Summary : Nfl's Success

The book, “Training Camp” by Jon Gordon is an inspirational story filled with invaluable lessons and insights on bringing out the best in yourself and your team. The story follows a little boy named Martin Jones who was a undrafted rookie trying to make it into the NFL.. He spent his whole life proving many critics that a guy with a big heart but is small can succeed against all the odds.After Martin sprained his ankle during preseason, he thought that he lost his dream., but then he meets a very special coach. The coach was a great mentor, he shared eleven lessons about life that kept his dream alive. This help him a lot and even made him to be one of the best of the best.

1. Discuss the factors that have resulted in the NFL becoming “America’s Game” and the

The NFL was founded on September 17, 1920 and was known as the American Professional Football Association (APFA). It was renamed in 1922 as the National Football League or NFL. In 1920 there were eleven football franchises to form the first professional football league compared to the 32 teams that form the league now. The original teams are: Canton Bulldogs, Cleveland Tigers, Dayton Triangles, Akron Professionals, Rochester (N.Y.) Jeffersons, Rock Island Independents, Muncie Flyers, Decatur Staleys, Chicago Cardinals, and Hammond Pros. Jim Thorpe was elected as the league's first president. In 1970 NFL's rival league AFL merged their schedules and formed two conferences in which the AFL became AFC and NFL became NFC.

The NFL has become the most popular sport in the United States. It is watched my millions every weekend. The NFL is only growing in popularity. With new fans joining the fun every day. The NFL has faced its share of problems too. With concussions scaring away many future players, the NFL is hoping to lower the possibility of concussions in the future. Each NFL team plays a total of 16 games over a span of 17 weeks. There are two conferences in the NFL, the AFC and the NFC. There are four divisions in each conference, each with 4 teams. The playoff teams are decided by the division rankings. The winner of each division makes the playoffs, with the two best 2nd place teams making it in as a wild card.

Leadership means different things to different people. To us it is not about managing or directing people. It is about the ability to inspire and influence others towards the leader’s goal and vision. A leader in sports has the same characteristics as a leader who works in an office. Besides being knowledgeable in their respective sport, team leaders have to possess effective relationship skills. A sport leader leads by example and must hold and exhibit the same traits and behaviours they expect from their team members. Nobody did that as well as the world famous Mr. Wayne Gretzky. Wayne Gretzky is a former National League Hockey (NHL) all-star and International hockey star. Many say he is the best hockey player of all time. He was the

Joe Ehrmann describes how he has developed his philosophy of coaching by relating the story of his life in his youth, high school and in college describing two different types of coaches he had played for. The first are coaches who were impersonal, authoritarian, and sometimes abusive which he calls transactional coaches; this is in contrast to the humane coaches he calls transformative coaches. Coaches must face this responsibility because we all remember our coaches. “This is the awesome power and responsibility of coaching: You give your players memories, for better or for worse that stay with them until the day they die” (Ehrmann, 2011 p 46-47). Joe Erhmann goes on to ask, “What is the moral and ethical composition of their program?

As with most sports teams, the Titans have an autocratic leadership style. Coach Boone is the one and only person who makes the decisions, he is the main man in charge. The style is productive, and the team wins games. Although he has assistant coaches, such as Bill Yoast who is the defensive coordinator, all the decisions must go through Coach Boone first. The democratic leadership style is not applicable on a football team because that’s why teams have coaches. The team does not make group decisions. Coach Boone also uses Job Enlargement in ‘Remember the

The book I chose was Quiet Strength: The Principles, Practices, & Priorities of a Winning Life, by Tony Dungy. This is more than an autobiography of the life of Tony Dungy, the coach of the 2006 Super Bowl champion Indianapolis Colts. Woven throughout his life story are the principles, practices, and priorities of a life that is able to lead others towards positive change, not by focusing on success, but by focusing on building up men by focusing on character, respect and integrity.

For a lot of kids, it’s not until it’s all said and done, and they look back on it several years later, that they realize the difference the sport made in their lives. They are proud of playing the game. Have you ever met anybody who accomplished playing four years of high school football, and at the end of that run said, ‘Man, I wish I wouldn’t have played’? It doesn’t get said. Football players aren’t perfect. Nobody is. But millions of former players, one by one, can recount the life-altering principles they learned from football. They know the value of football is the values in football.That’s why high school football – and particularly high school coaches – play such a vital role in our society. Our football coaches are on the front lines of the battle for the hearts and minds of the boys in our society.

So many Coaches have talent and dedication for what they do. I 'm proud to play for one that has a spectacular history of coaching. That coach is Dennis Lorio, who Graduated from LSU (Louisiana State University) with an economic degree and played baseball. “I love the intensity and the relationship in football” Coach Lorio explaining with a passionate expression. I can see it in his eyes that he is very dedicated and hardworking coach. As of now he is 62 years old and still willing to coach. “It’s not the same without coaching. The joy and the sorrow I feel during the season has been addicted to me. I’ve been in this game almost all my life and that is a very long time.”

