The NFL is learning how to fight as a unit from Special Forces vets

Veterans and military personnel are still understandably frustrated with NFL players kneeling during the national anthem — but that doesn't mean the league is at odds with the military-veteran community. If the response from our community has taught anything to NFL franchises, it's that teams have a lot to learn about how veterans and military units come together and operate as a team.

NFL players, for the most part, spend their whole lives training and preparing for the chance to play on Sundays in the fall. But throughout the course of their careers, they may end up playing for a slew of different teams with different objects, different methods, and different goals. No matter which city you're representing, there's a lot about football plays that can be related to small-unit tactics on the battlefield. The most important parts of both are to ensure each member of the team follows the plan, follows their orders, and covers their position. Your squad mates are depending on each man to do their part.

So, it makes sense to bring in some of the U.S. military's finest veterans to show these players how individuals in military units come together to form a cohesive fighting force when the stakes are life and death. That's where Mission6Zero comes in.

Jason Van Camp served in the U.S. Army's Special Forces.

(Mission6Zero)

"How can you fight for the guy next to you if you don't even know who he is?"

Jason Van Camp is the Founder and Chairman of Mission6Zero. He's also a former U.S. Army Special Forces soldier who graduated from West Point and played football for the Army's Black Knights. He founded Mission6Zero to help teams in professional sports, the corporate world, and law enforcement optimize their performance through knowledge — knowledge of themselves, their organization, and their surroundings.

While Mission6Zero isn't limited to the NFL, the NFL needs Mission6Zero now more than ever — and the Army football player is uniquely situated to address their issues. He put together his own expert team, one that included fellow SF veteran and Seattle Seahawks longsnapper, Nate Boyer.

"When things get really bad, the warfighter is thinking only of his team."

Van Camp's organization brings Special Forces veterans, Medal of Honor recipients, wounded warriors, drill instructors, and other exceptional veterans (along with human performance psychologists and behavioral experts) to the fore when dealing with athletic franchises. In their most recent case study, they found it wasn't just what team members communicated to one another that was important, it was how they communicated that mattered.

Mission6Zero does more than tell war stories and lecture teams on how to be more like a unit. The science behind how members of a unit bond in combat is the same as how members bond on a team. The more you learn about someone, the closer you get to that person. When you start to know everyone on that level, the team becomes the most important part of life.

You will never want to let the team down, but, just as importantly, you know they will never let you down.

Green Beret and Seattle Seahawks player Nate Boyer.

(Mission6Zero)

"The warfighter’s biggest fear is to let down the teammate to his left or right. "

It may seem obvious to a military veteran, but to many athletes and professional sports teams, it's not so obvious. Through the course of Mission6Zero's work in the NFL, the organization found instances of teammates who had never spoken to one another – even after the season began.

When Mission6Zero finds that the best predictor of team productivity is how teams communicate outside of the workplace and there are teammates who never talk at all, it's easy to identify potential problems in an organization. Those "Mandatory Fun" sessions we weren't so keen on attending while we were in the military were actually one of the most useful training opportunities we could ever have attended.

That's the science of teambuilding.