Can One Player Be Above The Team

Hello Insider Family. Every sports fan, athlete, coach, owner, and commentator says that there is no “I” in TEAM. As a former athlete, I was taught to sacrifice my personal goals for the greater good of the team. When that is done, then we are all successful. We win as a team and we lose as a team. It doesn’t profit anyone to be a prima-donna or a superstar, but you never win. I remember thinking I was bigger than the team when I was in high school. I wanted to skip practice, and expected to still start. I walked in the barbershop before pregame walk through to find my coach there. I tried to sneak out before he saw me, but too late. He looked at me and said, “I don’t care if we are up 50-0 tomorrow night. The only time you will touch the field is when you are warming up with the team.” What? Are you serious? I am a returning starter, this is my senior season, it’s our first game of the season, and a home game. I know you are not going to bench me. Fast forward to the next night and when our defense took the field, I was on the bench. No, he didn’t actually bench me the entire game, but he did bench me the entire first quarter, which seemed like an eternity. At that moment, I learned a valuable lesson…with or without me; the team will keep moving forward. No one man is above the team.

I know you remember the exploits of Michael Jordan in the 1990’s. His “Airness” has been hailed as the greatest player that the game has ever seen. I can remember seeing him do things with the basketball in his hands that will never be duplicated by anyone else in this lifetime. His passion to will to win was unmatched. However, we cannot forget that until he started to trust his teammates, instead of trying to be a one-man show, his teams could not conquer the elite teams of that day. Scottie Pippen made one of the most insightful quotes when he said, “You all say I couldn’t win any championships without Michael…well, Michael didn’t win any championships without me either”. The Bulls did not become the dominant team of the 90’s until they became a TEAM themselves. A TEAM of players will beat one player every time. If you don’t believe me, just check your sports history. The proof is in the pudding.

Another example that comes to mind is the New York Yankees. I want you to think back to when they first acquired Alex Rodriguez. For a few years, it seemed that they forgot about the formula that had led to so much success for their franchise, which was team play. At the point that they started putting their focus on him as an individual, he could not deliver when it was needed most. You take that, along with the distractions of living in NYC, where the media scrutiny is at an all time high for the superstars of the game that is a recipe for disaster…even if you are A-Rod. However, last season, the focus came off him as an individual and went back to the team as a whole. As a result, not only was A-Rod able to shine, so was the entire team by capping off their season with another championship. The MVP ended up being the least likely candidate going into the World Series.

My last example is the most compelling one, Brett Favre. When dealing with Favre, it seems that he is, in fact, bigger than the team. He held the Green Bay Packers hostage for 2 seasons before they had enough of his antics and released him. Now he is doing the same thing to the Minnesota Vikings. He has used the threat of retirement for nothing more than a clever way to hold out of training camp and demand more money, which the Vikings have willingly conceded. I would respect him more if he would just “MAN UP” and tell the truth. What is more disappointing to me is that Favre gets a pass for his behavior every year, but other players like Brandon Marshall, Anquan Boldin, or more recently, Darrelle Revis, get scrutinized by the media and called selfish for not honoring their contracts, when they hold/held out for what compensation they felt is/was due to them. So let’s get this straight…there is no “I” in TEAM if your name is not Brett Favre. However, if your name is Brett Favre, then there is not only and “I” in TEAM, the TEAM will bend over backwards for you and tell the world that it is ok. Never mind what this does to your locker room and to the players that are sacrificing everyday for the TEAM. All I can say is the Vikings better win the Super Bowl this year to make it worth all the trouble the rest of the team has to endure to accommodate one player. If they don’t win it all, then it is price you pay for giving an individual superstar treatment. I applaud the Packers for having the testicular fortitude to send Favre packing and moving the TEAM forward with Aaron Rodgers. More teams should follow suit. They are a shining example of showing that one man is not bigger than the team, even if he is Brett Favre. Kudos to the Green Bay Packer from the world’s biggest Dallas Cowboys fan!

