Lessons Learned Through Football Translate To Life

This time of year, fall, I get a chill down my spine. It isn’t because the weather is changing, it is because I can smell football in the air; the smell of hard work, sweat, victory, tears, and pride. I can hear the roar of the crowd, the band playing, and the elation after a hard fought victory. Ever since I was a young man, there hasn’t been a season I haven’t either played or coached the great game they call football. Football is different than many other sports in that it is a “true" team sport. “Individuals play the game, but teams beat the odds.” Isn’t life a team game? I can’t go back and strap the pads on again, lay a big hit, or make a great catch, but I can do one thing…continue as a coach to teach the life lessons football teaches us all.

Here are some of the life lessons I have learned from this game:

*Work Ethic: “If it were easy, wouldn’t everyone do it?” Football, like life, is a physical and mental game that beats you up at times. Coming to work every day with a solid attitude ready to get better than your competition is more than half the battle. Every day, someone is out there working harder than you to beat you. “If you can dream it, you can do IT.”

*Perseverance: Life is full of peaks and valleys. “The peaks inspire us, but the valleys mature us.” Being able to persevere through a tough loss or an injury translates to life. Nothing in life is perfect but learning how to cope and persevere with issues will ultimately make you a winner. Two great quotes that I love are: “Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react.” “Always choose to rise one more time than you fall and you can’t lose.”

*Character: Most coaches say you need to be a person of strong character, but many kids don’t know what that powerful word entails. It means “what you are inside as a person and human.” Are you driven, humble, and a person of integrity? Do you have a good attitude and give to others? “Be more concerned with your character than your reputation. Your character is what what you really are while your reputation is merely what others think of you."

*Leadership: Not everyone has to be the quarterback or stand out player to be a leader. Many leaders are people of humility who do things right 100% of the time. They are people twho are willing to serve others and lead by example. “A leader leads by example, whether he intends to or not.”

*Goal Setting: What is the point of going through life if you don’t ever set goals for yourself? Do you always want to be average or do you want to be great? One of my favorite coaches always used to say to the team; “You either get better or you get worse, you never stay the same.” Setting goals allows you to “reach for the stars, if you miss, you still land on the moon.”

*Teamwork: “There is no “I” in “TEAM.” Learning how to work with others and being able to accept that you are not always right or it isn’t all about you says a lot about your character. Football is a game of sacrifice as is life.

*Respect: For other cultures, races, etc. Deep down, we are all human and want the same thing: To be happy and successful in our own rights. It is the old golden rule: “Treat others as you would want to be treated.”

*Take Nothing for Granted: There isn’t a day I don’t think about playing one more football game on Friday night with my friends. Life passes us by very quickly. Treat everyday like it is your last because life is fragile and you never know when your time is up. “Family, Faith, Focus.”

If football has taught you something that I have missed, please feel free to share. Good luck to all the teams this fall especially my hometown Dallastown Wildcats!

“Courage is the discovery that you may not win, and trying when you know you can lose.”

-RD