Greatness requires an athlete to focus on nothing less than being the master of events in all dimensions, at all levels. He must be committed to excellence and must detest mediocrity.
Having watched countless college football games this season, I’ve observed that the desire for greatness appears to be lacking among some players.
How does desire for greatness manifest itself? At the team level, it transcends one-dimensionality, which is impossible without loyalty. When teammates are loyal to each other and to their coaches, there is collective motivation to perform at levels necessary for success. Such teammates play their hearts out, striving to be winners, aiming to emerge as champions. Furthermore, they continue to perform in a competitive, sportsmanlike manner — even when the score is lopsided against them.
At the individual level, players who lack maturity, don’t have genuine passion for the game, fail to realize they are role models for youngsters, care little for sportsmanship, and don’t give their all in the classroom, cannot rise above the limits of one-dimensionality.
Especially disturbing is the fact that some athletically gifted young men are pampered — given the “green light,” so to speak — in the academic arena prior to college. Consequently, they are recruited as potential assets on the playing field, despite being liabilities in the classroom. Such players are provided tutor assistance, which is an oblique admission by institutions that these athletes aren’t qualified to undertake college-level courses.
As a college instructor, I have taught many athletes. Some worked hard to earn acceptable grades; others, verifying that they were coddled prior to college, expected similar treatment in my classroom — and didn’t get it; they earned failing grades.
The way I see it, much of college football has become bulk, strength, and speed versus bulk, strength, and speed. For some players, the capacity to think, which serves to coordinate the other three components, is not as well developed as it should be.
Maximizing the effectiveness of bulk, strength, and speed depends on the right implementation of these assets at the right time, and such implementation is determined by the ability to think clearly, quickly, and accurately from the opening to the final gun, regardless of the opposing team’s athletic prowess.
Even the best coaches can only train players up to a certain level, but no coach can prepare them for every situation that may develop during a game. In many of these instances, the player’s mental acuity, his ability to make sound, accurate, snap decisions, must be available when needed. If such decisions are wrong or take more than a split-second to be made, odds are the whole team will suffer.
Greatness requires an athlete to focus on nothing less than being the master of events in all dimensions, at all levels. He must be committed to excellence and must detest mediocrity.
As the great basketball coach John Wooden often told his players, “The size of the job doesn’t matter; the size of the effort put into the job does.”
Such effort is the fruit of preparedness through excellent coaching and through players’ desire to perform at peak levels in all facets of their lives.
This combination assures the goal that matters most: greatness.
Jimmy Reed is an Oxford, Mississippi resident, Ole Miss and Delta State University alumnus, Vietnam Era Army Veteran, former Mississippi Delta cotton farmer and ginner, author, and retired college teacher.
This story is a selection from Jimmy Reed’s latest book, entitled The Jaybird Tales.
Copies, including personalized autographs, can be reserved by notifying the author via email (.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)).
