Editorial
Front Page - Friday, September 25, 2009
View from the Cheap Seats
Playing to win
Bill James
By William O. ”Bill” James, Jr
WmJamesJr@aol.com
I don’t read Sports Illustrated as much as I did when I was a kid. I read it religiously when I was in junior high and high school. I do subscribe, but usually it just goes out into the waiting room. The other day I was killing time at my desk, pretending I was working and was going through the mail. The Sports Illustrated for the week had arrived, and I was flipping through it and came across an article about the coaching style of the head coach of Pulaski Academy.
The center point of the article was Coach Kelly’s unique perspective on punting on fourth down. He simply does not do it. Since my son plays for Coach Kelly, I have heard a lot of talk about this quirk in his coaching style as well as personally witnessing going for it on fourth down inside our own 20 yard line. It takes a little bit of
getting used to.
Apparently, there have been several studies that show that teams are better off statistically going for it on fourth down rather than punting. The one statistic I can point to is the fact that Coach Kelly’s team wins the large majority of games he coaches (including last year’s state championship) and he never punts.
The point of all this is that it reminds me of a lesson I learned from a client several years ago. He was charged with murder and the evidence seemed to be stacked against him. There were some witnesses he wanted to use that came with a lot of baggage and I was trying to convince him that they might hurt more than help. We were in the lock up at the courthouse, getting ready to begin putting on our defense.
He looked me in the eye and said, your problem is “you are playing not to lose, you need to play to win.”
Candidly, this particular client was not someone that I would normally take life lessons from in my own life. But, what he said struck a chord with me. We put the witnesses on, dealt with their baggage and we played to win. The jury found him not guilty. Unfortunately, he was already serving a 50-year sentence from another case and the victory did not have a big effect on his life. But, it did on mine.
In the article about Kelly, the author discusses the fact that few coaches are questioned about the decision to punt on fourth and four. On the other hand, you might expect a round of criticism if the coach went for it on fourth down and did not make it.
In life, we are often fooled into thinking the easy thing to do is also the safest. Our risk analysis sometimes gets confused and we choose “safety” over probability to succeed. I do not expect a ground swell of coaches to adhere to the no-punting philosophies of Coach Kelly any time soon. Fear, even if unfounded, has a way of making us pull back our efforts which prevents us from being able to reach our goals.
You will rarely get a first down when you punt. It can happen, but it is unlikely. You will rarely reach your true potential in any aspect of your life if you don’t try. Some will win out of pure luck and happenstance, but to do something great, most of us have to step up and play to win. Otherwise, you are just trying not to lose. Few win that way.
Live your life like you have four downs to get where you want to go. Don’t sell yourself short listening to the world’s irrational fears. Listen to the winning voice inside of you that tells you to go for it. You just might make it. That how I see it way up here in the CHEAP SEATS!
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