Honor Your Commitments

When the halfback came towards me I froze.  Everything I'd practiced, everything my uncle had tried to teach me, every drill I'd worked on, flew out of my brain and was replaced by fear.

When I came back to the sidelines, I saw something in my uncle Lou's eyes I had never seen before.  He was hurt and disappointed, wounded that I would give up on a play.  My teammates felt the same way.  Not many of them said so out loud, but they didn't have to.  I knew that I had disappointed them, and they knew that I knew.  All the excuses in the world wouldn't negate the fact that I had turned away from my responsibilities.  In hindsight I had no business being on the field.  I was nine years old playing against kids who shaved in the morning and had five o'clock shadows by kickoff.  But that was no excuse for my failure to honor the commitment I had made to my coaches and teammates.

I realized that day, and it has stuck with me for the rest of my playing days and well into my coaching career, that the mental anguish you feel from letting down your coaches and teammates far exceeds any physical pain that might be inflicted on the football field.

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