A great Thanksgiving memory of mine is not only being with family and eating great food, but having the Detroilt Lions or Dallas Cowboys football games on in the background of the day of Thanks. The Thanksgivng Classic games have been a regular occurrence since the NFL’s inception in 1920. Here is some history related to the games, found at Wikipedia.

“The Lions have hosted a game each year since 1934 (excluding the years 1939-1944), and the Cowboys have hosted a game each year since 1966 (excluding 1975 and 1977 when the St. Louis Cardinals hosted a game instead).”

“The first owner of the Lions, G.A. Richards, started the tradition of the Thanksgiving Day game as a gimmick to get people to go to Lions football games, and to continue a tradition begun by the city’s previous NFL teams.^[1] It is widely rumored that the Cowboys sought a guarantee that they would regularly host Thanksgiving games as a condition of their very first one (since games on days other than Sunday were uncommon at the time and thus high attendance was not a certainty).”

“CBS was the first network to televise Thanksgiving games in 1956; in 1965, the first ever color television broadcast of an NFL game was the Thanksgiving match between the Lions and the Baltimore Colts.”

One of the best parts about the Thanksgiving Classics in recent years has been the inception and creation of the Turkey Leg Award. This award is an MVP award started by John Madden. “In 1989 (the year of the infamous Bounty Bowl), John Madden of CBS awarded the first “Turkey Leg Award,” for the game’s most valuable player. Reggie White of the Philadelphia Eagles was the first recipient. The gesture was seen mostly as a humorous gimmick relating to Madden’s famous multi-legged turduckens served on Thanksgiving. Since then, however, the award has gained subtle notoriety, and currently, each year an MVP has been chosen for both the CBS and FOX games. Madden brought the award to FOX in 1994, but it was abandoned and replaced with the “Galloping Gobbler” — a running silver turkey wearing a football helmet — when Madden left for ABC in 2002. When CBS returned to the NFL in 1998, they introduced their own award, the “All-Iron Award”, which is, suitably enough, a small silver iron, a reference to Phil Simms‘ All-Iron team for toughness. The All-Iron winner also receives a skillet of blackberry cobbler made by Simms’ mother.^[1]“

How can you win a MVP turkey leg this Thanksgiving? Spend time with your family. Help them cook the meal, enjoy their company and be thankful. This holiday is an opportunity to take our game plan and put it into effect on a big day, with family, where sometimes there’s a lot of love, and sometimes there’s not. Whatever the emotions on your holiday, they are intense. Rise to the occasion, hurdle the obstacles, step up and play well and show your family love and thanksgiving. That’s the essence of an MVP, one worthy of the Turkey Leg.

This is Rivalry Week in college football and the stakes have never been higher. With BCS and Conference title implications in many of the games, it will be an exciting weekend.

As a player, rivalry week is an exciting thing. The history and often, the bad blood, associated with these rivalry weeks is enough to stir the sore muscles and tired bones of a long season for another game. Alumni from previous years show up and recount old stories of the glory days, victories over the hated foes and how important a victory would mean to them as an alumni. Newspaper clippings of one team bashing or challenging the other in the press are posted in locker rooms to motivate teams during practice. Rivalry weeks are also important for recruiting, as many of the rivalries are in-state rivalries, programs are competing not only for a win, but for recruiting leverage with the incoming class. They want to be able to show their superiority as a program of choice for the graduating seniors making decisions on where to play college football.

Wikipedia has a great and comprehensive list of many of the rivalry games, their names, the trophy involved and how long the game has been played. In Oregon this week, the Beavers and the Ducks, two teams in the AP top twenty-five, compete in the Civil War, a hated rivalry going back to 1894. With a win, the Beavers would earn a spot in the Rose Bowl and the Ducks would love to be the spoiler. It is a heated rivalry that will be sure to be an explosive game.

Rivalries and heated competition can be enough to motivate players and teams to work just a little harder, spend a little more energy, find a little more focus, because of the stakes of bragging rights for a whole year. No matter what the records of the teams involved, every rivalry game can be anybody’s game.

I was on the edge of my seat on Saturday afternoon, watching the Oregon State Beavers try and take down the Arizona Wildcats as they strive towards a possible Rose Bowl bid. It was a great game and the Arizona Wildcats were very impressive at home. The game was winding to a close at the Beavers were down 17-10. After scoring a touchdown to possibly tie it up, Justin Kahut, the Beavers kicker came out to attempt the routine extra point. Unfortunately, the deepest fear of every special teams coach’s dreams occurred; Kahut missed the extra point.

