Looking for Leadership

Leadership is always king in football, and it doesn't take genius to figure out what teams are blessed with true leadership coaches and those who are not. It's evident the minute the team steps onto the field, if you know what to look for, that is. Dave Ramsey sums-up leadership lessons based on some purdy famous football coaches in his blog. This is worth a look-see.

http://www.daveramsey.com/blog/5-leadership-lessons-from-football-coaches

Ramsey lays it out with a little history from these winning coaches and it's all good stuff. I've experienced football as a fan and a mom, obliviously not as a player or a coach, but if you are a mom/parent then you have a special position all your own. Like it or not, you are coaching your own team and it is up to you to lead the way.

For insistence, in my last post, "Raising Jocks or Men of Honor" I rather scolded the grown fellers/players in to acting like somebody and stop all this craziness of ill behavior. I also strongly encouraged them to get in church.

Here is what I used to tell my own two when they were in high school, played football, could drive and make choices as to who they hung out with and so on.

1. You choose your friends, don't let your friends chose you.
2. Nothing good ever happens after midnight.
3. You can stay out as long as you want on Saturday nights, but your butt will be up for church and Sunday school the next morning.

They knew what to expect and how it would go down. We had a game-plan and it was up to them to execute. It was up to me to hold them accountable. Very simple.

Of course there were times of drama, times when I wanted to pinch their little cheeks red, times when holding it together I grabbed the glue and times I simply cried out to the Lord. The key is consistency. Like football, the players who are there time and time again, executing their assignments, making a way to make the play, are well coached with leadership at the helm, those are the teams who most likely win games, seasons, and championships.

I believe there is no other game like the game of football to teach life lessons and the gift of leadership. As I've said many times, football is so much more than what happens on the hundred yard expanse. I am always looking for those moms/parents with the gift of leadership. If you look real hard within your heart and seek The King of All Kings, you'll find your own gift of leadership. Kids really want moms/parents of leadership. Heck, they have enough peers.

   

Are we raising jocks or men of honor?

Gretchen Carlson just aired the 911 tape of a couple who were terrified by an apparent road-raged Rob Bironas just moments before crashing his car and consequently losing his life.   

Terry Bradshaw misses Fox's NFL coverage after death of son-in-law Rob Bironas

Football used to be the game of champions, true champions, loaded with men of character and integrity. Football, the game, is supposed to teach a boy how to become a man. A man who just might think of his teammates before himself, translated--a man of honor in life off the field. Once were teams formed consisting of young fellas/men who would form camaraderie among each other and steer a teammate on the path of righteous before it was too late. Granted, at the end of the day, there are tons of choices.

As of late however, with all the discrepancies, even starting a few years back with perhaps the biggest, blackest eye in all of college football, the Penn State scandals, I am losing hope. Hope in even the most innocents of my beloved game. The  All American game--Football. There is no other game on God's green earth like football, there just isn't.    

Am I dreaming? Did all this shady stuff exist years ago? And guys, especially you NFL-ers and college players, listen to your mama, the low-rent actions some of you are publicly demonstrating "IS" Shady with a capital S! Oh come on, you know better! I don't give a hoot-n-holler how you were raised, you really do know better no matter what or where you came from!! Stop taking the purest of sports into the gutter with all your nonsense and shenanigans!! Straighten up, y'all and fly right! 

The first thing you could do if you were a young fella/man of character is go to church and stop whining about it! Get your tail up and take your family or a buddy to church. The worst that could happen is God will forgive you. He is all about new beginnings and He'll meet you right where you are.

You can call me the church lady if you want too, but I speak truth and from my heart. Guys, get after it, and get on with it, righteous living, that is. We remember the inspirational stories off the field so much more than who won the super bowl in 1972. Put hope back in America and back in the most wonderful game on earth called, football!  

So, it’s okay to hit women?

After all, you’re a big time college football player. You have your fellow student body bowing at your feet in adoration, you can do anything you want and get by with it. Right? Sad, but true on so many levels.

I would like to think that back in the day when Johnny Unitas and Jim Brown were synonymous with the NFL and Bear Bryant was a rising star college coach, this stuff wasn’t happing. Even so, I cannot say that for a fact. A lot things were hidden and hush-hush with media as only a fly on the wall in a few locker rooms, quickly to be swatted and squashed if the reporting wasn’t to the liking of team mangers.

