What Football Has Taught Me

There are many values which have been instilled in me from playing football and that will always be a part of me, specifically effort. I believe effort is timeless, it’s something that you learn at some point, and used for the rest of your life. Last football season was a trying time for me. After putting in countless hours of training over the preceding spring and summer I found out I finished third in a three way quarterback competition for the starting job, 6 days before the first game. I had many opportunities to take an easy way out. Looking back on it, being a third string quarterback may be more difficult than being the starter as odd as that may sound. Going to school every day for eight weeks, in an environment where everyone knows you finished third in a three way competition (when many people expected you to finish first) might have been one of the most difficult and humbling ordeals I have ever experienced. Public failure isn’t fun, but I learned something, actually a lot of things that cannot be learned unless you were in my shoes for those 56 days.
One lesson I learned, and arguably one of the most important lessons I ever learned is that no one can ever fault you for trying, for giving effort. When I found out I was the third stringer I had no clue what my future held or what was the next step for me. I couldn’t really think of any other option than to try my hardest at every opportunity that presented itself. I would take the small amount reps I got at practice and made the most of them. I would do extra footwork drills in the time that was given for us to rest. I watched films until the point that I thought my computer would over heat. I did these things because I realized at the time, that no matter how my future turned out, all anybody could ever ask for is effort. I knew that if I gave it everything I got, regardless whether I earned a starting spot or never played a down of football in my high school career, that my friends would respect