NFL: Notes For Life
5 football concepts everyone, including non-football fans, can benefit from
"The measure of who we are is what we do with what we have.” -Vince Lombardi
I have a well-documented complicated relationship to American football. It’s a sport scientifically proven to be dangerous to human brains, a league with a track record of exploiting Black athletes for profit while turning a blind eye to racial justice, sexual assault, and domestic violence, marketed via a PR team with a poorly concealed boner for the military industrial complex, and run by bunch of greedy and temperamental geriatric white billionaires. Also, there’s a dark side.
Yet as the hypocrite I am, I’m still watching. As I grasp onto the many contradictions that being a football fan entails in the 21st century, I’ve taken some solace in the fact that being fluent in football terms doesn’t just allow you to connect with a surprisingly large segment of the US population, it also teaches you some surprisingly pragmatic and timeless philosophical concepts.
I first realized this last summer while on vacation with my siblings when my sister finally asked me to explain an audible after I used the term for the twenty second time to discuss our dinner plans. In explaining it, I realized that not only had football lingo crept into my day-to-day life, but so too had the way of thinking embodied by the language.
I firmly believe that you can find wisdom and insight in most aspects of life if you pay close enough attention. In that spirit, with the Super Bowl a few weeks away, I want to share some useful life lessons I’ve gleaned from watching football over the past fifteen years. My hope is that by unpacking these I can help some non-football fans understand the sport better, help football fans understand philosophy a bit better, and help everyone understand how good advice is sometimes hiding all around us.
Don’t be afraid to call an audible
In football: When the quarterback lines up and the center is about to snap the ball to him, you’ll sometimes see him start yelling out nonsense words while pointing at his helmet or jersey. This is called an audible. Peyton Manning was famous for it, to the point where his audible code word “Omaha,” became the name of his production company. What the QB is doing is telling the offense that he’s changing the play because of how the defense is lined up. For example, if they’re about to run the ball but the defense looks like that would be a running into a deathtrap, the audible might be to a pass play, forcing the defense to spread out and abandon their initial gambit, giving the offense a better chance of success.
In life: As I’ve gotten older it’s become clear that being careful not to cling to a past idea just because it was the plan at one point keeps you open to better plans. While giving up on an initial plan can feel like surrendering control, calling an audible is quite the opposite; you’re actually asserting control over the situation by surrendering attachment to one particular outcome. Practicing them also builds better attunement to the people and environment around you. Any good friend, like any good coach or quarterback, can simply make a plan. However, truly great friends know how to modify the plan to better suit the day-of mood or situation. In addition to allowing for better outcomes, calling an audible has positive psychological benefits, too. Not being too ironclad in your thinking is a gift to your relationships and stress levels. Staying calm even when circumstances don’t work out for what you had planned teaches you that you are resilient and adaptable and can meet almost any moment. This brings us to the second football principle.
Go through your progressions
In football: A common critique of college quarterbacks or rookie NFL quarterbacks is that they’ll stare down one receiver instead of “going through their progressions.” What this means is that the quarterback is too intent on getting it to one receiver and in their stubbornness will ignore the multiple other receivers plus tight ends and running backs that may be available to pass to. This is a bad thing because it’s never a given that your first choice receiver will get open. Good defenses know who your top receiving threat is and will usually jam them at the line, double team them downfield, or find other ways to get in the way of your first look. Good quarterbacks therefore will calmly look downfield under great pressure and work through all of their options if necessary, taking a few milliseconds to evaluate their first choice before looking to their second, third, and so on. Going through your progressions means being wedded to maintaining possession and advancing the ball, not getting the ball to one particular receiver.
In life: I was first taught this not on a football field but in restaurants. I was complaining to my sous chef that the dumpling dish I had assigned on my station was a pain in the ass to make because the induction cooktop I was using to blanch them kept malfunctioning. He told me I had it all backwards. I was stuck thinking “constraints up” instead of “outcome down.” Instead of complaining the moment my first plan didn’t work I should look at the three other ways to cook the dumplings I hadn’t even thought about in my defeatist outburst. The dumplings could be blanched in the pots of boiling water in the wok room, or even in the woks themselves.
