Coaching legend, Hal Mumme, recently shared a great post from another great, Hugh Yaughn:
“If you’ve never played football, you could never truly understand what it means to put those shoulder pads and helmet on for the very last time. Football can never be duplicated, NEVER.”
While I agree in general with Hugh’s statement about football, I do not think putting them on for the last time is as nearly impactful as taking them off for the last time…
As I referenced in last week’s blog, most players never realize it is their last game. For me, it was on the field at Washington & Lee University in Lexington, VA. I vividly remember everything about that moment when I pulled off the pads for the very last time.
Over the past three and a half decades, I have played pick-up basketball, Rec league softball, competed in triathlons, played golf, tennis, racquetball and pickleball, enjoyed alpine and Nordic skiing in the winter, and wakeskating in the summer, none of those things will ever replace what it felt like to be a football player; a part of, and belonging to, something so much bigger than myself.
I don’t in any way want to minimize the experiences of those who derive satisfaction or meaning from those (or other) endeavors. I simply want to convey how in my experience as a player, and now observing more than 30 team evolutions as a coach, the dissolution of a team, and the loss of belonging, as the season closes is real. We’ve talked before about Professor Tuckman’s teambuilding steps of “Forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing…” and I’ve also heard it suggested a fifth step, “mourning,” could be added to complete the cycle as the team experience concludes.
Players feel something special when they put on the uniform. It’s an overt declaration of purpose, shared vision, shared goals, and shared meaning between those who have endured adversity and enjoyed success. The culture we work so hard to instill and sustain lives on in the team, and will echo in the lives of those who have been teammates. However, when they take the uniform off for the last time, a little bit of their identity dies… While in most cases, aspects of identity are reborn in new endeavors, the change from saying “I am a football player,” to “I was a football player,” is a loss worth mourning.
Coach Rich Alercio is available to discuss coaching philosophy, X’s & O’s, or teach his O-Line “techniques in the trenches.” Contact Coach at richalercio@gmail.com and share http://www.olineskills.com with your colleagues and friends. Thanks for supporting this blog and joining our conversations, and as always, thanks for your time!
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