It is no secret to the readers here that I failed at college football. I’ve often been accused of wanting to get a ‘do over’ in football through my kids. Sure, that provides a simple path to understanding, but I’m not that shallow. My failures in football have very little to do with athleticism and everything to do with my state of mind at the time I played and the years leading up to it.
Football is about a lot more than physical skill or even what happens on the field. The sport, more than any other I’ve encountered, really allows an individual to develop ‘teamwork ethos’ that ability to perform—and enjoy performing—as part of a unit and understanding that the unit is ultimately responsible for any individual success. This is less the case in sports like Basketball (which my relatives who’ve shared with me would prefer the kids all play) where one or two good players can make a team and even in a loss can remain bright stars. Look at Kobe Bryant, one of the top 5 players in Basketball today, yet he plays for a team that has as much chance of being successful as the Knicks do.
Beyond that idea of team ethos is this psychological concept of explanatory style. This is a measure of how people reason through their successes and especially failures. I believe that football exposes ones explanatory style and creates the conditions to harden that individual by constantly being faced with challenges that stretch their ability and mental and physical fortitude. I often hear the argument that this can be gained through other sources, but few sources offer the raw spotlight that football does in our culture. Under those Friday night lights you are being watched by everyone. You fail or succeed under a microscope and thus you learn to deal with success and failure under a microscope. This has a lasting effect on people beyond merely football. There is a reason why so many corporate CEOs and political leaders were once star athletes. In the crucible of sport—especially football—you learn to become a public presence. These are the skills I never learned in the years before college and this is what contributed to my failure when I realized that epic responsibility.
My kids may never play in the NFL or even be good enough to make it on a college club, but they have the fortitude to play now and that will give them life skills they can build upon throughout their lives.