The payoff

Come on in, the den is a bit chaotic, it's a busy day today.  Grab some garlic sausage and mini dill pickles and pull up a stump.

So I had trouble sleeping and I decided to ramble on about the price of football, and it was significantly personal, but it also made it sound rather dark and foreboding.  And that should really be explained.  You see football is just like anything else, and what it comes down to is the equation of what you put in is what you get out.  And more than that, the payoff is huge.  Bigger than it should be really.

Part of that is the team.  That concept that allows you to understand how important it is that working together creates results that are far beyond the combined efforts of individuals.  It magnifies itself.  It's a gestalt.  Love that word, go look it up.  And the payoffs, for me personally were huge.

I went into high school a very out of shape, terrified grade nine student, and when I graduated, I felt confident and capable.  I learned to trust myself and the people with me.  I have repeatedly said, and will continue to say it, that without the experience of football, with the way my life had been heading, I would be in jail, dead, or both.  So here is the payoff.

The payoff is the ability to expect more than you thought you could do from yourself.  Football is a very physically and mentally demanding sport, and at times it may seem like more than an one person can do.  But that's just it, the team can elevate you.  But as an individual you are called upon to do things you never thought possible, and that realization, that expectation of better than you were before will find its way into other parts of your life and drive you to do better each time.

The payoff is the concept of team over self, where self is still responsible for themselves yet the welfare is about the team.  Something I often coach is the reality that in football, when you screw up, you miss a block, you drop a pass, you miss a throw, you blow a tackle, you lose coverage, it is very rarely the individual who made the mistake who pays for that mistake.  There is a give and take within football that requires the team to be one large cohesive unit that supports and drives one another to bigger and better things.  It is both micro and macro in its application.  Miss a pass block, the quarterback gets hurt, not you.  The offense doesn't control the ball and put points on the board, the defense is tired and on the field too long.  If the defense is unable to shut down the opposing teams offense, the offense has less time to try to score and must play a more desperate game to catch back up.  To win, both sides have to do their job, to do their job each unit has to do their jobs, and in each unit for each of those jobs to be effective every single individual has to do their job right.  I could ramble on endlessly about all the little examples but I'm hoping you get the point.

The payoff is the respect for opposition.  Learning that you don't want to win at all costs, you don't want to belittle your opponent, you want to respect and challenge yourself.  You can't do that if you think too little or too much of your opponent.  You must see them as an equal and be willing to win or lose, but even more than that, you have to be willing to lay everything you can on the field.  What respect do you show an opponent when you play soft?  When you play cheap?  You must see your opponent in the same light you wish to be seen.  There is no animosity, instead a respect born of mutual challenge. 

The payoff is the family.  The people you play football with will forever be attached to you.  I run into past team mates and it's like they're old friends or long lost cousins.  We are genuinely interested in each other's success and what we've been doing.  We ask after our kids, we share funny moments, and we talk football.  We may have nothing in common beyond that shared sport but it is enough to create a bond due to the intensity of the sport.

The payoff is the control.  The body control, the mental control, the emotional control.  You learn quickly on a football field that without an incredible amount of discipline you will not succeed.  You need to know exactly how to use your body, exactly what to do and the techniques involved, you must never let your emotions get the better of you, and that sometimes your mind gets in the way, and to let it wander while your body, that knows what to do due to hundreds of hours of practice, goes to work.  This isn't about tightly weaving yourself into an automaton, but instead to find the control through careful practice and release.  Zen if you will.

The payoff is the release.  The emotions involved in football are intensified because of the seriousness, the potential for bodily harm, the investment of every single player, coach, parent, fan, and official.  You think the officials aren't invested?  How much vitriol gets spewed their way?  They care too.  But the release of that emotion.  Be able to release it and understand even outside of football it is acceptable to release it.  You will scream for joy, for triumph, you will worry, panic, stress yourself out.  You will cry.  You WILL cry.  And it is something that is perfectly allowed first inside, then outside of the sport.

The payoff is undefinable.  Even without a championship, you will find yourself reflecting on life, on where you are, and what you do, and why you do it.  And some little piece of something said somewhere on the field will come back and you'll smile.  You won't always know where it will come from but it will help define you.  For good or ill you will forever remember those team mates, those games, those moments, those joys, those pains, and know it was all worth it.

Why do I share this?  So you know that even with a price that will forever affect you, the payoff is just as great, if not greater, than the price.  So you understand why parents enroll their kids in football, encourage them to risk their bodies and health, why the parents put up with all the time, why the coaches spend not just the time in practice and games, but hours upon hours working on strategies and plays.  The payoff will always be reaped.