Use Sports, Don’t Let Sports Use You

Hello my friends. In the past month, this subject has weighed heavy on my heart for several reasons. I have seen far too many of our men and women center their lives on sports looking for the big payday. However, when that payday doesn’t come, and your body is beat down, aching, and starting to gain weight…I wonder was it all worth it in the end? However, I do know a guy that is a great example of doing it the right way and making it (sports), work to his advantage.

His name is Quentin Riggins. His football resume includes, All State linebacker at Robert E. Lee High School, in Montgomery, AL. This earned him a full scholarship to play college football at Auburn University where he was All-SEC his sophomore, junior, and senior seasons. He was 2nd Team All-American his junior and seasons as well as leading the team in tackles both years. Last year, he was inducted in the SEC Hall of Fame. I can go on and on about his many accomplishments on the field, but the same way I can brag about him, you can name a person or two that you can brag about their exploits on the field as well. However, the way I can name Quentin as a success story; I can also remember another guy from my hometown, that I won’t name, that had similar success in college, then, went on to play about 7 or 8 years in the NFL. However, this guy allowed sports to use him, and he is now back at home in Montgomery, with no degree, broke, and living at home with his mom. This guy, unlike Quentin, went to Auburn to play football, not to get an education. Although professional football panned out for him, you cannot play football forever. The sad thing is because he didn’t educate himself, he got taken advantage of once he got to the NFL and became rich. Initially, you may see him as a victim because he had it all and lost it all. I challenge you to fight that temptation to see him in this light because he, just like Quentin, was on full scholarship and had every opportunity to go to class and earn his degree, but he chose not to. As a result, the outcome of his life is altogether different than what it should be.

So what makes Quentin so special? The answer is simple….absolutely nothing because he didn’t do anything out of the ordinary. He simply did what he was supposed to do, which was get an education and make the most of his opportunities. He is the most regular guy that you will ever meet. If you walked up to him on the street, not knowing who he was already, or even if you did know who he was, he would be just as nice to you whether he knew you or not. He is, however, the example of using sports to his advantage. He got his degree from Auburn (thanks to his football scholarship), because he went to school to get an education. Playing football simply provided the means to an end. He even played in the World Football League for a few years overseas where his football career ended due to injury. So, he then came back home and went to work, thanks to the degree he earned playing at Auburn. However, he understood that in the state of Alabama, Auburn alumni have a very extensive network. He made the right connections during his time playing for Auburn to set up his career after football. He has worked his way up through the state government and legislation. Some of the roles he served in are Legislative Analyst for the Speaker of the House, Legislative Liaison to the Governor, and he is now serving as the Senior Vice President for Governmental Affairs. Also, since 1991, he has also been moonlighting as a Sideline Reporter for Auburn Football. So, the same university that he played for now pays him to stay connected to their football program.

Knowing how serious I am about parenting, I cannot fail to mention that he is very active in the community and is a proud husband and father. He may not know it until he reads this article, but Quentin was a role model to me and I am sure many others who watched him play. For me, he was not a role model because of what he did on field, but because of the example he set in his life off the field. I was fortunate enough to know him personally. Therefore, I got to see the competitor on the field and the person off the field. As a person and as a player, I saw him do it the “right way”.

I never asked him if he had NFL dreams or not. I’m sure like most of us, he did. At 6’0, 210 pounds in 1989, there were not a lot of NFL teams taking linebackers at his size. I have no doubt if he was bigger, he would have had a great pro career because he was gifted, a student of the game, and a leader. I knew he would be successful in life because of the type of person he was. Because he was one of the good guys, he is mentioned with the greats that packed 85,000 people into Jordan-Hare Stadium every Saturday.

Young men and women please don’t take this as me discouraging you from pursuing professional sports. I would never want to take away any young person’s dream. I encourage you to pursue your dreams, no matter what they may be. I am asking you to be responsible for getting your education along the way. Let sports pay for your education, but by all means, take advantage of the opportunity to earn your degree. In closing, I want to ask you, who is your example of an athlete using sports and not letting sports use them? However, the bigger and more significant question is WILL YOU USE SPORTS, OR, WILL SPORTS USE YOU?