Football back then however, was a gentlemen’s game. Oh I’d say the game it’s self was tougher, sure it was! They weren’t worried about concussions or broken bones and relied on pure guts and grit on the gridiron. I mean the guys of the game had character off the field. They displayed a sense of responsibility to put forth good examples for the up and comers—the young fellas who looked-up to these guys. Our culture was certainly less violent.

So much for all the equality for woman. I’m not too sure poor Gloria Steinem, did anything to help the girls! Women are so much more exploited now a days than ever before. Sex trafficking, sensual ads, babies born before marriage, or no marriage or no daddy’s present and so on. We raise funds for battered woman’s shelters, implement 800 hot line numbers and the leading cause of injury to woman is domestic violence. Do we really consider this equality for women?

Obliviously, the recent news of UGA defensive lineman player, Jonathan Taylor prompted this post with several other college players throughout the nation on the line for such behavior as well. Come on guys, seriously? Aren’t you football guys getting enough hits on the field? What the heck are you doing?

Coaches, maybe you should take a good hard look at your recruiting methods. Wouldn’t you rather have maybe a 3 star player who will give you everything he’s got, including his off the field character? Instead of maybe the 4 star recruit, who can outplay the 3 star, but questionable off the field? You are not stupid; this stuff shows up long before signing day. Is it worth a scholarship to take a chance on his maybe not so great nature that in the end, will cost you?

This particular kid had been jailed before without repercussions from the Georgia coaching staff. He still played last year. Tell me that was a bright move. Now UGA is out a D-lineman and in a much tougher spot than if this had been dealt with last year.

Coaches, we all know who the player’s daddies are. YOU! Step up, make the hard choices, lower the boom, and be that dad who instructs his kids leading them to a life of Character. Someday, Football will be over for every player. Then what?       

Players Needs or unNecessary Roughness?

 

Northwestern University and the NCAA must prove that football players are NOT “employees” as per the latest ruling by the National Labor Relations Board in Chicago.

 Regional director Peter S. Ohr ruled that players do get “a substantial economic benefit for playing football” including scholarships, room and board, books, fees, stipends, etc. that can reach a sum total of as much as $76,000 in one year for a single player. This, Ohr says, qualifies the players as employees who can vote in union elections and Northwestern failed to prove otherwise.

http://www.nlrb.gov/news-outreach/news-story/nlrb-director-region-13-issues-decision-northwestern-university-athletes

 When I first heard this story I thought, Oh nooo! What the heck are these players doing!? Then I thought again. This football mama’s theory is not pretty, but it is largely the reason this could, and I say could with great caution, be necessary roughness on behalf of the players.

 The movie, The Blind Side hit many folks straight through the heart. Not necessarily due to the theme—wealthy family picks up homeless kid, but because of the deplorable living conditions, the child suffered through. It’s a crisis throughout this country with thousands of children in heart wrenching circumstances, and that was just one child’s story. Multiply it by infinity.

 Survival skills that are almost forced on high-risk youth who end up following the same path as generations before them include; either sell drugs, become a pimp/prostitute, or turn to sports. For some kids the only way out of a life of jeopardy is sports. Otherwise, more than likely, they will continue on the path and vanish into oblivion on the streets.

 Many do their best to escape this living style, yet the strongholds are nearly insurmountable. They see a sports future as climbing out. By signing a letter of intent to play college ball—provided they are blessed with enough talent to do so, is for some kids, their only hope of securing mama’s future. Viewing themselves playing on Saturday’s opens the Golden Gate pathway to the NFL. Sadly, many have no real intentions of graduating with a college degree.

 The peril these kids are in is not hearsay—it’s personal testimony. I’m married to someone who’s spent a lifetime advocating on behalf of children in our foster care systems.

 I saw it for myself when I moved my own guys onto college campuses. Many players across the country report to begin their collegiate career as a football player, without so much as a tooth brush. It is honestly, one of the saddest occurrences I’ve ever witnessed in my life.

 While moving each one of my guys into two different college dorms, I saw several players move in with nothing. No mama present—trucking up flights of stairs arms caring a laundry basket full of clothes, scrubbing commodes, making up beds, securing snacks, wishing them well with last minute prayers and hugs. No, they arrive alone and empty-handed.  

