SPORTS September 1, 2008 Issue

MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE

DON HOUGE

FRESH-CUT GRASS on a late summer afternoon. Smells like football. Recently as I walked across a local park, that scent caught me and transported me right back to my days of playing and coaching the game.

Some of my most cherished memories come directly from lessons learned on the gridiron. It's hard to describe the joy you experience when a group of individuals work together for a common goal and achieve it to some degree. Football may look at times like an unorganized mass of bodies running into one another, but I always found great courage, precision, intelligence, unselfishness, dominion, and grace in abundant evidence while I was learning, playing, and coaching this great American game.

Football is structured in such a way that no matter how talented an individual player may be, it's virtually impossible to enjoy success without team effort. Every member of the squad depends on the others to do their individual jobs well. The degree to which each player does that, leads to collective victory or defeat.