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Hey Y'all It's your favorite SportsGal89 Innnnnnnnnnnn the Buildin'. I am bringing you today a different style in my posts then I have normally.
Today I am posting still about sports, but it's the sides we don't always talk about or it's the beginning of the journey for the players that we constantly cheer for but don't always know what drives them when they play.
I watched a well celebrated documentary about a 2009 Tennessee Football Team called "Undefeated." It is one of the BEST documentaries that I have seen and still very much a reminder of what I feel is a true responsibility of fans of the game to remember what these athletes are putting themselves through or what adversity they are overcoming to "entertain" us for a lack of a better word. Yes, they make careers out of the game that they love and something that they are passionate about, but it's bigger than that.
Undefeated- Simply means NOT DEFEATED! What a brilliant title. When you think football (or any sport for that matter) and you think the word undefeated you assume that what it means is that the team had one heck of a season. That they had however many wins and no losses.
But as the story continues I realized that undefeated was never about football, it was about life. Coach Courtney, the coach of the team opens with this great quote, "Young men of character end up winning in life and winning in football." His investment in these inner city kids, who are up against life was so amazing. Undefeated for these young men was about being undefeated in life.
Coach Courtney told the young men after they had their first loss of the season that "The character of a man is not measured in how he handles his wins, but how he handles his failures." When life gets a hold of us in general we are all measured by how we handle our failures. Do we allow it to cripple us or do we get back up, head high and keep pressing forward?
One of the players, O.C. Brown was slated to be the most recruited out of the players on the team. But he had a huge obstacle, one that I see constantly in athletes and one of those areas that I will continue to be passionate about. O.C.'s hindrance was his grades. He was skilled on the field, but in the classroom he struggled. This is something we see in athletes all the time. Especially when it comes to College Ball, you can't play if you don't have the grades- It's called STUDENT athlete, not athlete student. But there is a lot at risk when you come from a community like these boys do. If they are not prepared adequately to be able to do both then how do they succeed. The other part of it is, the preparation sets them up to be able to handle the new environment in college. I am always fascinated to know what happened to the people in documentaries after we see a glimpse of their success. So I Googled it- I won't share that here, because I want you to see the film before you know the outcome of his story.
But 4 years changes people, and if you are an urban male youth who is not exposed to certain things, a change as drastic as going to college with the mindset that you are an athlete student, will lead to a lot of struggles.
I loved this documentary for giving me a chance to see the back story of the next great College Star or NFL player.
I think as fans of the game we need to remember their story, we need to share it and celebrate it.
I need you to get on your Netflix account and check out this film. I promise you it will be worth it. You will walk away from the screen, whether it be tv or computer, and you will be satisfied. You will be encouraged and moved. I am so glad I got to watch this film, and there is still probably a lot that I can ponder on about the documentary, but I think I am going to leave that for my other blog- Be the Change.
That's all she wrote focus, please watch this documentary!
"You don't quit because you are frustrated you just keep going"- Coach Courtney #Undefeated
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So why am I sharing this here with you now. Because, Coach Courtney was just a volunteer who invested in these young men's lives without question. He battled with them and what they were up against for 6 years. He sacrificed time with his family to invest in this larger family he was creating. I think we all have a responsibility to get out of our own way and realize how much of a gift it is to share our life, our story a testimony with others. I am learning this lesson in a big way, more than I realized I would.
We live our lives somewhat sheltered and closed off from people we are around. We don't take time to listen to the stories of the people we pass in the street and we miss out on real opportunities to care for others around us. I have trouble letting people in, but I am free and open in sharing with the Internet. Ha, but what could I be doing for young people, a generation I care deeply about, if I don't open myself a little more and take that risk?
We have it in our capacity to change lives to really make a difference. I know I can be a difference for a generation and I know you can too!
