Footballeadershipahoy!

from the football-brained leader of leaders

Originally posted to Word Warrior on LinkedIn.

It may have been 102° here Saturday, but that didn’t stop football, which for millions is cause for celebration, me being one of them.

My dad was not a sports guy. He was a car guy and a soul guy. He spent his time under the hood at D&F Battery & Electric, which he owned, and behind the pulpit at one little church or another, where he preached. Still, he bought a Sony Trinitron television — the Cadillac of TVs (he was a Cadillac man) — mainly to watch Monday Night Football and bond with his son.

Dad said my brain was in the shape of a football, and he was certain of it.

I love football and I have made a life study of leadership. It stands to reason that, after watching my Cowboys win their version of the Super Bowl (a preseason game), my mind will be filled with both.

So, here are a few leadership lessons from the gridiron. Put them in your playbook and run them. They are football-brained certified.

Also, please know that I respect you too much to connect every dot here. I trust you. You’ve earned it by being smart enough to read on and committed enough to get something out of this.

After Week One, Half the League is Winless.

The offseason, the draft, free agency, mini-camps, training camp, preseason all point to that first weekend of NFL regular season football, and half the teams are winless, unless there is a tie, which is like kissing your sister, they say.

May as well quit and go to Cabo, right?

🏈Even Legends Punt.

Even irresistible forces meet immovable objects. How stupid would life be if all we did was win?

Sometimes, your best plans have the worst results. A coaching staff spends the entire off-season developing a strategy for scoring more points than their opponents. They draft the best athletes they can and sign others in free agency to carry out their plan. They script their first fifteen plays. They go into week one with supreme confidence and high hopes. And more of them than not will end that first drive with a punt.

But they don’t burn their playbook. They don’t fire all their coaches or bench their starters after one failed drive. Do they?

🏈The Best Offense is a Good Defense.

A good defense takes the strain off the offense. Give up less, and less is needed to win.

🏈The Best Defense is a Good Offense.

Ball possession is a proven component of a winning strategy because it keeps the other team from having the ball, see. And it keeps your defense from being overexposed and tiring. Plus...

🏈Defenses Wear Out First.

I have watched football my entire conscious life. I have heard 143,738,246 times, “That defense is getting tired.”

I have never once heard, “That offense is wearing down.”

Never.

🏈It’s About the Process.

Which is patently false. It’s about way more than that, coach. Way more. And what if your process sucks? Or what if there is a better process?

🏈You Just Have to Have the Will to Win.

What exactly is the will to lose, then? Does one team step on the field wanting to lose? Do they give up before kickoff? Wave a white flag. You do have to have the will to win but not “just” the will to win.

❎0️⃣It’s Not About the X’s and the O’s; It’s the Jimmys and the Joes.

It is true that supreme talent can overcome a poor plan. It is also true that an excellent plan can overwhelm supreme talent. Ask General Cornwallis.

In the 2007 season, the New York Giants beat the New England Patriots and I still don’t know how. In Super Bowl XXV, backup QB Jeff Hostetler led the Giants to a massive upset Super Bowl win over the high-flying Buffalo Bills.

(Why do they call themselves Giants? They have two of the biggest upset Super Bowl wins in history. They should be Davids.)

Speaking of quarterbacks...

🏈When You Hand Off the Ball, It Is Out of Your Hands.

That is when you must trust the people and the process, the X’s and O’s, the Jimmys and the Joes.

This is Footballeadershipahoy 101, taught by David’s number one son, the football-brained kid from Abilene.

Add your own and build a playbook. And if you care at all about your fellow coaches, share what you know.

PS — I owe Stefanie Jones, a Mid-America Catastrophe Services leader, coworker, and college football referee a shout-out for inadvertently giving me the seed for these thoughts. Also, if you think it sucks, blame her. She’s a ref. She’s used to it.