Coaches vs. Fathers, Who Do We Need More Of?

As Father's Day has come and gone, I now have time to reflect on the importance, or lack of importance, of the role of the father in the lives of young men today. The conclusion that I came to is that the role is vitally important. I want to throw a question out there: If you had to choose which parental role was more important to the successful upbringing of a child, is it the mother or the father? Now, before you answer that question, I do ask that you pause for a minute, take a deep breath, and put aside all emotion. Once you have done that, I then ask that you give me an honest answer. If I had to guess, for a variety of reasons, the majority of you would say the mothers are more important. I’ll come back to that later.

I thought back to when my nephew was playing little league football and I coached him for 3 seasons. (Disclaimer: this was before I had children). I can remember many single mothers dropping their boys off to "Coach Lump" for practice each day and for our games on Saturdays. These mothers would put 100% trust in me and the other coaches for the safety, direction, correction, discipline, and development of their kids. I can remember as the seasons would go on, they would come up to me and thank me for giving their sons a "male role model" to pattern their lives after. They would talk about how well their sons were doing in school, how their attitudes had changed around the house toward doing their chores, and most importantly, that they had started to see the value in education. Coach Lump did all he could for those few hours each week to teach "life lessons" to these young men. He didn't spend a whole lot of time teaching the game of football. That was the easy part. The hard part was teaching boys how to be men!

As I got to know the kids and their parents, or shall I say, their mothers, the more they would confide in me. Eventually, I would start to ask the hard questions. Why haven’t I seen the dad here at practice or at the games? I heard everything from he was locked up to he simply wasn’t around--which we know can mean anything. I walked away every time thinking to myself, "Why do you trust me to teach life lessons to your sons and will hold me accountable, but won't trust his father and hold him accountable?” Because these young men were that important to me, I did the best I could for them. But it saddens me to know that, by the numbers, the coach has more authority to teach and discipline a woman's son, than his own father. However, I do have hope that 2010 is the year that fathers begin to take their rightful place in the lives in our young men.

Brothers, I know that single fatherhood is challenging. I know “baby mama drama” can push you over the edge at times. But the bottom line is this, it is not about you, it is not about the mother, it is about the children. We coaches cannot do the job of raising your sons. That is your job as a father. Our job as a coach is to supplement your training and build on the foundation you have set for them. I am an equal opportunity writer, so sisters; please stop lying to these boys telling them you are mommy and daddy too.

To answer the question from earlier…neither parent is more important than the other. The roles are different, but equally important. A child has the DNA of both parents and it takes both parents to develop these kids into well rounded adults. As a father of two, Coach Lump knows that it starts at home. Coach Lump can do what he can. However, more fathers are needed than coaches in order to make the biggest impact in the lives of our kids, especially our sons!

The NFL and NBA – Fool’s Gold For The Black Man

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By: LaVaron Lumpkin

For the life of me I have yet to figure out why we, as a race, and as parents, continue to fall for the age old myth that professional sport, especially football and basketball, is our way to a better life. Can anyone answer that question for me? Only 1 of every 17 high school football players will go on to play college football, at any level. Only 1 of every 50 college football players will get drafted into the NFL.

Consequently, 8 of every 10,000 high school football players will go pro. The numbers for basketball doesn’t fair any better. Actually the odds are worst when you consider the NBA draft is 60 players. Trying to make it to the NBA, the odds are 40 in 10,000,000. Even with these odds, every black boy that is born with a little bit of size is automatically thought to be a future football or basketball player. Just reading those numbers should make us scratch our heads and wonder why.

