Alabama football taught us to never give up | GARY COSBY JR.
Do you remember Indianapolis Colts coach Jim Mora’s rant when asked if his team could make the playoffs? It went like this: “Don't talk about — playoffs! You kidding me? Playoffs? I just hope we can win a game! Another game!”
That’s about where I was at halftime of the Alabama Crimson Tide’s game with Ole Miss. The team looked, well, not to mince words, awful. They had lost to Texas with a performance that was not hopeless, but not exactly up to standard. The team traveled to play USF and looked, hmm, uninspired, is that the word? Then the first half of the Ole Miss game was one of the most disorganized halves of football I had seen a Nick Saban-coached Alabama team play.
I don’t know what happened at halftime in the locker room, but from that halftime break through the SEC Championship Game, Alabama looked more like itself. The Crimson Tide just knocked off top-ranked Georgia to claim the SEC championship and earn a spot in the College Football Playoff.
Believe it or not, this is not a sports column. This is a column about not giving up, about believing in yourself when no one else does, and never quitting. This is a team that, facing fourth and goal from the 31-yard line at Auburn, somehow managed to score and win.
None of us play football. What we do is go to work, have a family, live life. Frankly, it can be a little boring at times, extremely difficult at other times. We have to deal with illness or some form of disability. In short, life throws many problems our way. That’s were the whole "football as life" metaphor takes shape and where this version of the Alabama football team can teach each and every one of us some serious life lessons.
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First, don’t quit when you are down. In football, you have to lose here and there. Even the best teams lose and sometimes they lose to teams they are better than. That’s life. Sometimes we lose. Maybe we get fired, laid off in the modern terminology, maybe we miss a promotion or haven’t had a raise in a decade. That stuff happens and when it does, you’ve got choices to make. What you chose to do will influence every future decision you make.
If you fold the tent and walk away, that can set a precedent that can ruin your life. Nick Saban has a kind of mantra he uses in one form or another over and over. He talks about doing what it takes to be successful. That means a great deal of hard work and discipline with a goal in mind are necessary to win in football or life.
That focus, the next game rather than a national championship, ensures the team performs each week. How we apply that is by focusing on today. What do I have to do today to get through to tomorrow? If I get through tomorrow, what do I have to do to make it to the day after? When things are down, that’s exactly the mindset you have to have.
I work with students and interns from time to time and I tell them all that you don’t usually make enormous leaps forward in your life. You make one step at a time. To be successful, that have a great career and a great life you have to do a little better today than you did yesterday and do a little better tomorrow than you did today.
I applied for an internship when I was in school years ago, and the editor I talked to told me to find a new line of work. I had a choice. I decided there was more in me than I had yet shown and buckled down. I didn’t quit. I got up from that hard knock and pressed on.
Part of success, even small success, is getting up when you get knocked down. Life will knock you flat out like a lineman pancaking a defensive back. The key is not the hit. The key is getting up and getting ready for the next play. Sometimes, that is the hardest thing you will ever do. You get knocked down by life and the temptation is to lay there and feel sorry for yourself. You can do that, but you won’t get past that spot in your life until you decide to stand up and get ready for the next play, the next hit, the next success.
And that, too, is the right mindset. Do you think coach Saban allowed Alabama to dwell on that loss to Texas? Of course not. He focused their minds on the next game. When they didn’t play well in that game, he didn’t allow them to focus on that game. He pointed them to Ole Miss. When they had a rough first half, he didn’t allow them to dwell on it. He pointed them to the second half. And so it goes. Success, a great life, is built by, and I quote, “Focusing on what it takes to be successful.”
Gary Cosby Jr. can be contacted at gary.cosby@tuscaloosanews.com
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Alabama football teaches life lessons | GARY COSBY JR.
