In honor of President’s Day, we recognize those past presidents who cultivated and honed their leadership skills as football players.
Gerald Ford was an all-state player in high school and a team MVP at Michigan who had offers to play professionally but chose to attend law school at Yale where he actually coached football making him the only US President to both play and coach college football.
Dwight D Eisenhower was a two-way starter at West Point who had the distinction of once tackling the great Jim Thorpe.
Ronald Reagan not only played the “Gipper” in the movie “Knute Rockne All American,” he was also a lineman at Eureka College.
Richard Nixon, at all of 5’11” and 175 lbs, was a reserve Tackle at Whittier College. You have to love the undersized lineman!
Donald Trump was a three-sport athlete at the New York Military Academy who played football for one year.
Football provides a unique environment for developing leadership skills, as it requires individuals to work together towards a common goal, make decisions under pressure, and overcome obstacles as a team. Players first learn to follow before they can lead. Many of the successful ones often pattern their own personas after the successful players and coaches whose examples they try to emulate. These leadership skills learned on the football field clearly translated to success in other aspects of life for the aforementioned men as it has done for so many who have played team sports in general, and football in particular.
Life is a team sport. (At least it is in my opinion.) The team surrounding any successful individual brings together the complementary characteristics of each individual and unites them for a common purpose. Undoubtedly some fair better than others, and all are subject to the unexpected in life, just as we find unexpected bounces from a ball with two points! Nonetheless, we find ourselves better for our experiences. Better for the teammates who shared in our collective adversity… Better for those who set examples of excellence, held us accountable for performing at or beyond our potential… and better after recognizing that when we play together, we really are capable of extraordinary achievement.
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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