You could see the anger and anguish on the coaches and players faces as they possibly watched their Rose Bowl disappear with the missed extra point. But instead of hanging their heads and emotionally ousting their kicker Kahut, I saw encouragement and support given to their kicker. I’ve seen this often, both while playing and on TV, a team or teammate trying to encourage the kicker after he blew a critical kick. Its usually done somewhat half-heartedly or with a plastic grin, pretending everything would be okay when it really wasn’t. But what I saw from the Beaver football team was genuine encouragement. It wasn’t ignoring the dire straights they were in, but they weren’t giving up on each other or on their kicker even when all seemed lost.
Instead, as soon as they got the ball back, from their own 20 yard line, they made a miraculous recovery. “On the third play of the drive, OSU Quarterback, Sean Canfield, who started in place of the injured Lyle Moevao, found Sammie Stroughter alone behind the Wildcats secondary for a 47-yard gain to the Arizona 7. Four plays later, Kahut came on and calmly nailed a 24-yard field goal to seal the Beavers’ comeback.”

The calm that Kahut showed came from experience, but I believe that it also came from the encouragement and support that his teammate’s showed him. Kahut and his teammates weren’t dwelling on the past, but they weren’t ignoring it. They knew the stakes, the situation, but they refused to give up the time they had left, and they made the most of it.

You may find yourself dwelling on a past mistake you’ve made or someone else you know is struggling with the pressure of something coming up. Honest, heartfelt encouragement can do wonders for a person, giving them the strength and confidence they could need in order to conquer the next mountain life puts in their path.

As I’ve mentioned before, football is an incredible sport in the sense that every person on every play must be working together in order for a team to be successful. Therefore, the chemistry of a team is extremely important and critical for the team to have a chance to win on “Game Day”. How well your team gets along, how close they are, how well they work together, can all be affected by your team’s chemistry.

ESPN ‘Outside the Lines’ has done a story on the University of Buffalo Bulls titled ‘All Or Nothing’ and their team chemistry. This amazing story chronicles a team who, in 1958, after winning the Lambert cup for the best small-school program on in the Eastern U.S. were invited to their first ever bowl bid, the Tangerine Bowl against Florida State. But after learning of the invitation to the bowl, they were also informed that their two african-american players would not be allowed to participate.

The university and coach Dick Offenhamer left it to the team to decide whether to accept the bid. The players gathered in a basement room of Clark Gymnasium on the Buffalo campus to take a vote. Bottini and Reale held small paper ballots in their hands, but before they could pass them out, the players spontaneously and unanimously rejected the bid. “We weren’t the same team without Willie and Mike,” guard Phil Bamford remembers. “Whether they were benchwarmers or stars, we wouldn’t have been the same team.”

The Bulls had made a commitment to each other, and their team chemistry meant more to them than the most important game in their school’s history. They have never received another bowl bid in their 102 year history. But the players on that team do not regret the decision they made. They saw something more important, something more critical than a football game. Bamford says again, “We didn’t look at the outside,” Bamford says. “We lived together and worked together and struggled together, so we saw the inside of each other.”

The Bulls had chemistry. An unyielding and deep bond that helped them face adversity and make the right choice. Chemistry is something that is developed and takes time. This time sweat and bled together. They were in the trenches, in competition and in community with each other. Developing chemistry in your business, family and other areas of life will be critical to success and a sense of joy and community. Take the opportunity and the time to develop chemistry with your teams in preparation for ‘Game Day’.

After a long day of watching film and reviewing the past week’s game, and two hard days of practice. Thursday’s are a chance to recover physically and increase the level of mental focus in preparation for ‘Game Day’. Understanding the ‘Game Plan’ and what you are going to do on Saturday is important. On Thursdays, a football team will run through schemes and situations which might occur during the game on Saturday and how the team or player could respond to those situations.

Being prepared for possible scenarios and knowing how to respond to situations in a game can be important to success. That preparation comes from evaluation and hard work in the ‘early’ part of the week, but it must be followed by a focused mental time of going through scenarios and reviewing what can be done to have an opportunity to be successful.

If you are preparing for a game, a presentation, an event, etc. have you prepared the possible scenarios and how you might respond to them if they should occur? If the party you are planning is not going well, what’s your back-up plan? If the presentation takes a turn for the worse, what is a tool you can use to get the presentation back on track?

Have a specific strategy and focusing mentally and preparing for that situation can give you a better chance at handling the unexpected if it should arise. We were taught to go through ‘positive visualization’ of multiple situations that could arrive in a game and how we might respond and to ‘see’ ourselves in our mind, making the right choice and having success. This positive visualization was crucial in my success as an athlete and helped to mentally prepare me for situations that could occur in a game. As a quarterback, so many decisions you make are mental ones that then lead to physical actions, and training the mind to anticipate exceptions and then quickly and accurately respond to them was instrumental in success as an athlete.

