Dealing with Adversity

Football is not a contact sport, it's a collision sport. We can't play the game without getting bumped or bruised. For most of our young men, it is the first time involved with football or organized sports. But football is hard. It tests our intestinal fortitude and our will to compete.

The last couple of days, we had three players hurt their fingers and one was hit in the stomach during practice. All of them quit and gave up on the task at hand (no pun intended). It is my job as the coach to teach mental toughness and how to deal with adversity.

Last night I was watching a show on the NFL Network about the 2008 Pittsburgh Steelers. QB Ben Roethlesburger spoke about the last drive of the game and all the adversity facing him and the Steeler offense. He cited a poem he thought about before taking the field on what would be game winning drive:

"Success is failure, turned inside out.
The silver lining with clouds of doubt.
And you never can tell how close you are.
It maybe near, when when it seems afar.
So stick to the fight, when you're hardest hit.
It's when things seem worse that you mustn't quit."

Life is about competition and we mustn't quit. I'll be sharing this with our players today before practice...