I know this is not popular to say, but when we have daughters, we preach and teach education, and we are relentless in preparing them to survive in this mean and cold world. We make sure they do their homework, we make sure they are involved in educational extra curricular activities, and give them every academic advantage that we can afford. I guess that is because their means of achieving success is with their brain power. We will do the same with our boys too, well, if they are uncoordinated and/or don’t have an athletic bone in their body. We know since they don’t have a career in sports, then they HAVE to make it with their brains. These kids may be involved in sports, but only for recreational purposes.

The athletes, on the other hand, are taught to make sports their god, and education, at best is something to fall back on. The major problem is, because, the parents have crippled these boys to be failures in life. If you believe these high school and college coaches that tell you how great your sons are, really love them, you are in bad shape. They see these boys as a paycheck. In case you haven’t connected the dots, high school and college sports is the equivalent of Modern Day Slavery. These schools make millions of dollars off the bodies and abilities of your boys, basically for almost free. When they are no longer useful to the coaches or the schools, they are sent back to you broke, busted, and disgusted. They end up living in your basement, with no skills, no job, and NO DEGREE. So ask yourself, is the failure theirs, or ours as parents?

I am not saying don’t let your sons play sports. I feel there are very important “life lessons” that are taught and learned when playing sports. However, I am asking you to change your way of thinking when you approach sports. Instead, how about making your sons’ education the top priority and let sports be something to fall back on?

The same intensity that we put into our daughters education, we need to put that same intensity into our sons. Why? I’m glad you asked. We have more black men in prison than in college. We have more black women raising their kids alone because the men are not equipped with the skills to provide unless they make the fast money. When that doesn’t work out, they are in trouble.

I asked the parents earlier in the article, whose failure is it…our sons, or ours as parents? The answer is easy; it’s the parent’s failure. Our sons are only doing what they have been conditioned to do their whole lives. Go for broke when it comes to sports with no lifeline. The good news is there is no better time to make a change in the way our sons are raised than today. Raise them to be educated men instead of pro athletes and our next generation will reap the benefits. Until next time…

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Why Athlete’s Cheat On Their Wives – The Real Story

By LaVaron Lumpkin

I want to first comment on Tiger Wood’s apology to the public by asking “Why? Why? Why?” He owes none of us an apology. The only people he owes an apology to are his wife, children, family, and business partners. He owes the game of golf nothing. He owes the media nothing. And he owes me and you nothing…so please, get over it! And to the mistresses that have publicly said they want an apology from him...are you serious? It’s not like you didn’t know who he was and that he had a wife and kids. The last time I checked, that makes you all “Home wreckers”! Therefore, if anyone should be apologizing, you all should apologize to his wife and kids for the damage that you caused and be accountable to the roles that you played in this whole circus!

Whew, now that I have gotten my venting off my chest, let’s get down to business. If you read the title and thought this was going to be an article calling out the men so the women can jump up and cheer, I apologize. This is not going to be good reading for you. I want to keep it real by stating the facts. Fact number 1, if you are a girlfriend or a mistress, you have nothing to gripe about when you find out you are not the only girlfriend and/or mistress. You get a little more status when you are engaged. But you are not truly going to be considered as significant unless you are his wife. Fact number 2, these guys are only going to be as faithful as their options. Since he is rich and famous, those options are going to be plenty. So, I hate to lay the heavy stuff on you, but odds are, your husbands can, have, and will cheat on you. Fact number 3, chances are, you were once one of the groupies that you now get upset about chasing after your man. Have you forgotten the rules to the game? If you move your feet, you lose your seat! Final fact, if you want him to be faithful, your best option would have been to not ever have gotten married.

The average shelf life of a professional athlete is about 7 years, give or take. They have a small window of opportunity to cash in the big money and take advantage of all the perks that lifestyle has to offer. This definitely includes the women that make themselves available. But, just like the athletes shelf life, these women have a short shelf life to cash in and marry that professional jock. Their looks will fade as they hit their 30’s and the attention will turn from them to the up and coming 20 year old groupies that have yet to be affected by age, hard living, partying, and gravity. Therefore, these women cannot lose their edge. The same things that were done to get that athlete are the same things that need to be done to keep him….if not more.

