The Locker Room: How Great Teams Heal Hurt, Overcome Ad… (2024)

Great storytelling. It reminds me of a play based on reality.

Many themes stand out:

Structure:

the book reads like a play script. There is a clear hook(The speech), beginning(what happened till the confrontation between Marcellus), middle(the discussion between Smitty and Rod ), end/epilogue( the "Happy ending" and back to the speech), and end. It almost follows a hero's journey, with a protagonist and a mentor. This structural clarity is impressive, especially considering the story is based on reality.

Race:
The story tackled a sensitive subject with courage and vulnerability and hope. The transformation of Smitty regarding racism calls for our own reckoning of racism. It forces us to reflect on our own biases and empowers us to be open to change.

Atheism:
Being an athlete means being true to yourself. Try as hard as you can, no excuses. Always keep high standards and be radically transparent about performance and asking for help.

Fear + Faith + authentic vulnerability + humility = Grace:
With the great challenge, it's natural to fear. What matters is to have faith, and be open. People seeing your humility will have grace, and you will be transformed.

Cancel culture:
say no to cancel culture. Believe in the good of people, and proactively help. Have hope and help others change.

When I got the opportunity to read this book before it came out, I couldn't wait. The story presented is one that we need to hear in this day and age. Especially growing up in a small town in Texas, you know exactly how important football is in the fall and how things can change in a matter days. The story of how one person's racially charged words changed the dynamic of one team on the field and in the locker room. This is the story of how the two coaches changed the narrative to get their team back on track. West and Mackey show you how what happens behind the scenes in the locker room are just as important or possibly more important than what happens on the field.

I can't wait to read this book again and start applying these principles with my own team.

What's not to like? This is a wonderful positive message told through masterful story telling. Admittedly I was predisposed to enjoy this work. I have had the good fortune to read and hear both authors speak to coaches and kids. I have witnessed their consistency over several years in the ideas brought forward in this book. These thoughts weren't based on what will make for a best selling book. Instead they are built around heartfelt beliefs they have lived and witnessed first hand.

If you work with kids or have a vision of America puling together, read this book. You will be glad you did.

“…but if I’ve learned anything in this locker room, I’ve learned that making a mistake doesn’t make you a mistake. We are all imperfect people & we all come from different backgrounds, with different hurts, hand ups and history. But that diversity of life, experiences, and culture isn’t something that we have to overcome; it’s something we must harness to each become the fullest version of ourselves. We all make mistakes, but we can also all make each other better .”

^^ one of my favorite quotes in the book.

Wow! A short, easy parable style read that brings home profound tools to overcoming adversity within any team . This isn’t just for locker rooms and coaches.

WOW! While it's a fable it tells a great story of adversity and major issue of today. One that brings and talks about societal issue of today, racism. It present a mistake that was made. How it was wrongly handled and how it was corrected through listening and learning about and from each other. I'll admit while it is a fable it brought a tear to my eye be the ending. It's impactful and one I'd recommend EVERYONE read as we all can learn from this very short read. This scores on many levels.

It’s a really bad leadership book. It’s platitudes about how we need to give ignorant white people grace and all just get along. It had maybe one or two points to help lead a team through a difficult conversation, but I didn’t learn much. If you are looking for a story to make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, this book effectively uses emotional manipulation to do so. It also has a thinly veiled religious lens that really turned me off.

This book definitely has an audience it just wasn’t me.

Everyone should read this book! I actually listened to the audio read by the author. The quantity of coach cliches might make you roll your eyes, but it is so worth it for the message of this book which is surrounding race relations, overcoming hurtful mistakes, and always learning. The message is that America needs a locker room to heal hurts and after listening to this story I would have to agree 100%

The Locker Room is a timely look at grace and humility through the eyes of an imperfect coach and imperfect teammates. It is a powerful reminder that mistakes, even really big ones, provide opportunity for growth and that brokenness can be restored.
This book is a must read for everyone in a position to lead and impact others!

DO NOT LET THE TITLE FOOL YOU. You don't have to be a sports fan to benefit from reading this. The lessons in this easy to read book are exactly what people in sports, business and society in general need to learn if we are to become the best that we can be. America needs a Locker Room now more than ever.

A heartwarming read tackling some of our countries nastiest issues. This story features two adults willing to lead by example, and work through an issue on their football team with conversation, compassion and empathy. This book demonstrates what we all need to do in order to heal our divided nation; be graceful, be vulnerable, and have the difficult conversations.

This book tackles the heavy topic of racism in a way that makes it approachable and more understandable to the reader. The author does a great job of explaining the differences between racism and prejudice as well as how people may act out in one of these ways without the reader feeling as if they are being attacked or lectured. The Locker Room is quick, easily digestible, and educational. As Michael Scott would say, win-win-win.

As a coach to young men at the JH and HS level this is a book that describes the culture and mentality that we need in sports. Mackey and West are challenging coaches and young men to become leaders in our nation. The best led teams are player led teams and this book emphasizes that!

This book is a must read for all coaches in all sports. Damon and Mackey have created an amazing book that demonstrates exactly what coaches across America see inside their locker room and how to help them build a strong locker room.

The parable format of this book makes it a fast read, full of content we call all benefit from, no matter our background. I appreciated the inclusion of the inner & outer dialogue of various characters as that made the tale seem far more realistic.

A great easy read!! As a coach, the locker room is the most important part of your team. This book helps you to pull together your whole team for an even greater purpose than just winning games, making a better world around you.

All coaches in our district read this together this summer. A quick read with an amazing message. A lot of parts really resonated with me and each coach would benefit from reading this story.

America needs a Locker Room.

A short read but a powerful one. I agree, “when humility and grace are present, there is only room for healing and progress.” One conversation can have a lifelong impact, whether that impact is positive or negative is dependent on the heart posture of those involved. Great read!

Audiobook: I really enjoyed this!

The book is " meh "

White kid fasho said the N word BUTTT it was a good book