Hog Sty conversation with Washington team president Jason Wright
December 1, 2020
By Alex Zeese
[EDITOR’S NOTE: We expect to have some video from this meeting available soon and will post some of it for you to view.]
In the last five years, the Hog Sty has allowed me to have a bunch of cool experiences as a fan. I’ve become friends with legends in the world of writing like Rick Snider and had chances to interview some truly amazing people like Redskins legends Doc Walker and Joe Jacoby.
But this event I got to be a part of today was among the coolest. The Hog Sty and a handful of other podcasters got a very exciting invitation to sit down with The Washington Football Team’s President Jason Wright today for a very friendly conversation and Q&A session.
Integrity, Trustworthiness, and Being Bold: this is the core value of what Mr. Wright and Coach Rivera want to bring to this team. Jason Wright is a crazy hard worker because he wants to lead by example. He said his average workday is from about 8:30 AM to 10 PM. His core values are something he wants to live and he wants the employees of this team to follow his example.
He is very upfront about things – if he can’t give you an answer to a question he just says that and tells you he can’t talk about it and why. He said he and Coach Rivera are still working on a long term vision for the football team, a ten year plan. But some of that plan clearly is starting to take shape in how he acts and what he’s doing. This is a man who doesn’t want to lie and doesn’t want to hide what they are planning in the front office. He wants to be data-driven and analytical while at the same time doing things like this event. He intends to be both qualitative and in touch with the feelings of the fanbase. This was something Jason indicated he’s wanted to do this as team president in order to get a good feel for the fanbase and to show the change in the team’s culture. He wants to be more open with all of us. Jason not only wanted to hear our questions but also wanted to have a truly open dialogue with us “super fans”. He wanted to ask us about things, wanted to know what we thought of the state of the team, and picked our brains quite a bit, almost as much as we were picking his. There were at least a half dozen times where I noticed that Jason would react or respond to something said by one of us in the meeting, and I noticed him jotting it down.
This man pays attention to the little details because he was once a player. He doesn’t need someone to give him a business justification for things that make this franchise better. He told a good story in which someone had mentioned to him that there was an issue with the practice field’s irrigation. As a result, he went out there with Coach Rivera after a rainstorm and realized right away that the field needs to be upgraded. He then immediately took it to Dan Snyder, and now they are going to get it fixed. That’s a priority for him. Because he played the game, this is a man who knows what to look for in a good facility. As a side note, Jason seems to be a bit of a field nut – he also was excited to point out to all of us that the field at the stadium was looking great this year when he knew it had a bad reputation in the past.
Identity is going to be a big thing on this team’s mind for him over the next decade. Jason is trying to work on finding the happy mix between nostalgia and the future as the team works towards its new name and a new stadium. He didn’t have any updates regarding the stadium except to say that he’s not panicked yet and that they still have until 2024 to get shovels in the ground. He is still trying to think big picture regarding the new stadium and its larger economic impacts on the community, wherever it goes. He’s having thoughts and discussions every day about new uniforms, the band, new fans, old fans, and lapsed fans. He’s trying to reimagine the game day experience and wanted our ideas on how to make that better.
The team plans on editing the video and putting it out there. So when you have a chance I suggest watching it. But I’ll close with this: I’ve worked for plenty of bosses, good and bad. Some are political and some are conniving, but the best men I’ve worked for always have a few common traits. They know themselves and they are down to earth and honest with everyone they meet. Jason Wright strikes me as that kind of leader for this front office, and after one meeting with him, for the first time in a long, long time I actually have some faith in the direction that this team is heading.