“Prove em’ right”. A lesson to be learned from the NFL draft.
After the NFL draft is over many players who were not drafted as highly as they thought they should be often develop a “chip” on their shoulder due to where they were selected. Feeling slighted they were not taken higher, these players spend their careers trying to show other teams that they made a mistake by not drafting him.
Aaron Rodgers was considered to be the #1 selection in the 2005 NFL draft. In fact, his hometown team (the San Fransisco 49ers) had the first overall pick but choose another quarterback instead. Rodgers then experienced one of the most famous slides in in NFL draft history, failing all the way to the 24th pick. A reporter asked Rodgers, “how disappointed are you that you will not be a 49er?” he replied, “not as disappointed as the 49ers will be that they didn’t draft me.”
Born and raised in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, highly talented quarterback Dan Marino played his college football at Pitt where he threw for 7,905 passing yards, 74 touchdowns and led the Panthers to 33 wins and only 3 losses. Somehow he fell to 27th in the draft, overlooked by his hometown Steelers (and 26 other teams) he watched five other quarterbacks get selected in the first round ahead of him.
To anyone who sets out to “silence the critics” I would say that while both Rodgers and Marino are prime examples that striving to “prove em’ wrong” works for some, research suggests that this sort of motivation can be fleeting and not as powerful as feelings of gratitude and Love. To stick with the football analogy, if a team (or multiple teams) pass on you, why are you spending any mental energy focusing on them? You have nothing to prove to these team because they’ve already done there evaluation and for whatever reason they decided not to pick you.
The reality is that we are not entitled to anything. The fact that we woke up today is a blessing and living your life with anger in your heart is no way to live. Remember, the weight of a glass of water is dependent on how long you hold it.
The Green Bay Packers picked Rodgers, the Miami Dolphins picked Marino and someone picked you too. We can only choose to think about one thing at a time and I would much rather think about the people who believe in me than waste any of my resources on the naysayers. In the end, you must decided who you would rather reward, the people who had their chance and didn’t pick you or those who have supported you no matter what. I choose to “prove em’ right.”
Coach Nelson serves as a high school football coach who is pursuing his doctorate in Sport and Performance Psychology. He has worked for division 1 athletic departments, professional sport franchises, a Fortune 100 Company and has won numerous awards for his LEADership abilities. Most recently coach Nelson was hired as a trainer for the Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA) and as a mental performance coach for Mindurance.
His mission is to positively influence the world through Love, Effort, Attitude and Discipline (#LEAD). To learn more about the LEAD philosophy follow him on Twitter Levi Nelson or reach out via email at rln10@zips.uakron.edu He’d love to learn about or help you in your journey!
PCA: https://www.positivecoach.org/team/nelson-levi/
Mindurance: https://mindurance.com/viewAdvisor.asp?ic=51819&catID=
