Football

Football and leadership — learning leadership from coaches in the NFL.

I have been a football fan since I was about 8 years old when I watched a game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Green Bay Packers. From that point on, I was a Cowboys’ fan.

Over the course of the years, however, I have come to enjoy watching football from a leadership perspective. Of course, the Dallas Cowboys had Tom Landry. And living in central PA, this is Pittsburgh Steelers’ country. The Steelers have an incredible leadership tradition with Chuck Noll and Bill Cowher who coached the Steelers for a combined 37 seasons and winning five Super Bowls. Mike Tomlin has some big shoes to fill!

There have been several books written by NFL head coaches. I’ve read a few of them including, Think Like A Champion by Mike Shanahan and Finding a Way to Win by Bill Parcells.

Toward the end of the 2006-2007 season, I began cheering on the Indianapolis Colts. I’ve always liked Peyton Manning, a real class act, and Tony Dungy, a strong Christ-following leader. Dungy has a new book out now called Quiet Strength. I hope to read it sometime.

Who are your favorite leaders in the NFL?

3 thoughts on “Football”

  1. For me it would have to be Tom Landry and Tony Dungy, too. It is so awesome to see coaches/leaders who don’t compromise their relationship with God even though they are in a “hostile” environment. We need more Christian coaches/leaders in the NHL! (My favourite sport :D)

    Kevin

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  2. Yeah, I’m not too familiar with the NHL. It was interesting, though, when we traveled through Nova Scotia. Whenever the locals learned we were from Pennsylvania they inevitably asked if we knew about the guy from Nova Scotia who was playing for the Pittsburgh Penguins. 🙂

    We could also talk about the diversity among all of these coaches. Cowher, for example, is a much different coach than Dungy. Dungy doesn’t raise his voice, yet he gets the job done.

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  3. That’s a funny story Randy. We Canadians definitely take our hockey seriously and we EXPECT everyone else to as well. 🙂

    In regards to Christian leaders (coaches and players) in professional sports, IMO, there seems to be a HUGE lack of them (in the NHL anyway). There have been a few notable ones over the years (Ryan Walters, Paul Henderson)but latley it seems they are non-existant.

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