By Troy Vincent
NFL Player Engagement
With the regular season kicking off this month, you now are reaping what you sow from your playing days.
So let’s ask ourselves some questions, starting with, “What did we do over the past year to get us to this point?”
Did we advance our career? Did we do something meaningful to preserve the game that we have all grown to love? Did we educate an up and coming football player in some capacity?
On the home front, did we get better in our household? Are our relationships stronger? Did we spend more time with our children, and are we helping them start the school year?
What’s September like without football? For those experiencing their first Fall in years not playing the game, how is that transition? If you aren’t playing, are you coaching?
These questions come up every year at this time, and it’s the perfect time to take inventory on where we are.
Are we in a good place like the newly-inducted Hall of Fame class, including Dave Robinson and Curly Culp?
In their acceptance speeches, these two former players from long ago were so wise in their comments that we could easily hear and appreciate the difference between their generation and ours.
And former Coach Bill Parcells delivered as always, and true to form, was without a script and just referring to reminders and talking points.
His comments about the locker room were priceless, referring to how “losers gather in little pockets but winners gather as a team.”
The only NFL coach ever to take four different teams to the playoffs discussed how he didn’t want to associate himself with losers, didn’t have any space for them, and got them out of his locker room.
He was also eloquent in articulating the parts of an NFL player’s career that no one ever sees.
Now in this information age, everyone is experiencing what we former players saw that the public didn’t see, which is behind the scenes on true-life preparation for our post-playing experience.
Fortunately, many of us embraced all that the game provided, and are reaping the benefits.
A good example is recently retired Baltimore Raven Ray Lewis. Just seven months after going out as a Super Bowl champion, Ray already is beginning his next job as a broadcaster. His history indicates that he would have put in the work during the offseason that he did as a player, and that he will project his passion on the screen the way he did on the field. Ultimately, the audience will be the judge, but the Harvest is here for Ray.
As Dr. Charles Stanley said in a Sunday sermon: “You reap what you sow, more than you sow, later than you sow. You never know when the harvest is coming.”