I hope & trust this post finds you all having a great day as a beautiful new day gets ready to dawn!
This week I would like to share my perspective on the QB for the Carolina Panthers, Cam Newton, and a little more...
During this past, MVP, season Cam has been questioned & ridiculed about the way he acts while playing football. Since the Panthers Super Bowl loss, he has been questioned & ridiculed about how he acted during his post-game press conference. Here is what I see:
1. I fell in love with the way Cam Newton plays the game of football when he was at Auburn. Gehrig, my now 16-year old son, and I were watching the game. Cam ran the ball and got tackled - I don't remember where they were on the field, how long the run was, etc. As the camera zoomed in on Cam all you could see was this huge smile on his face. Cam was playing the game of football with joy.
When I watch Cam play, "dab," act silly with his teammates, I see a person doing what they are doing with great joy. And I don't get what all the angst is about. I might be wrong here or maybe I just haven't seen it much, however I don't see him getting up in an opponents face, trying to humiliate an opponent, etc. No, I see him simply playing with joy. In fact, I have seen opponents try to get in his face, not let him have a football so he can give it to a little kid after a touchdown and Cam's reaction? He ignores them, as if they do not exist.
What I see with Cam is what I want my boys, and my Beautiful Bride & I, to do in our lives - to love passionately what we do, to do what we do with great joy and not put others down in an attempt to elevate ourselves. I don't understand how or why this is offensive to some however I am not going to be cynical or judgmental, to try to guess why. I am simply grateful for the example and will humbly respect everyone's right to have their opinion.
2. Since the Super Bowl Cam has received a great deal of criticism for the way he conducted himself during the post-game press conference. He didn't yell, scream, cuss, cry, shift blame, etc. He was quiet, sullen and didn't talk real long.
How many of us have had a microphone put in our face about 10 minutes after suffering our greatest professional disappointment? I know I haven't. I don't know how I would act, what I would say or do.
The thing that strikes me is what do we want our athletes - or any person who we stick a microphone in front of after a great disappointment - to do? What do we want them to say? How do we want them to act? Here is a great thought for us; maybe it isn't about me & you...the viewer/listener. Did Cam act the way I wanted him to act? Say what I wanted him to say? Do what I wanted him to do? I don't know because I honestly don't know how I wanted him to act, what I wanted him to say or what I wanted him to do. My heart was filled with compassion - as a former student-athlete & coach understanding the tremendous amount of work, effort & sacrifice that goes into a football season, and the profound disappointment that comes with a loss, let alone the Super Bowl. My expectations were not based on me, they were formed out of care and concern for another human being who just happens to be a phenomenal athlete.
Perhaps this is the problem, we want to make everything about us, individually, when in reality the value in life is not found in serving ourselves but others. How different would things be if we appreciated someone playing a game - think about those last 3 words - with great joy instead of taking it, somehow, as an attack on our self-worth? How different would things be if instead of expecting everyone to live up to our expectations, we tried to understand - respect & genuinely care about - how another person is doing? I think things might be a little different...
Along the same lines, the Monday after the Super Bowl, some of my colleagues and I were talking about the Super Bowl, pre-game, commercials, etc. One of my colleagues, who does not like Tom Brady - full disclosure here, I DO like Tom Brady, was reveling in the fact that the Broncos fans in attendance at the Super Bowl booed Tom Brady when all of the former Super Bowl MVP's were announced. She said, "That's what happens when you are a cheater." After thinking for a few moments, I calmly said, "Perhaps it is more a reflection of the Broncos fans than it is of Tom Brady."
It is so easy to criticize, be offended, tell someone else what they should say, think or do, etc. The higher road, much more difficult and far less traveled, is to be compassionate, to seek to understand instead of to be understood and to realize that everything doesn't have to be, isn't, about you & me, individually. This is the road I pray we will take. Oh, I fail at it far more often than I would like to admit however right now it is only 4:38 a.m. and I haven't goofed it up yet today! :)
Here is a little more...
Have you ever heard of Dr. Sidney C. Walker? I hadn't either. A week ago I had the privilege of meeting his daughter. She handed me a book titled, "The Good Doctor," written by one of his former patients and containing several testimonies from other former patients. Let me give you the quick breakdown - Dr. Walker graduated from medical school in the late 1920's (sorry, I can't remember the specific year). In 1940 he opened up a clinic in Hempstead, TX. At Dr. Walker's clinic there were no appointments - it was first come, first served. You were seen by Dr. Walker in the order you arrived at his office. He did not care who you were, or your skin color. This was not how things were typically done at that time. To put things in perspective for you, according to the book, the last recorded lynching in the state of Texas occurred in 1947...7 years after Dr. Walker opened his clinic.
It is so powerful, and emotional, to read testimony after testimony of people who Dr. Walker served. The woman who was getting a physical before going to college and Dr. Walker told her the fee was to get her degree. The woman who pleaded with Dr. Walker to go to the police station and make the officers stop beating her son - after taking the woman home, he did and then bandaged the man's wounds. The stories go on and on - of a man who saw a person, not a color. A man who would do anything for anyone. The period speaks volumes.
What makes a man, any person, do the things that Dr. Walker did? To listen to the inner convictions as opposed to the societal norms? I asked his daughter why he was the way he was and she said she did not know. What makes a Mother Teresa go to Calcutta and serve the indigent? What makes people do these things?
As I have thought about this several times over the course of the past week I have come to this conclusion; I think we all have, or have the capacity to have, these convictions. It is just that some of us answer the call of conviction and others bury those convictions and answer the call of society, of fear, or whatever. My hope and prayer for us Friends is that we will not muffle those convictions. That we will have eyes to see the needs, hearts to care, faith to act, and the courage to do these things day after day.
I want to end with a great quote that I came across this week:
"You can find Calcutta anywhere in the world. You only need two eyes to see. Everywhere in the world there are people that are not loved, people that are not wanted or desired, people that no one will help, people that are pushed away or forgotten. And this is the greatest poverty." - Mother Teresa
Please don't hesitate to contact me if there is ever anything I can do for you or your family. You can reach me at kevin@whatwillyourinfluencebe.com.
Have a great day, a wonderful weekend and please cherish your precious families.
Kev
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