Career Lessons from the Gridiron

As the year winds down and we move into a few important seasons – the holiday season, in my line of work the bid season, and the college football bowl season I wanted to take the opportunity to share some things I’ve been talking about with my oldest son Brady Penn , who just wrapped up his college football playing career.? When the new year arrives he will begin his final semester of college before graduating in May.? He has started to explore the job market and has recently begun doing some phone interviews.? Starting the transition from retired student athlete to “the real world” we’ve talked a few times about how his experiences translate to a career and how sometimes without even realizing it he has been honing skills that will help him excel in his future endeavors. ?I have spent the last 17 years coaching across five different sports- both boys and girls at a variety of levels from beginner to high level travel and high school feeder teams.? I tell players and parents often that lessons like the below. and many more, are where the real value in sports are driven because I’ve coached hundreds of players and not one has made the pros yet (maybe because of the coaching). ?

Don’t be afraid to try new things – Growing up Brady loved playing baseball.? He dabbled in other sports, but baseball was his passion.? He did the normal progression for young players from rec league to all-stars to travel baseball.? When he was in the 8th grade, we moved houses which put him into a new school district.? He was an unknown to the coaches at the new school and only had a brief tryout to try to earn a spot on the team.? He didn’t make it and was told to try out again when he got to high school the next year.? He decided that instead of sitting around that spring he would run track.? Through that track experience football coaches saw him run and asked him about coming out for the team, so in the 9th grade he played football for the first time. 4 years later he was playing in college, something only about 7% of high school players ever get to do. It all started by being willing to try something new.

Find your fit – In his senior year of high school he experienced a winless season.? The new coaching staff that had been brought in was full of coaches who had previous success, including state championships, but the team lacked talent and was one of the smallest schools in its classification.? Needless to say, the stands weren’t packed with college recruiters. But with help from his coaches, social media, recruiting fairs, and word of mouth Brady had several options for his future at multiple levels of play.? He ended up choosing Brevard College, a school that had transitioned down from Division 2 to Division 3 because he felt strongly it was the best fit for him.? In transparency, while I liked it and in particular the coaching staff, it wasn’t my first choice for him.? But I told him throughout the process that this was his life and he needed to go where he felt he best fit.? After being recruited as a wide receiver he ended up on defense.? Within the defense he began at cornerback but during his tenure was also asked to play safety.? His biggest contributions to his college team were really on special teams where he played a variety of roles.? He was always looking for where he fit best and how he could best help the team.?

Change is the only Constant – Brady played for 2 different coaching staffs in high school – One for his first two years and an entirely different one his junior and senior years. Before he even signed his LOI the initial coach from Brevard who was primarily responsible for recruiting Brady had left his position to accept a promotion to a more prestigious job at a Division 1.? He was assigned to a different coach who got him through signing and move-in for his freshman season before also departing to an opportunity at the Division 1 level. Over the course of his four college seasons Brady played for 3 different defensive coordinators. I think he learned the necessity of being comfortable with the concept of change and the idea that people you work with or work for may elect to move on to other opportunities. At the end of the day there are roughly 8 billion people in the world and while you can influence more you only really have true control over one. Focus on controlling that one and you can manage through all the changes going on around you.

Learn from different viewpoints – I’m not sure there is a better place for a young college student to learn about different cultures, values, and viewpoints than a football locker room.? This season alone I think his team’s roster featured players from a wide footprint of states plus Brazil and England.? There are a lot of different backgrounds in that room whether that be different race, religion, socioeconomic status, etc. It always interested me to watch how they came together to become a unified team pulling the rope in the same direction in pursuit of a common goal. It’s very similar to how large organizations must navigate the diversity of their personnel, drawing out the best from the various viewpoints and experiences.? Brady has talked about the friends he now has for life through his football experience, and they are from many different walks of life.? Our entire family has enjoyed the opportunity to get to know some of his teammates that have accompanied him home during bye weeks or the offseason.? My other kids have enjoyed it so much that this season during an off week when we had family pictures made and one of his teammates had come home with him that weekend that they insisted his teammate be in some of the pictures with us.

The harder you work, the luckier you get – Whether it was on the field, in the weight room, the meeting rooms, or in the classroom there was always a correlation between the amount of work and the amount of success being had.? In high school ball you can sometimes get by on natural talent alone.? At the next level it was obvious very quickly if you weren’t studying film, working hard in the weight room, etc.? There is a saying that a dictionary is the only place you find success before work. Sports is a great illustrator of that concept.

Life isn’t fair – My kids have probably grown tired of hearing me say “fair is a place where you ride rides and they judge livestock”. While you want others to make decisions that you would deem fair it doesn’t always happen. In his freshman season during the early part of the pandemic the conference his school plays in elected to play a modified schedule format.? Given the possibility that format would produce a tie in the standings they drafted articles defining how they would declare a champion in the event of a tie.? In the end when the tie happened conference leadership, in what is still one of the worst failures of leadership and absence of moral courage I’ve seen in my lifetime of being around athletics, decided instead of using those agreed upon criteria they would simply flip a coin.? The flip didn’t go the way Brady’s team would have liked and after a lot of media coverage and threats of litigation the school decided to accept the conference ruling. The players were denied an opportunity that had been earned on the field under the rules they were given.? You don’t always get what you earned and it is up to you how you will process and respond to that.

Mentors Matter – In his own post here on LinkedIn commemorating the end of his playing career Brady called out three coaches that have been influential to his him.? All three have achieved at a high level.? Two both played and coached in the NFL.? One was one of the best high school defensive coordinators in Georgia before becoming Brady’s head coach for his final two high school seasons. Finding those who have had success in your field and then connecting with and learning from them is an invaluable skill.

A duty to give back – The other side of the mentorship coin is that once you have the opportunity you should pay that back.? People took the time and effort to invest in you and when given the opportunity you should return the favor.? Brady spent time helping players from his high school program whenever he had the opportunity- whether that was coming home to help referee their Spring scrimmage game, talking to younger players about the recruiting process, or showing some tips about technique to players at his same position, he did for others what had been done for him.

Brady intends right now to pursue a career in sports media. There is a chance that he pivots to something in his major field of Criminal Justice or possibly to coaching football. Whatever he ends up doing I trust the habits he has developed will help him excel and I'm excited to see where his path leads.