 It takes sheets to cover mattresses, towels and soap, laundry detergent, razor, shaving cream, deodorant, all items not provided by the University of Red Roof. These kids are seriously at the mercy of a few folks who may or may not pay attention to these needs—their new coaches. I saw it time and time again and it still haunts me even today, that I didn’t do more to help.

 I did what we could for those whose living quarters were close to my guys, either pod roommates, roommates or those that played on the OL. I always tried to make sure, when I bought groceries that I purchased a little extra. Things like snacks, juices, fruit, sundries and anything else that I got for one of my own, I tried to get enough for the buddies as well. However, we had a limited income, a budget that soon sunk like a stone. Just traveling to see these games nearly buried us in debt. Somehow, God always provided.

 Even so, I couldn’t bear the thought of turning away any fella that I knew had it a little rougher than my own two. After home games, you would find us taking kids out for dinner or for breakfast the next day, whomever my guys showed up with, we always tried to include them, too.

 It is no wonder that this has now become an issue with college players, extra money that is. Perhaps by forming a “union” is the only way for the players to get a little side cash. It takes guts to stand up to business as usual, much less the NCAA. Then again, it could open up a whole new can of worms with regulating that cash. If you grow up not knowing how to save or spend money wisely, than who’s to say this will solve a dad-burn thing.

 Yes, I know the NCAA has axed any and all monetary fund’s going straight to individual players. And, when money is involved it can really get messy really easily. Betting sharks buying outcomes on games, booster giving certain players cash or, even buying cars as once practiced, any privileged perks for players these days have been gutted straight-out by the NCAA. Rightly so, in the past it has all been done underhanded and under no regulation or fairness for all players. 

 I always wished there was a way to set-up some sort of program to help these kids, I wanted to do something. I’ve heard it said—if you see a need, fill it. Don’t wait on someone else to do something YOU do something! Even trying to live by that premise, I sadly, have fallen way short putting my heart into action.

 Maybe it will be the glory of the Northwestern Wildcats to put this need into action and set the stage for other players to follow. Maybe it’s genius. Maybe by sounding the alarm to boosters, football fans and us parents of college players, either past or present, who have seen this need and done nothing, we can finally come together and do something!   

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tackling a Touchy Topic - gay in football?

 

Michael Sam wants us to look at him as a football player, not a gay football player. If that’s true then why did he feel the need to divulge his sexual orientation? He opened the worm can the minute he opened his mouth.

 Personally, I don’t want to know anyone’s anythingie when it comes to such private matters. There are certain things that should remain private regardless of gender choice. But gee, let’s shout it from the microphone and get football even more tainted. Come on man, football is the purest of the purely manly sports. Seriously?

 It would be like a girls basketball team having one of the boys on the boys’ basketball team shower in the all-girls locker room. It just smears the whole shebang to shreds and mess things up! As a mama, I would not want one of my sons showering with a gay guy. Period. End of story.

 Now do not miss-interrupt my stance here. We all know someone who is gay, who has a gay child, or a gay family member, or a gay friend and we’ve all been touched in some form or fashion by this subject matter. I am not saying God does not love these folks. Or, that I think of them as subhuman, far from it!

 What I am saying is—this is not the way God intended for the human race to live. I’m going to have to stick to His word. Something that is hardly ever done these days, sticking to God’s word, that is. Although the Duck Dynasty guy stuck to God’s word. Kudos to him, even though that brought on some crazy consequences, however, when you speak God’s truth, in the end His Truth always wins. And, because of their willingness to speak God’s truth, the double D’s are definitely winning these days!  

Look, I do believe He loves the person, just not the sin. As in the rest of us, we’ve all sinned and fallen short. We all have. I sure have. He loves us, not our sin. John 8:7 NKJ “… He who is without sin among you let him throw a stone at her first.” I don’t want to throw stones. I just want to throw footballs.

 The sportscasters say that it took a lot of guts to “come out.” Really? That’s how you see it? I believe it would take more guts to suck it up and stay quiet. So what did coming out do? If you look real close, maybe it just relieved his own conscious and hey, the dude is getting more publicity than ever. Interesting, the timing of it all. Right before the NFL draft? Come on you great thinkers out there, what purpose did it really do? It served no one but Mister Sam, himself.

 Oh, and for those of you who don’t know God’s word on this, there are several scriptures throughout the bible on the subject. One begins in Leviticus 18:22 NKJ “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman, it is an abomination.” I don’t know, that sounds purdy plain to me. Then again, I just want to throw footballs.