Huddle Up!

I was watching the last episode of @Mike&Mike on ESPN. Been a listener and watcher of the show for over 10 years. Again, Mike and Mike – thanks for making my morning drive, my mornings in retirement – filled with laughs and enjoyment!

They had a guest on, that I had not really heard before, Coach Bill Curry (@coachbillcurry)! He spoke at the end of the segment about the huddle as a metaphor for Football and Life. Today’s was a shorten version of his 2011 NFF Hall of Fame Awards Dinner speech! Go ahead and click for the short read that it is.

What I really liked is that it talks about you have a bunch of folks black, brown, white, yellow, liberal, conservative, Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Buddhist or Hindu. Folks are short, tall, slim, fat, fast or slow. It really did not matter – they all worked together for common goals. They became friends. After reaching their goals, they hugged one another and celebrated together.

This got me thinking about many of the Huddles I have had in my day.

• Growing up I played lots of sports and the way he describe them – were spot on. We never really cared about race, religion or political beliefs – in fact we on could see the color of a person’s skin. We did not care!
• As I was coaching sports – I used to use the “huddle” as a way to get the team closer together to accomplish our goals of winning and improving everyday. Reminding the players that we are all in this together. Some of the friendships that some of the teams have formed with each other still stand some 20 years later!
• At work, I used to use my morning start-up meetings as a “huddle.” We had folks from every walk of life, country, race, religion and I was proud of how they accomplished their work. We were a team. I still get an email, FB post or direct message from many of those folks today!

Those a lasting memories that really put a smile on my face. What scares me is – today we are seeing more and more racial, political, inequalities in general, harassment and so on in America. For the most part – we know this is wrong! We really don’t want it to happen…

Change normally comes from the top, but we currently have very poor leadership. They are pretty much the fuel from keeping us divided. So, in order to make America better – we must have a grass roots effort to move us in the right direction. We can call it “Huddle Up and Make it Right!”

Thanks Coach Bill Curry for the wonderful metaphor… It is spot on!

Image via – https://www.freeimages.com/photo/football-2-1313779