Locker room atmosphere is an essential part of every successful team sport. A strong locker room can nurture relationships, create a culture, and ignite an energy that translates to chemistry on the field.

With that in mind, it’s no surprise that many professional sports teams have their own tricks and traditions to help fuel this process.

It’s the reason why Major League Baseball teams hold a “Kangaroo Court” and NFL teams on Hard Knocks make their rookies have a talent show. You find something that creates positive vibes and brings players together, and you latch onto it.

The Tennessee Titans are no exception.

Despite the recent comments suggesting the Titans culture is “no fun,” the everyday locker room tells a different story.

Thanks to the creativity of a few of their players, the Titans locker room has jumped into the 2022 season using the simple competition of a few classic children’s games to maintain locker room energy.

Four Square

Four square is a classic children’s game in which the objective is to eliminate players to achieve the highest rank on the court. Players bounce the ball back and forth between quadrants, until one player is eliminated. When a ball is bounced in a player's quadrant and the player is unable to bounce the ball into another player's quadrant, that player is eliminated, and a new player enters the game with the other players advancing one space.

Easy enough, right? After all, four square can be found during recess in most playgrounds across America. So how did it get into the Titans locker room?

While there have been some conflicting reports from players as to who originally brought four square into the locker room, enough vetting was able to bring me to the truth. Two players, Titans wide receivers Nick Westbrook-Ikhine and Mason Kinsey, first brought the game into the facility.

“It was just one day, we had a big break towards the end of camp, and I was like ‘what if we played four square?,” Westbrook-Ikhine said.

“I told Mason, and he didn’t even think twice about it. He went and grabbed some tape and started putting it down, then Taylor [Lewan] started helping us put it down, and next thing you know it was this whole big thing. It was pretty funny seeing all those guys turn into kids again playing four square.”

The game caught on in no time. A large group of Titans players, with everyone from defensive linemen to wide receivers, began using the mini basketball from the team’s old basketball hoop to play in the locker room every day.

Naturally, I wanted to know who the top dog was. And naturally, just about everybody I interviewed said themselves.

"I'm top two, and I'm not two."

– Titans DB Josh Kalu on four square

Trash-ketball  

If you like to work on your jump shot when putting dirty clothes in the hamper or yelling “Kobe!” when crumpling a piece of paper and throwing it out, you would probably fit in well with the Titans locker room.

Another daily competition between the players is, for lack of a better name, “trash-ketball,” the locker room game where players take basketball shots in the trash can using the mini-ball from the old basketball hoop.

According to Titans CB Caleb Farley, he came up with the idea alongside linebacker Joe Jones while the two players were on Injured Reserve last season. The regular basketball hoop was removed from the locker room after it broke from “everybody dunking on it,” prompting Farley and Jones to get creative.

There are not any rules to the Titans’ version of hoops. Instead, players make them up as they go. Titans DB Josh Kalu told me that players will place bets against each other to make or miss shots from a designated line, sometimes staying in the locker room for up to two hours after practice caught up in the fun.

Some players (like Farley) choose to take initiative and trust their skills. They’re the sharpshooters of the bunch. Others (like Kalu), decide to work smarter, not harder, and will place bets against the players they “know are trash,” while never actually shooting themselves.

Then there's Lonnie Johnson Jr., the hustler, who shoots so poorly that he tricks other players into betting against him. That's when he starts knocking them down.

It may sound silly, and it probably is, but friendly competition is an easy way to bring people, especially athletes, together.

Observing these games take place on a daily basis, it’s fun to see the personalities of these players shine through in the heat of battle. It’s like Westbrook-Ikhine stated, NFL players turn into kids again while playing children’s games.

From where I’m sitting, it’s been a real positive influence on the Titans’ locker room energy, allowing them to have fun and compete without distracting them from focusing on football. The players would probably tell you the same thing.

It makes the locker room a place that players are happy to spend extra time in. That tells you all you need to know.

Image via Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports