More than Just a Game

I believe that there is no other bond like that of which is formed between a football team and it’s coaches. No other sport demands the unity, leadership, and trust then what a football team requires. Only a football player who has experienced all that a team goes through in a season can understand the relationship that is formed between those players. It is these relationships that make the many hours of summer-morning workouts, two-a-days, and regular weekday practices worth while.

Football is a sport of interdependence. In no other sport is the performance of another teammate as important as it is in football. There are eleven players from each team on the field at one time and yet it takes only one player’s mistake to make the difference between a touchdown or a sack, a win or a loss. Idealistically, you work your absolute hardest on each down for the player next to you with the trust that he’s doing the same. This reality demands a lot of trust between teammates and this trust becomes the foundation of a team’s success.

A football team magnifies the idea of equality. It doesn’t matter where you came from or who you are because on the football field, all that matters is what you do on the football field. A team values all of it’s members equally. Regardless of how you contribute on the field, whether it be at running the ball or cheering on the side line, as long as you give your most sincere effort

at your role, this is all that matters.

Friendships are formed naturally on the football field. This is inevitable with so many

hours spent working together day in and day out. Despite the determination to win and the focus that goes into practice, all the laughing and screwing around that goes on helps bring a team together. Along with the laughs, a football team experiences many highs and lows together as well. With the incredible effort that is put into a game and season, there is a lot of emotion experienced at the peaks and low points. As a football team, you experience these together and share these moments. You win together and lose together, always as a team. Any football player who has sat in a locker room after a devastating loss can recollect the exact feeling they were experiencing at that moment. The desire to turn the clock backward and rectify all your regrets so that you may suppress the guilt of letting your fellow teammates down. Yet any football player who has rushed the field after a gratifying victory can recall the inspirational drive they felt at that moment. The moment where all the hard work you endured, usually made possible by the other members of your team, finally pays off. It is these moments, filled with tears of either sadness or joy, that a person realizes the strength of the bond that they have formed with their teammates and coaches.

A football season composes of long, strenuous hours, laughs, celebrations, and tears. The trust, unity, and friendships that are formed in a football season are reward for the incredibly tolling work that a player experiences week after week. Through it all, I believe that a football player develops a bond with his teammates and coaches that is unlike any other relationship and can only be understood through the experience.