The final whistle has blown and the NFL season is finally over. Wai Sallas wants you to know there is a silver lining to the season most would like to forget.
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On Monday, New England Patriots Julian Edelman and Malcolm Butler represented the Super Bowl champions at Disneyland. A day earlier, as confetti streamed down from the Arizona sky the two diminutive champions were living examples of the theme song that plays when we find out, who’s “Going to Disneyland.”
Despite months of scandal and controversy, “When You Wish Upon A Star” never had a more apropos season than the one we all witnessed.
In the sport’s biggest game, two of its smallest players came from humble beginnings to prove large when it mattered most.
And you know what, I will make sure my son always remembers the 2014 NFL season.
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This season, however, the struggle has not been with our children, but in attempting to connect to the game that has made it difficult to rationalize our admiration.
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Butler was a college dropout working at Popeye’s just four years ago. He took summer classes at Alcorn State University before enrolling at the University of West Alabama. The odds of him making the NFL, let alone playing in the Super Bowl were astronomical to say the least.
In 2005, Edelman was the quarterback for the College of San Mateo.
Butler was undrafted. Edelman was selected in the last round of the 2009 draft, 24 spots ahead of Mr. Irrelevant.
A lot of times, as parents we search for anecdotes and parables; stories we can tell our children to pick them up when times get tough.
“What do you do when you fall off that horse?”
“When life gives you lemons…”
For many of us we turn to sports to help with providing a shiny outlook on life. Films like “Rudy”, “Hoosiers” and “Rocky” portray an anything can happen philosophy that permeates in sports. Coaches like John Wooden are people we can look up to to help depict a healthy sports role model.
This season, however, the struggle has not been with our children, but in attempting to connect to the game that has made it difficult to rationalize our admiration.
Players like Edelman and Butler make it less difficult.
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The NFL MVP race can change the dynamic of how we all view this season and how we translate it to our children.
This year’s Most Valuable Player, Green Bay Packers Quarterback Aaron Rodgers was starting for Butte Community Collge in Oroville, California his Freshman year. After transferring to University of California at Berkeley, Rodgers was the odds on choice to be the top pick in the NFL Draft in 2005. He fell from number one all the way to 24. The Super Bowl champion waited an agonizing 4 hours and 35 minutes. Through it all he preached patience.
“Good things happen to those who wait,” he said back in 2005.
Now, Rodgers is one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL.
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JJ Watt finished second this season in the MVP voting. The Houston Texan Defensive Lineman was delivering pizza while attending Waukesha County Technical College after dropping out of Central Michigan University after his freshman year. He would walk on to the University of Wisconsin football team where he would eventually become an All-American. He is now, arguably, the most dominant defensive player since former New York Giant, Lawrence Taylor. Watt is a shining example of perserverence.
“Whenever I told people my dreams, they usually would say I needed to be realistic. Well, I was being realistic. It’s just that other people couldn’t see things like I did,” Watt said before being drafted in 2011.
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Dallas Cowboy Quarterback Tony Romo finished third in the MVP race. Romo went undrafted in 2003 from Eastern Illinois University. When Romo became the starter in 2006, he was also the place-holder for field goals and extra points, a position usually reserved for the team’s punter. There’s probably no quarterback in the NFL who is under more scrutiny than Romo. He uses it to motivate.
“I think you use the negative things that happen from the year before – and from other years, too – to spur you to do the things you need to do to take the next step.”
Butler & Edelman, Rodgers, Watt and Romo. Five players who are now household names because of values personified through their actions.
By no means should we disregard the fallacies and hypocrisies that littered the league this year. Instead of waiting for the NFL to change, we can begin to alter the narrative.
For our kids sake we can start that process and let them know, “Anything your heart desires, will come to you.”
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Photo Credit: Flickr/Movie Masks
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