There’s no
better time of the year to look at what makes a winner than at
SuperBowl time. New England made it look easy. But Philadelphia
gave no easy ground, and to the very last second on the field, and
in the minutes following in the locker room, both teams showed us
the character of champions.
We can take a
lesson from the big league winners when it comes to teaching our
kids about life and success. Players like Bruschi, Owens, Branch,
McNabb and Brady don’t rise to the top by accident.
1. Game Plan
for Winning.
Any good game
plan is based on the fact that you want to win. You don’t build
success on a plan that says you plan to lose gracefully.
You make a
plan to win. You study the plan. You analyze and revise and
execute and analyze and revise and execute…according to the plan!
Winning is not an accident.
2. A Coach
for Winning.
Winning teams
are made of people who want to win. Top on this list is the Coach
who inspires with leadership, encouragement, correction, and
celebration. Sportswriter Vic Carucci gives them proper credit,
“Bill Belichick and Reid are two of the finest football strategists
to ever don a headset.”
3. A
Respect of the Rules for Winning.
Belichick and
Reid plan their strategies around the rules of the game. They know
football backwards and forwards. They earn the “highest respect for
their depth of football knowledge.”
4. Heart on
Fire for Winning.
Winning is the
goal. It is not a suggestion. It is not something that happens
because you hope it will happen. Quarterback, lineman, receiver,
defender or kicker...your heart is on fire for winning.
5. A Team
United for Winning.
Every winner
stands on the shoulders of people who made it possible. In three
years, the trophy for Most Valuable Player has passed from Jackson,
Brady, to Branch. Each MVP stands on the shoulders of unmentioned
yet dedicated players who blocked, received and kicked.
They play as a
team. They win as a team. They celebrate as a team.
6. Practice
Unending for Winning.
Winning teams
are built with players who show up for practice…on time…ready to
work…day after day after day.
7.
Imagination for Winning.
Practice on
the field is not enough to win. Tom Brady is reported to call in
the middle of the night, “Can you come up to my room? I've got a
couple of things I want to go over with you.”
"I promise you
while everyone else is enjoying Super Bowl week,” said outgoing
Patriots offensive coordinator Charlie Weis before the game, “two
nights I've been sitting in my room between 10 and 11 going over the
game plan per his request."
Good players
exercise the body. Winning players exercise the mind.
8. Accepting
Personal Responsibility for Winning.
Brady is being
compared to the great quarterbacks. “He's poised. He's accurate. He
responds to pressure. He deflects praise in victory as eagerly as he
absorbs responsibility in defeat.”
9. Regrouping
from Failure for Winning.
A good team
doesn’t always win. But it knows what to do with losing. When
asked about their slow first half in SuperBowl XXXIX, Deion Branch
said. "We went inside and regrouped, and figured out what we were
doing wrong and had to capitalize on a lot of things."
Winning comes
from knowing what makes you lose. Winning teams learn and grow from
each defeat.
10. Accepting
the Hard Work of Winning.
The Patriots
are being billed as a Dynasty. But they know they cannot rest on
past success. Sportswriter Pete Prisco sums it up. “[Y]ou can bet
the Patriots will forget any mention of [dynasty] by the time they
report for offseason work in March…. Remember, this is a team to a
man that doesn't allow itself to look back.”
Football…or
life…winning requires more than a game plan and practice. Winning
is a team affair, a plan to win, fueled by a burning desire to win,
supported to the max by every single person: player, coach,
trainer, wife, and friend.
If we want our
kids to succeed, we need to take a lesson from the pros. Whether
it’s drugs, tobacco, alcohol or sex, we need to create a society
that takes winning at life seriously. Our game plan must be fixed
on a plan to win.
Winning in
life is also a team affair. It’s long past time we built a
culture of support for our kids where the media, teachers, and
parents are unified as part of the solution and not part of the
problem.
The rules for
winning make one thing crystal clear. Our kids fail…because we fail
to lead.