Tony Dungy is a highly respected pillar in the athletic community. Breaking barriers throughout his coaching carrier; he was propelled into the spotlight when he became the first African American coach to win a Super Bowl title. Shortly following his victory in Super Bowl XLI came much intrigue into his coaching style and personal life. Many wondering how he gained the respect of all his players and produced positive results while maintaining a calm demeanor. In his book, Quiet Strength, Tony Dungy speaks on the importance of faith and family. Emphasizing the power of prayer, commitment, and patience within faith. As well as the impact of his family on his career, that ultimately changed the path he had preferred for himself.

When asked who is the greatest coach to lead a NFL team to the Super Bowl, Vince Lombardi’s name would be mentioned. He took the worst team in the NFL and transformed them to be the best. His team succeeded to win 6 divisional titles, 5 NFL championships, and 2 back to back Super Bowls. Vince Lombardi was both a visionary and ethical leader by leading his team through a new way of systematic thinking and obstacles. In this essay, I will state claims on how he became a visionary leader. Two core concepts came to play while researching his life. The first was how he displayed inspirational motivation while guiding his players to the Super Bowl and painting a vision. Secondly, he displayed team dimensions by knowing how to balance a team and also earning mutual respect. Later, I will state claims on how he was an ethical leader. First, he used reflective thinking, system 2 in critical thinking by using some decision making no one has ever used to ultimately win the Super Bowl. He also used the Three P’s (principles, purpose, and people) concept in the ethical leadership lesson on how he used those three principles to reach a common goal and display excellence in all we do. Additionally, I will tie his visionary and ethical leadership styles into my personal relevance and use some examples. Finally, I will conclude with a summary of the main points and end with a couple of quotes.

Along with their self-confidence, every mentor leader needs an internal sense of security. From the groundwork of security comes the capability to mentor other individuals, to lead them without demanding continuous verification or being diminished by self-doubt. Mentor leaders already have a sense of security in who they are and they are able to devote themselves in assisting other individuals cultivate and develop to their full potential. Attributes that are fundamental to the mentor leadership style include demonstrating courage; modeling faith; and leading by example. Mentor leaders will always be learning and growing, to be mentored themselves. Mentor leaders need to look for opportunities to make an impact in all walks of life. Mentor leaders that make a difference in the lives of others will always be present. Mentor leaders also need to understand that they act as a role model to others. Mentor leaders will be known by their legacy. When Tony Dungy was in Junior High School, the assistant principal Mr. Rockquemore acted as a mentor leader that still sticks with Dungy to this day. Mr. Rockquemore sat with Tony Dungy and his friends during the lunch period and talked to them about things outside of school. Mr. Rockquemore was trying to learn more about Tony Dungy and his friends because he cared about his students. Tony Dungy was about the quit the high school football team when Mr. Rockquemore took him under his wings and mentored the young Tony Dungy. They developed a close relationship. Mr. Rockquemore felt that it was his duty to build into Tony Dungy’s life and to mentor him when he was about to get off track. The culture that one constructs permeates everything you touch in life. The success to any mentor leader is to under-take a culture that supports it. When done successfully, mentor leadership is a constant practice of leading and being led, of developing ourselves and cultivate the future leaders.

Coach Carter also displays transformational leadership. Transformational leadership is the ability of a leader to get people to do more than they originally expected to do in support of large scale innovation and change; the leader inspire and excite followers to high level of performance (Nelson & Quick, 2013). According to Marquis & Huston (1992), there are five key qualities of a transformational leader. One of the qualities is having the passion and ability to inspire. Transformational leaders show passion in their work and have the capacity to pass this passion on to others. Coach Carter is successful in achieving this through setting clear expectations and demonstrates passion when doing this. At their first team meeting, Carter hands each student a contract, setting out his expectations of the contracts. If they do not sign and follow it, they do not play. Coach Carter aims to pass on his passion to the players enabling them to succeed in playing sports and succeed in their education. Another quality transformational leaders possess is the ability to pass their values on to others. According to Marquis & Huston (1992), people admire leaders that support their own values and beliefs by enabling others to understand how their own values make them who they are. Coach Carter encourages a team ethic throughout. Carter ensures his team takes this on board by stopping everyone from playing – academic achiever or not. He’s teaching that successful teams succeed because of

Three characteristics of leadership I value the most are patience, communication, and passion. These traits are important in leadership because they apply anywhere whether it is professional sports, being a president of a club, working at a minimum wage job, or working at a Forbes 500 company. A leader must have patience with their coworkers, teammates, or classmates because they may not have the leader’s skill set or experience up to his or her standard. Secondly, companies adjust everyday due to labor demands, new regulations that are implemented that changing one’s habit takes time to adjust to new changes, and finally the patience to have everyone believe in him/her. The patience to believe is displayed in professional sports all the time where people see what is happening on their televisions. To illustrate an example, I will describe professional basketball player Lebron James practicing patience to win championships after repeatingly losing year after year. When James left Cleveland to play in Miami they lost the championship in 2011 because of the lack of experience and the standard of the other players did not match James’s skill set, therefore the following season with James’s being the leader of the team, he adjusted his game to his teammates by encouraging them to play without the fear of making mistakes, take more risks, and just play. The following two season Lebron and his team won the championship twice due to the patience James’s had developing his young