This week I’m on a family trip down to Los Angeles for a wedding and some fun and relief from the Oregon weather. This morning we drove down to the anticipated site of a great January 1st clash, the granddaddy of them all, the Rose Bowl! While the teams weren’t practicing at the site, the floats were being prepared for the parade, the teams had all of their ‘official gear’ on sale, and the atmosphere was already electric. I found myself thinking that even though USC may be bummed that they’re not going to the national championship game, or that they even get to travel for the game, it will be a memorable experience for all of them.

I imagined what it might be like to run out onto a field of that size and magnitude. The biggest crowd I ever played in front was only about 6,000 and it still seemed loud and electric. The energy and noise provided from fans can be a great boost to any player needing that extra push. The noise can also play a factor in being able to communicate, to hear a quarterbacks cadence or a coache’s play.  And its then that the practice and chemistry of a team is tested. Can they move as one unit? Can they continue to run crisp and accurate plays? Can they block the noise out and focus, concentrate on the play to be successful?

The training and chemistry created during the months of the season will all be tested for these bowl teams. While teams like USC and Penn State are used to the noise and electricty of a game the magnitude of the Rose Bowl, after four weeks without a game, the adrenaline will have to be contained. Look for both teams to come out hot and fast. It’ll be a titanic match up that you won’t want to miss.

Merry Christmas from all of us here at EverydayQB! We hope you are with friends and family during this time and are safe and at peace during this holiday season.

Hopefully our Christmas posts have helped you during this holiday season. Let us know how we are doing and how we can improve in give you useful ideas and plans to tackle life head on every day! Email us at ryan@salemec.com or leave comments on one of our posts.

Keep an eye out for some exciting new things from EverydayQB. We’ll be doing some give-aways, new and interesting material and some great plans for your life! Merry Christmas!

Peyton Manning has helped his team make tremendous comebacks in four of their eleven victories this season, and they have won their last eight. He has done this with consistency and a confidence in his ability and his teammates potential for success.

Last night against the Jaguars, Peyton was 17-17 at the end of the first half, but his team was down by 10. He asked the coaches if there were any adjustments he needed to make (which is ironic since he was 17-17) and the coaches told him to just ‘do what he’s been doing’. Peyton did just that and let the Colts from behind again, completing 29-34 passes and 3TDs to lead the Colts to a victory.

The interesting thing in Peyton’s style of play during those comeback moments was this…nothing changed. Sure he may have felt an internal sense of urgency and his pass selection may have differed, but he was frantic, nervous or high-strung, he simply continued to do what needed to be done to help his team win.

Many of us will be behind often in life, up against the ropes, facing the giants, against all odds. The interesting question is, how will you respond? Do we become frantic and lose faith in what we’ve been doing, trying something different and failing, or can we have confidence in our game plan in the good and the bad so that we can be successful even when we are down?

Developing a game plan you believe in and sticking to your plan even when things aren’t going well can provide the longevity and opportunity necessary to weather storms and mount comebacks in your life. Just like Peyton did when his team was down, if we can ‘keep doing what we’ve been doing’ in a tested and sound game plan, we can overcome obstacles and be successful in dire situations.

Before the ‘Big Game’ on Sunday between the New York Giants and Cowboys, there was controversy swirling about secret meetings and disputes between star players, it seemed there was no way that a fragmented Cowboys team could put things together to beat the impressive New York Giants. But somehow, the Cowboys did. They set aside their differences and arguments and went out and performed, impressively beating the Giants 20-8.

The Cowboys were able to come together when the chips were down. To me, that is an impressive mark of an exceptional team. On every team, there are people that will not necesarrily get along or agree on everything. But being able to put aside those feelings so that the success of the team is deemed more important, is a mark of a real team.

Wade Phillips, head coach of the Cowboys, said after the game on Sunday, “Hey, let’s go out and play. All the words and stuff is gone. Just go out and play. That’s the only thing I did anything about it … Teammates have to play. It is a family. I’m not saying what happened or what didn’t happen, but brothers get in fights. But then they come back to their family and they fight for each other. I think that’s what our guys did.”

Having a team that can put personal needs or disagreements aside is important in being a successful team. Personally and professionally, encouraging others to come together as a team can go a long ways in helping your ‘team’ be successful.

When the Florida Gators were down 20-17 in last Saturday’s matchup, a statistic flashed on the bottom of the screen that Tim Tebow was 0-5 in his career when behind in the second half. Initially, I was simply envious that he had been down only five times going into the second half, because that’s just not normal. But what was remarkable, even as the commentators were making the point that he had never ‘come from behind’ was that within the next few minutes, Tebow had taken the Gators down the field and scored a touchdown, given them a lead that they would never lose.

Tim Tebow is an example of a competitor. Someone who loves situations where people think he is down and out. Situations where either he makes a play or his team loses. He most likely has visualized those situations and been in them before, and he relishes opportunities like those. I think of others sports and other tough competitors, guys like Lebron James or Kobe Bryant, who have an ability to flip a switch and take over a game. I believe that, on top of the amazing amounts of skill that they have, they have a wellspring of desire that is tapped into during those situations.

