Since this is the beginning of football season, I’m going to use former Rams/Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner to illustrate a point about our business. There are many differences, true, between football and film but there are also a lot of similarities.
I think we all have a little voice in our head that says one of two things loudly and the other thing softly. If you’re doing well or have an inordinate amount of arrogance or confidence then the loud voice is saying “I’m a star.” The small voice in the back of your mind is saying “I suck” because there’s always this sneaking suspicion that you’re not as good as you think or others say you are. However, if you’re failing or lacking in confidence at the moment then reverse those - the loud voice is saying “I suck” and the small voice is saying “I’m really a star.”
I myself alternate constantly between those loud and soft voices. Many times, I’ve said to myself - I am a star - my work is fantastic, I’m at the top of my game and nothing I’m doing is wrong. Then, a cold reality hits me in the form of someone rejecting my work and that loud voice becomes “you suck” but the small voice still believes I’m a star - it’s just been drowned out by circumstances.
Kurt Warner must have had this same situation many times. His story.
INSPIRATION
Kurt, a man from a small town, after a fairly undistinguished high school football career attended the University of Northen Iowa and was made a third string quarterback on his college football team - which means, dead last in the depth chart. When he was finally given a chance to start in his senior year (after three years of riding the bench,) he did so well that he was named Offensive Player of the Year by the Gateway Conference. I’m sure at that point he was saying “I’m a star.”
Warner went undrafted out of college but was given a chance to work out for the
Green Bay Packers in 1994. Unfortunately, he was up against another future hall-of-famer Brett Favre and got nowhere in training camp. His quarterback coach at the time, SuperBowl winning coach Steve Mariucci liked Warner and said he had enormous potential but then also told him he wasn’t ready to be an NFL quarterback. Little consolation to a man who has to go back to his family and admit he didn’t make the cut.
When no other team would give him a workout, Warner went back to Iowa and stocked shelves for $5.50/hr. and also found work as an assistant football coach at his former college - just to keep in football. All the while, he never stopped looking for a way to get back into the game he loved more than almost anything else.
PERSPIRATION
He found work as a QB in the Arena League. Not exactly the NFL - not even really close - but it was football, sorta. Warner took advantage of the quicker nature of the AFL to hone his skills, doing so well that he was named to the AFL's First-team All-Arena in both 1996 and 1997; years in which he led the Barnstormers to Arena Bowl appearances (that league’s Superbowl.) His performance there was so impressive that he would be named twelfth on a list of the twenty best Arena Football players of all time.
Wanting to get back into the NFL, Warner requested and got a tryout with the Chicago Bears - they were willing to see him now based on his amazing stats as a QB in the Arena League. But a spider bite caused a serious injury to his elbow and Warner once again was out of the NFL before he had a chance to show what he could do.
At this point, Warner could have easily given up. That little voice ("I suck") was probably becoming much louder. Self-doubt about his chances as an NFL QB had to be creeping in. It’s particularly daunting when you see people around you doing well and climbing a ladder that you can’t even find let alone put your foot on. We cannot help but measure ourselves against others - but that is wrong-minded. Kurt Warner only ever measured himself against himself even when those voices said "you suck."
Warner was eventually signed by the St. Louis Rams but not the NFL team - the, at the time, farm league called NFL Europe - a wasteland for players who teams think might work out but in whom they lack enough confidence to actually sign to an NFL position. Instead of cursing his situation, Warner flourished - he lead the league in both touchdowns and passing yards distinguishing himself and forcing the Rams to take notice of him. Inspiration, perspiration and...
DETERMINATION
Kurt was finally brought into the Rams team as 2nd string QB - pretty good but not the starting QB. Hotshot Trent Green was. But at the final game of the preseason, the highly-touted Green - in whom everyone on the team had placed their hopes - went down with an injury. The Rams and everyone else thought the season for the team was done.
They didn’t account for Warner’s fire and his passion to show everyone they had been wrong about him all these years.
“The Greatest Show on Turf” was the name they eventually gave Warner’s offense which set records for highest completion percentage, most yards in a single game and many other equally impressive records. He is considered to be one of the greats in the pantheon of NFL QBs and is almost certainly a Hall-of-Fame inductee when he becomes eligible (you have to be out of football for three years to become a Hall of Fame candidate and Warner just retired last year.)
Warner’s story continues to be one of the more inspirational ones in any profession. As quarterback, the leader of the team, he eventually took the Rams to a
Superbowl marking them as one of the premier teams in the league while he stood behind Center. He did suffer an injury during one season but came back to set even more records in passing and completions.
When the Rams released Warner thinking his best days were behind him, Warner went to the New York Giants who had gone 4-12 the previous year. Under Warner during the first seven games, the Giants were 5-2. But Warner, for reasons not clear, was benched in favor of young up-and-comer Eli Manning. The Giants went 1-6 when Manning was quarterback. Not exactly inspirational. To his credit, Warner never disrespected the coach, Manning or the decision to bench him for a much less ready QB.
The Arizona Cardinals, a one-time junkyard of football players, took Warner after the Giants released him early out of his 2-year contract, not as the starter but as a veteran backup. However, he performed so well, taking every advantage of his opportunities, that he quickly was made a starter under Coach Denny Green and eventually led the Arizona Cardinals, long considered to be a league joke, to a Superbowl that they almost won, only losing a close game by three points against one of the powerhouse teams of the NFL.
Can you see the parallels here? Can you understand that wanting something is the first step to achieving it - but that wanting it is not enough. You have to work hard for it. Warner’s work ethic was unparalleled - he threw and threw and worked until he was perfection itself. But even that’s not enough. You have to stay at it no matter which voice is shouting at you the loudest because not all of us make it on the first try; or the second; or the tenth.
Inspiration - see the dream. Visualize it.
Perspiration - learn your craft. get your “chops” to a point where you can do it blindfolded. How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice goes the old joke.
Determination - do not quit. Do not give up simply because you’ve not gotten to where you think you should be or where someone else is. The trap here that so many fall into is seeing someone else’s progress and measuring yourself against that person. No, no no! My martial arts Sensei says your opponent is not out there somewhere - he is the person staring back at you in the mirror. Osu, Sensei.
The next time you’re ready to give up, remember Kurt Warner, completely out of football and stocking shelves in an Iowa grocery store - and then flash forward to him hoisting the Lombardi Trophy at the Superbowl just a few years later and eventually, taking his place among the greats of his sport in the Pro Football Hall of Fame - the highest achievement any football player can aspire to. When Warner ascends that stage to unveil his Hall of Fame bust, knowing all the greats that came before him, understanding that he was once considered "not good enough" to succeed - if he isn't overcome with emotion, doesn't break down in tears then he'd have to be made of stone.
Warner was only able to accomplish what he did because he never gave up and he stayed strong in his skills and his attitude. And when that “I suck” voice got loud and obnoxious, Warner pushed it aside and said “I may not be a star yet, but that doesn’t mean I won’t be one.”
Perceive, believe, achieve. It can be done - whatever the dream - just remember that it may not be easy and it may not be quick.
Just ask superstar quarterback and former stockboy, Kurt Warner.
