Lifetime Lessons Learned on Gridiron

Fairness. During the 2008 Presidential campaign, then candidate Barack Obama talked about fairness, and how he would work tirelessly to make things more fair. I assume, in all his scholarly aptitude, he would be the decision maker as to what is fair.

The Dictator in Chief would determine how much money you could make, what you will be allowed to eat, what type of cars you can drive, when, where and with whom you can seek health care and God forbid, how many touchdowns your team can score.

Now them are some fighting words here in the deep south! Think I am kidding? Meet Demias Jimerson.



Jefferson, obviously quite a young man on and off the field, is being tackled by government intervention. After scoring three touchdowns in a game and if his team leads by two touchdowns, Jimerson is sidelined by "The Madre Hill Rule". Hill, a superstar player from the area who back in the day before turning heads at the University of Arkansas, torched defenses around the area, prompting the thinkers in governance, in the name of fairness, to limit his effectiveness.

Certainly, we cannot have him dominate and leave his opponents having to deal with failure.

In the piece, Principal Bryant says other players are just left out, with it being all Demias. Ms. Bryant is quite ill informed, and would be typical of those who will be happy to make decisions for you, as they know better.

First of all, many of the lessons we should learn in life are found on the gridiron. These lesson include but are not limited to discipline, responsibility, desire, leadership, work ethic, aggressiveness, execution, defeat, preparation, compassion, commitment, performance, class and teamwork. After all, there is no "I" in team, and unbeknownst to Principal Bryant, football is a team sport. Not forgotten is sportsmanship, and as former Florida State football Coach Bobby Bowden said, “Sportsmanship to me is going out and playing as hard as you can within the rules.”. That's exactly right.

What Ms. Bryant, and countless other champions of socialism fail to understand, that lessons learned in defeat and failure are invaluable to developing the mentality and intestinal fortitude to succeed. Success comes with a price, and that price is commonly paid through lessons learned.

Unfortunately, the slow creep of socialism is gaining speed in all facets of our lives. Free market capitalism is the best path to prosperity, and as former Georgia Bulldog and Minnesota Viking and NFL Hall of Famer Fran Tarkenton points out in a tremendous article in The Wall Street Journal, as a comparison between the Teachers Union and the NFL drastically points out.

When Demias Jimerson signs a scholarship to attend a major college program, I hope he joins the long list of other phenom backs, from Eric Dickerson to Marcus Dupree, from Herschel Walker to Bo Jackson and from Barry Sanders to Earl Campbell in tremendous success. I would love to have him on one of my teams, but if he plays for an opponent of one of my teams, I hope my guys can rise to the challenge of stopping him. Most would be lucky to stop him, but luck is where preparation meets opportunity in the color and pageantry of college football, and life.