I still haven’t answered the question in the title yet. Well, the answer is simple. He doesn’t trust that you married him because of who he is as a person. If he wasn’t rich, would you have gone out of your way to get his attention? Let me answer that for you….Hell to the No! Yeah, you may eventually grow to care about him. But chances are you are not any different than the other groupies. He just married you for whatever reason. Most of the time, it is because you had his child/children and it’s “cheaper to keep her”. His heart isn’t in it with you anymore than yours was in it with him. The natural order is for the man to chase the woman. When you are a groupie, and you are chasing the man…you have sealed your fate….FOREVER! Since you were a groupie, that won the prize, doesn’t mean you won his heart. So don’t be surprised when he still has other groupies on the side in other cities. You asked for this life when you entered that world.

Disclaimer: This does not apply to all professional athletes…just the ones that married groupies.

Why Don’t We Hold Our Black Athletes Accountable? Everyone Else Does!

By LaVaron Lumpkin

Gilbert Arenas took guns into the locker room, or as the rest of us call it, “The Workplace”. I have heard complaint after complaint that the NBA is being too hard on him by suspending him for the remainder of the season. I am curious to understand where this is coming from. Truth be told, if you or I bring guns, loaded or not, into the workplace, we don’t get suspended, we get fired! As for the criminal charges…all I will say is, “Dude, did you not see what happened to Plaxico Burress last year?” Arenas got exactly what he deserved. Hopefully, the rest of the wanna-be thugs will take notice that you are given a gift that allows you to realize your financial dreams and stop the stupidity that jeopardizes that opportunity.

If I had a dollar for every time I heard somebody say, “Tiger Woods wouldn’t be going through this if he had married a black woman”, I would be financially secure. Newsflash people…the race of Wood’s wife is not what got him in hot water, it was his adultery that did it. When you are a celebrity of that magnitude, there are 2 things you have to realize. First, you should not publicly criticize other athletes for their mistakes like he did to Michael Vick. At that time, Vick, had gotten caught, Woods hadn’t. Second, you know that the same people that build you up are the first to knock you down the first chance you give them. I thought Tiger was smarter than to do what he did, but hey, I guess not. Regardless, it was not the white woman that brought him down, it was his own arrogance that did him in.

Since Michael Vick’s name was mentioned, let me get him too. I have friends that are season ticket holders and was upset that Atlanta didn’t bring him back. Let’s see, he committed a felony, lied to his boss about it, and on top of that, was not a hard worker. I don’t know about you, but at my job, if I did those things, they would fire me in a second. So what’s there not to understand why the Falcons terminated his contract and didn’t bring him back? “Aww, LaVaron, I know he did wrong, but they could have brought him back.” So I guess because he is Michael Vick, he should not be responsible for what he did? At best, if all of his dogs won every fight, he would have made about $200K - $400K. Between his contracts with the Falcons and Nike alone, he was bringing in close to $20 million. Need I say more?

Hey LaVaron, why don’t you ever say anything bad about the white athletes? You only come down on the black ones. Well, I’m glad you asked. Truth of the matter is this; the average white athlete is not doing dumb stuff like dog fighting, bringing guns to the locker room, shooting themselves in the leg at a nightclub, with an unregistered gun, and expecting preferential treatment because they are professional athletes. They go to work everyday, make the most of their careers, and pick up as many endorsements as they can, then transition into broadcasting for one of the major networks when their athletic career is over where they continue to make millions of dollars. When will the black athletes realize that their idiotic behavior when they are young will cost them even more when they are older?

I can tell you a good starting point. Instead of letting them get away with things when they are young, simply because they have a talent, how about as parents, you start disciplining them the same as you would a non-athlete. You should stop passing them when they should fail. Maybe if you start doing your job as parents, teachers, and leaders, then maybe these athletes, and future professional athletes, can be saved from these colossal mistakes as adults.