You can apply this to your life in two key ways. It’s always good to go into a situation with a few different notions of how you can get the outcome you need. There’s a good adage for this: “two is one and one is none,” meaning that having multiple options or pieces of gear means that if and when your first fails you’re not shit out of luck. For example, while you might prefer to drive to the airport yourself, it never hurts to know your public transit options, have the Uber app, and a friend or family member you can call in case you have car trouble. Transit is almost too easy of an example since it’s instrumental by nature— most people don’t care how they get there as long as they get there on time. Going through your progressions matters most when you’re out of your comfort zone and/or extremely attached to things happening exactly one way and strong emotions come into play. This brings us to the second reason to focus on your progressions when you can.
When things go wrong, and they often do, instead of spiraling around the fact that your first option or plan didn’t work, try to focus on identifying the second or third options that will still get the job done. This isn’t to commit the original male sin of saying that your feelings don’t matter or that emotions are annoying noise distracting from the advice needing to be given and decisions that must be made. Rather I’m saying that after acknowledging your valid feelings, there’s a certain zen strength to settling into finding your next option rather than lamenting your first choice falling through. You can still do that later, but finding a workable backup is a more pressing need that puts you back in the drivers seat and might even mean there’s less to bemoan later. In this regard, the tired phrase “no use crying over spilt milk” is missing a key second half: “You can do that at some point, but it might be better to clean it up and find something else to drink first.”
Last year I saw a friend have a wedding venue cancel on them just weeks out based on freak weather. Instead of wallowing in this setback they tapped their extended network to call every single venue they’d looked at until one had an opening available. The venue they found was gorgeous enough that many of the guests, including me, didn’t even realize it was their backup. If you’re open to going through your progressions, even huge setbacks are just temporary.
Identify the mic early
In football: Another peculiar form of shouting quarterbacks will do at the line of scrimmage is point to one of the beefy refrigerator men lined up across from him and yell out something like “54 is the mic.” What they’re doing is identifying the middle linebacker, abbreviated to mic, in the defensive formation. Doing so communicates to the rest of the offense how the defense is lined up. This is essential information that dictates how the offensive line will have to block, where the biggest threat to the quarterback might come from on a pass play, and where the defensive front is strong and where it’s vulnerable once the ball is snapped.
In life:
At the risk of overgeneralizing, I’ve found that many of my conflicts in life have arisen because I under communicated or flat out failed to communicate key information. Whether I’m collaborating on a complex marketing campaign, making plans to see my parents, or leaving for a trip with Alexis, I’ve gotten in the most trouble when I neglected to voice my needs or check in about someone else’s. If I assume that a colleague is handling something when they think I’m doing so or don’t double check if we have to leave by noon or just would like to leave by noon, I open myself up to very preventable strife. It sounds mind-numbingly basic, but the simple truth is that making a point to slightly over communicate with people solves a lot of problems before they can become problems. Identifying the mic is all about making a point to check in early and often so that being on the same page with your teammates is your default state, not a special occasion.
Manage the clock
In football: What separates great teams from merely good teams from a coaching standpoint? There are too many factors to count, from Belichek’s in depth game plans to Andy Reid’s innovative offensive formations, but one thing all of them have is good clock management. All teams have the same four fifteen minute quarters available to them to play and win the game but great teams are meticulous in how they manage this time. This boils down to how they call plays, adjust their strategy, and call time outs to maximize the time they have available while minimizing the time their opponent has. For example, for a team that has a narrow lead, the worst thing they can do is give the ball back to their opponent with enough time to score. A savvy team in this position will likely run the ball, which burns more clock than pass plays, ensuring their opponents have as little time left as possible. This team would also not just have to stay aware of how many timeouts they have, but use them only in the most impactful situations so they can dictate the cadence of the game, giving them tactically advantageous pauses while disrupting the rhythm of their adversaries. While there are many paths to victory, all of them are dependent on managing the clock well. Conversely, one of the surest ways to lose a winnable game is via poor clock management— just ask the 2016 Atlanta Falcons.
In life:
What clock management epitomizes is obvious but important: don’t undermine your own ability to succeed by neglecting the basics. You can spare yourself and others a lot of grief and stress by taking timing seriously. In my own life I’ve seen this be most impactful when I’m cooking. You can set future you up for success by doing small stuff now. Salting a chicken the night before roasting it makes it taste twice as good while soaking lentils the night before simmering makes them cook four times as fast. Both of these actions require little additional effort but must be timed strategically to get the full benefits.