That wellspring of desire comes from a confidence and faith in yourself and in your teammates. The desire to ‘be the one with the ball’ in the final seconds of a game, means that you know you have the potential to succeed and you know that you can help your team. There have been countless times when superstars have had the ball in their hands for the final shot and have failed…but we don’t remember those moments. We remember the high flying, leg splitting, tongue out jumpshot to win the NBA championship. I will remember Tebow’s drive to catapult his team into the BCS National Championship Game against the Oklahoma Sooners. His desire, drive and confidence in himself has helped his team be successful.

With all of the BCS scenarios and complaints about this system that so accurately tries to pick the best teams in college football, yet always seems to leave a team on the outs, these weekends championship games are setting the stage for an interesting pattern of big championships games with big implications. The biggest of the games, of course, is the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Florida Gators. Even though the Gators are a ten point favorite, with games as big as these, there is no telling what might happen.

The SEC has always been a conference that has produced teams battling for a spot in the national championship game. Other teams in other leagues have equally interesting championship games this weekend. The Oklahoma Sooners have to play well to beat Missouri and USC…well…could probably still lay an egg and beat UCLA…but you never know!

As the college football season is winding down, or ramping up…depending on your view and how good your team is, Friday’s for a college football team become increasingly important. As you lower the physical energy expended in practice because guys are beat up and tired, there is a tendancy to lose mental focus as well. But with complicated schemes being created to throw opponents off and player’s bodies growing in fatigue, the mental aspect of football becomes increasingly important.

Whoever said that football players are stupid, didn’t know the game of football. They may be right in the sense that we find joy in bashing heads together, getting beat up and bruised, cold and wet on Saturdays, but the game of football is mentally difficult and complicated. The amount of reads and mental processes that go through every play in a football game are numerous and extensive. Consider the steps a QB goes throw when starting a play.

1. Call the play/make sure you’re teammates are doing okay/have confidence in your voice and encouragement if needed

2. Break the huddle with precision and accuracy/check the down and distance/take your first look at the defense.

3. Make sure your teammates line up correctly/scan the defense from left to right/back to front

4. Check the depth of corners and safeties, how agitated the linebackers are, where the defensive line might shift

5. Start to call the cadence with authority and precision/check to see how the defense moves/send the receivers in motion

6. Consider calling an audible/Anticipate where your reads are on the play/Keep your head moving so the defense can’t time a blitz

7. Keep the crowd noise out of your head/Prepare for the play/Snap the Ball/Read the Defense/Execute the play

Six of those seven steps happen before the play even starts. There are a myriad of other things that go on during the play…but that’s another post, another day.

Mental focus becomes key then, to success on Saturday. Mental focus is equally important in your business and family situations. Staying focused on goals and commitments when energy and the body is growing weary, finding ways to relieve stress and stay focused on the goal, becomes pivotal to success. Take time to relax your body and to allow the mind to focus and gather strength. As your mental capacities sharpen, they can will the body to continue to be effective and productive.

Football combines the two worst things about America: it is violence punctuated by committee meetings.    
-George F. Will

As we continue to discuss here at EveryDayQB how sports and the everyday life are interconnected, it is interesting to think about the concept of ‘controlled chaos’. Controlled chaos is everywhere around us and is not always controlled. There was chaos this weekend when a store worker was trampled to death on Black Friday. There was chaos in India when terrorists wreaked havoc on a nation. We live in a world of chaos. Both globally and personally. Is there a way we can control and order chaos in by which we can direct the power and strength of the human will into positive and progressive ends?

The quote above by George F. Will, while humorous, is intriguing to think about. The game of American Football is one of the most violent and aggressive sports in the world, and also has the most ordered rules and regulations. No sport has more referees than football. No sport has more rules than football. No sport has more boundaries and lines than football. It is an interesting sport in which chaos is controlled and applauded, cheered for and sneered at. We all celebrate an amazing hit that crushes an opponent and cringe when a knee or ankle is twisted in a direction it was not intended to be twisted in. There is a violent chaos that is attempting to have parameters, boundaries, ‘side lines’, put on it and then, to be left alone to play out.

But within the chaos and the violence and ‘committee meetings’ of football, there are some remarkable values that emerge. Courage, victory, honor, teamwork, selflessness, every person doing their part to be successful, are truths that are self-evident and revealing in the game of football.

Some of the closest bonds I have ever had with human beings have been my football teammates. We may not still be friends or even see each other, but the moment we do see one another or get together, there is a river of friendship, commitment and comradarie that is deeper than most friendships one has their whole life. Existing in the chaos together and coming out on top forges bonds that run strong and deep.

In the business world, chaos can be overcome through teamwork and perseverance. Rather than ignoring or trying to erradicate chaos, accepting it exists and rising above it with ideals of teamwork and self-sacrifice can add depth to a person and business that forges a deep connection and strength that can weather most storms.