Prepare for multiple scenarios in your game and visualize yourself making the right choices and coming out on top.

On Wednesday in the week of a college quarterback, another day of practice begins to focus more and more on the upcoming game. You begin to talk about certain strategies and plays that you are going to try against your opponent, based on the film that you have been watching and the game plan that your coaches have prepared. You make certain adjustments and begin to understand the personnel of the team you are playing against. This is where your own teammates who are ‘representing’ the other team in practice (called a scout team or practice squad) become very important. They are responsible for trying to give you the most accurate reflection of the team you are going to see on Saturday.

Individual players and personnel of the opposing team have strengths and weaknesses, just like you and your teammates have similar strengths and weaknesses. With a proper understanding of the weaknesses, you are able to exploit and use those strengths and weaknesses against your opponent in order to be successful on Saturday. Preparing for those situations, therefore, becomes very important on ‘Strategy Day’.

Each of us has opponets and obstacles that we will face throughout each of our weeks. Possibly an unexpected event that might delay a deadline, or something happens to one of our family members. We can respond to those obstacles in a few different ways.

1. They can paralyze us, leaving us confused and motionless and the obstacle can seem insurmountable.

2. We can try and attack the obstacle head on and do everything we can in our strength to defeat that obstacle.

3. We can rise above the obstacle, acknowledging its presence, but refusing to let it keep us from our destination, our goal.

Here’s an example of a friend and former teammate of mine, Kevin Boss and his ability to ‘rise above the obstacle’ in a game against the Philadelphia Eagles:

Rising above the osbtacles you face in life and give you the positve attitude and momentum you need to reach your goal. While facing an obstacle head on can be productive, you can get bogged down or overcome with worry and exhaustion and get ‘tackled’ to the ground. Instead, keep your eyes fixed on your goal and ‘rise above’ your obstacle.

Tuesdays are work days in the life of a college quarterback and football team. Its the first chance in the week to get out at practice and do some serious hitting and working on technique. There is no substitute for being able to practice at full speed. And the techniques and ‘every day drills’ that have been rehearsed and practiced are now put to the test in this heavy day of practice.

One thing about football, or sports in general, is that there is always feedback that is going on, after every play and every drill. This feedback from coaches and players can be positive, negative, constructive and destructive. The type of feedback given can effect each player differently and drive him to succeed, or to despair and quit. During this heavy day of drills, a large amount of feedback and evaluation is given to the team and to players about what they need to do in order to be more successful in the upcoming game.

John Madden has a great quote that says, “Coaches have to watch for what they don’t want to see and listen to what they don’t want to hear.” As a coach, you have to invest time and energy into examining the weaknesses of your team and finding out ways to improve upon their individual and team skills. Developing and moving in a postive and upward direction is the only chance that your team has to be successful. Being able to evaluate progress and make adjustments is cruical to a team’s development.

Evaluation in the business world and in the family are also important skills to be learned. As humans, we are constantly striving, and constantly falling short. But our striving occasionally attains measures of perfection or success. It is this attempt to become better and improve that is the hallmark of human achievement and personal success. Constantly evaluating and giving feedback in the home and at work can move you and others into a better position to be successful.

Giving feedback and evaluating can be a delicate process and is different for every person. You must understand your personnel and their personalities, how they respond to criticism and remember the end goal: to help them be successful. As a player, I welcomed criticism and honesty from my coaches, and the times when they would consciously and effectively give me things to work on and to improve upon, I responded well and made good strides. But useless yelling and derrogatory haranguing were just a loud obnoxious noise in many of our ears, and we were not willing to respond to such criticism.

Being able to effectively evaluate and constructively analyze your strengths and weaknesses on a regular basis can give you an opportunity to improve and to become better, each and every day.

Our first review day brings up some exciting games from the previous week in college football. As the BCS championship games draw near, teams are angling/marketing themselves for viable spots in those big games. Texas Tech had another impressive victory over the Oklahoma State Cowboys and Graham Harrell made a further statement about his Heisman trophy candidacy. He completed 40 of his 50 passes in the Texas Tech victory. His consistency is what has made his Texas Tech offense so explosive, not to mention the best receiver in the nation in Michael Crabtree.

At the expense of sounding like I am worshiping Graham Harrell, I simply want to point out the high energy and explosiveness of their offense. I believe that this explosiveness and power is due to the consistency that they have shown throughout the season and, I am confident, that they have displayed in practice.

