinical assistant professor of law at the University of Michigan.
“For most of four seasons, Campbell has punctuated victories with a common phrase: “This is what great teams do.” It’s a construction, Barry says, that is more powerful than saying ”We’re a great team” because it implies not just a belief but an active embodiment of an ideal,” he writes.
The article goes on to make several more points and is a truly interesting piece. You can read it in its entirety here.
And onto the rest of your notes.
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