Ron Rivera Removes Ping Pong Table from Redskins Locker Room

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There is a new sheriff in town at Redskins Park! His name is Ron Rivera. He was officially named the Washington Redskins head coach on Thursday and already he is making changes.

Rivera has removed the ping pong and shuffleboard tables from the Redskins locker room at their practice facility. Long snapper Nick Sundberg was the first to break the news via Twitter.

I’m sad to say, but @Russellmania621 will be happy to hear, the table is officially out of the locker room. It’s been donated to a sheep farm where it has lots of space to run, just like where @staciesundberg took our black lab Prince when I was 7.#WPMOYchallenge SUNDBERG https://t.co/8vTzMXGElw

— Nick Sundberg (@NickSundberg) January 3, 2020

During his introduction on Thursday, Rivera spoke of changing the culture and establishing one that wins.

The ping pong table became famous in the Redskins locker room. It built team chemistry many will argue. The competition in ping pong drew enough attention to get a write-up with The Washington Post.

6. Paul Richardson
7. Danny Johnson
8. Quinton Dunbar (might be too low)
9. Tim Settle
10. Adrian Peterson
11. Josh Norman

The gap between 1 and 11 is enormous.— Matthew Paras (@Matthew_Paras) January 3, 2020

Taking away a ping pong table won’t create wins. Having a ping pong table doesn’t bring losses. Yet, it’s Rivera’s team. Winning cures all. Right now the Redskins aren’t winning or else they wouldn’t have needed to fire Jay Gruden and hire Rivera.

Rivera can obviously do what he wants, but I’ll reiterate that the ping pong table was AWESOME for team chemistry in 19.

You had guys from all parts of the team come together. They obviously can in other ways, but this was a tight team through the losing and that was part of it https://t.co/JCllR3e66r

— Craig Hoffman (@CraigHoffman) January 3, 2020

The Saints have a massive N64 in the middle of their locker room as well as a basketball hoop and they're one of the best four teams in football. But yes, it's the fun that creates losing.

— Conor Orr (@ConorOrr) January 3, 2020

New coach means new rules and policies. Rivera is a player’s coach in a lot of regards. But, he is also trying to change the losing habits and something small to others — like taking away a ping pong table — is a big deal for him.