Football is a game of consistency and playing only one game a week makes consistency in practice throughout the week extremely important. In your life, there are many ‘games’ that you have. Presentations at work, tests or papers in school, family gatherings or major life events, and what will prepare you the most is consistency in your everyday life as you prepare for those events.

In a college football practice, each team during the day goes through what can be called, “EDDs”. These, ‘every day drills’ are designed to maintain consistency in skills and sustain basic important aspects of football that are important to have for every game. For quarterbacks, every day drills consist of: taking snaps from the center, dropping back and moving in the pocket and throwing basic routes to receivers. They are one of the first things done in every practice and the foundations on which the practice is built upon. These are important skills that every game relies on, and if these aspects of the game are not solid and well-rehearsed, when the pressures and intricacies of a football game occur, mistakes are made in these basic areas and the results are turnovers and missed opportunities.

Because Graham Harrell, Michael Crabtree, and hundreds of other college quarterbacks and receivers practice these drills each day, they have an opportunity to be successful. The teams that are consistent and focus on these basic skills have a better chance of doing well on Saturdays.

What are the ‘every day drills’ in your life or business. Perhaps it is spending a few minutes every day talking and communicating with your spouse, or preparing a speech for a few minutes each day the week before you are supposed to give the presentation? Preparation and consistency are pivotal and crucial in helping you and your team be successful. Identify your every day drills and focus on perfecting them in your life.

Here at Everyday QB, there is a method for you that can apply to any team or situation that you find yourself in. Based on my experience as a college quarterback, I believe that the training and practice method used by collegiate football teams throughout the country can be a plan that you can implement into your business, family or personal life. This training method is designed to prepare you for, “The Big Game” and is intended to maximize you and your team’s ability to be successful. Here at EverydayQB, we will use this training method and weekly schedule to relate sports news, strategy and theory to your everyday life. Providing insights from my experience as a college quarterback, athlete and sports lover, I will give you tips and methods that can improve your life and give you the opportunity to be successful.

Training and focus are crucial to every ‘game’ situation. Even when things are seemingly not going your way, victory and success can still be achieved. Graham Harrell, quarterback for Texas Tech, faced such a situation when they upset the no. 1 ranked Texas Longhorns last Saturday. Bringing his team down on a scoring drive to win the game, he threw a pass that was tipped and nearly intercepted by the Longhorn defense. When you see a pass you’ve thrown at the end of the game nearly intercepted, it can rattle and effect you for the next few plays and you can have a tendency to be tentative. But instead, Graham Harrell had the focus and the confidence to step up the very next play and make a great pass, behind the receiver, Michael Crabtree, which he caught and ran in for the touchdown. Graham Harrell mentioned in an after-the-game interview with ESPN that it was a throw and a play that they have practiced every day and during the week leading up to the game.

I am confident that the “Everyday QB game plan”, when applied with focus and practice, can give you an opportunity to be successful in life. Here is the game plan for each week at Everyday QB:

Monday: Review Day-Monday’s are the time of the week when you look back on the game and review how you could have improved, gotten better and the adjustments you need to make to be successful for the upcoming week. At EverydayQB, we will discuss weekend games, provide angles and personal insights that you won’t find on an average sports blog, and learn how to analyze and evaluate your business and family plans.

Tuesday: Work Day-Tuesday is the work day. Practicing technique, improving on mistakes made in the previous week’s game and making strides toward getting better. We’ll talk about technique, discipline, corrections and provide coaching tips on sports and the business and family arena.

Wednesday: Strategy Day-In a collegiate football practice on Wednesdays, teams spend the majority of the day going over the specific game plan for their opponent that week. Its about finding a way to win, finding a way to be successful. We’ll talk about game plans for your life, breaking down film and evaluating opponents and making adjustments based on your personal strengths and developing your weaknesses.

Thursday: Fine Tune Day-Thursday is a light workout including a mock scrimmage, team planning and lifting weights. In the high profile collegiate teams, talking with the media is important on Thursdays. We’ll give tips on interviews and media, reviews on sports equipment and and proper dieting and weight training for athletes and people.

Friday: Visualization and Chemistry-Fridays are a walk-through pracice, a mental review and a pep talk from the coach and team leaders. We’ll talk about pre-game speeches, make weekend predictions and talk about how to visualize success and create positive chemistry in your teams to face the battles and challenges of Game Day!

The collegiate football practice schedule captures the preparation needed to have an opportunity to be successful in every battle and opponet you face. Everyday QB will focus on this method and understanding from a sports world, its new and concepts, how sports truths can be applied to your life, where you’re at. This format and pattern can be re-arranged and re-formatted to fit your Game Day and preparation. But these days will prepare for the big day, and Everyday QB will be chance for you to hone and improve a game plan for your everyday life.