If I’m stressed about hosting or cooking for a large group, I’ll often prioritize a slow-cooked dish that I can cook the day before my guests arrive. Not only does this free up headspace and let me hang out with my guests, but it improves the flavor of what I’m making since many slow-cooked dishes like braised meat, tomato sauce, and chili actually taste better the day after they’re made. Having a slow-cooked dish ready when your guests arrive means you won’t have to scramble over food prep, freeing up more time to get your space ready, relax, and actually spend time with your guests when they arrive. Another great way to manage the clock when hosting is to have a small snack you can place out as soon as folks get there. Giving people something to nibble on with a beverage can easily buy you close to an hour to finish whatever you’re working on. What all of these have in common is actually much bigger than cooking & entertaining: taking timing seriously is an easy and effective way to be successful, impress others, and make life easier on yourself. As with identifying the mic, this is a simple form of life hygiene whose impacts are exponentially larger than the amount of effort it requires.
Establish the run game
In football:
The old adage that defense wins championships contains the even more basic truth that well-rounded teams have a clear leg up. On the offensive side of the ball this looks like teams that have a credible running and passing attack available to them. If your opponent has to contend with a variety of run plays and passing plays, that means they can’t comfortably camp out in one formation and deny your main strength. Good teams not only have the talented offensive line players and running backs necessary for a strong ground game, they establish the run game early, showing their opponent that they can run the ball so that they must adapt to this on defense. Since the defense now has to respect the run game, they’ll be more vulnerable to passing plays, especially when the offensive uses fakes or deception to make it unclear if they’re going to run or pass, as is the case on play action or bootleg plays. Establishing the run also has the benefits of tiring out the defense, controlling time of possession (managing the clock), and keeping the quarterback safe from rushers.
In life:
If your life involves competition in sports, hobbies, or work, there are many occasions where you can use this literally to great effect: make your opponent think you’re going to do one thing only to attack them with another. For example, one of the best ways to improve your Spikeball, volleyball, or tennis game is to get comfortable hitting a wider variety of shots. Most novice and intermediate players only have 1-2 shots that they use constantly, making them easy to read and defend. Advanced and expert players not only have a full bandolier of shots available, but they know how to disguise one as another so their opponent is never sure what they’ll have to defend.
However, the way I’ve interpreted establishing the run leads to a few widely applicable principles that go way deeper than winning at sports and hobbies:
Demonstrate your competence early and people will notice and respect that. A huge part of establishing the run just means proving to yourself and those watching that you can make an impact in significant ways. This both supercharges your self-confidence and makes others see you differently.
Cultivate your ability to approach problems in a few different ways. Versatility is a timeless quality to have. Conversely, the people that tend to get the most frustrated by setbacks tend to over rely on one one way to get what they want. When their go-to approach stops working they can feel defeated: people pleasers addicted to consensus suddenly faced with hard-to-please or indifferent colleagues, analytical types that must contend with “illogical” empaths who want validation instead of an explanation or solution, or serial over-extenders who can’t see the additive quality of subtracting commitments— that saying no to things can be just as empowering as saying yes to them. All of us would do well to add a few additional running plays to our playbooks. That way there are fewer situations that we’re woefully unprepared for and we have more ways to get the results we seek.
Be persistent and consistent and you’re more likely to achieve your goals. Establishing the run captures the essence of the run game in general, which requires a lot of hard work and coordination from the offense and doesn’t often yield huge or spectacular results. The wins from running the ball tend to come from picking up a few yards here and a few there and gradually wearing your opposition down. While running the ball isn’t the flashiest way to advance it, it’s still an essential part of winning games for most teams. The importance of establishing the run reminds all of us that whatever we seek will often involve some form of unglamorous ground game, not just SportsCenter caliber highlights. Demonstrating our ability to repeatedly do what advances us towards our goal, whether that’s physical fitness, career success, or better relationships means committing to doing it early and often, even when it feels like a slog. Incremental gains can and do translate to huge progress with time and perseverance.
Football is an odd and flawed messenger for life lessons, but that doesn’t make the lessons themselves any less sound. By paying close attention to your surroundings, being willing and able to adapt to them as the situation requires, and focusing on the many the little details that you can control instead of the huge setbacks that you can’t, you can give yourself a winning mindset that inoculates you against adversity. While I can no more promise that you’ll enjoy watching football more after reading this than I can predict who is going to win the Super Bowl, I can promise that these principles will come in handy the next time you have to tackle whatever an away game in bad weather looks like in your life.
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