Through the ups and downs of a regular season so far, James can constantly be heard referencing the mantra of ‘Tell the truth.’
Whether it’s after a tough loss or a stretch where they weren’t playing up to the expectations they have for themselves, James continuously emphasized how important it was to be honest.
It’s a very direct message that is sometimes hard to get through, but not with the type of culture and players he explained they have in the building.
“I feel like we’re creating an unsoft-skin culture,” James said. “What I mean by that is when someone says, ‘Hey, you have soft skin.’ If you get offended by anything or somebody tries to coach you or, ‘You take everything to heart,’
“I feel like with this team, the coaches and players, there’s nobody here that has soft skin,” James added. “Everybody is always able to take the coaching and help everybody to get right.”
It’s something that is not an easy topic, but an important one for a team in a long season.
Just ask future Hall of Famer, and another one of the Chargers defensive leaders, Khalil Mack, who has seen what it could do and had heavy praise for what the safety brings.
There’s a fine line with how to get that point across, but Mack knows James is the perfect guy to balance with it and do so.
“It’s super important when you speak on the honesty level on everything like how you want to play football, if you’re being too soft, if you’re not communicating enough,” Mack told Chargers.com. “You got to have people that are old enough to communicate that with everybody, coaches included. I feel like he’s one of those guys.
“He’ll go upstairs, talk to the coaches and let them know what it is. Then come downstairs and talk to us and let it know what it is. Keeping it real,” Mack continued. “It’s super important when you got a guy like that.
Mack added: “The energy, he keeps everything kind of glued together.”