By Troy Vincent
NFL Player Engagement
“Focusing is the great secret of power.” – Stephen Richards, author of The Ultimate Focus Builder
Remember the “offseason?” As a professional athlete, we heard a lot of talk about the offseason, but in reality there was never an “offseason.” While we weren't on the field, the offseason was no time to lose focus on our goals for the next season. It was a time of revitalization, preparation, resting the body from the sport, but keeping in shape, working on those things that need improvement, and overall preparation.
In short, the offseason wasn’t about taking a vacation, but was rather a time to focus. Now that you are not playing football, life can sometimes feel like a permanent time off when in reality, we must focus more than ever.
On February 3, 2008, David Tyree became a household name in Super Bowl lore because of what became known as “The Catch.” With a minute and 15 seconds left in Super Bowl XLII, Giants quarterback Eli Manning dodged tackles and scrambled to throw an off-balance 32 yard pass. The receiver, David Tyree, describes the event, “If I missed this ball, our team may not have had time to recover. The game would have been over. Everyone was depending on me, and I could not let them down. All I could think was, ‘By any means necessary!’ ...Only a few seconds went by, but in my mind, the play seemed to be running in slow motion as I reached up and behind my head to get the catch. Touching the ball with my fingers and pinning it to my helmet, I was determined to hold on.” The Giants went on to score and to win with less than a minute on the clock.
David says that “The Catch” was the culmination of 28 years of physical, mental, and spiritual preparation – that’s a lot of in-season time and offseason time to get that kind of focus at that specific point for that second in time. David is now putting that same focus on life after football, building his career and setting his feet on a path to success.
When we talk about the offseason after our playing experience is finished, the word “focus” must be part of the conversation. It is a time when the natural thing to do is to let down. The smart thing to do is to focus. If we used the offseason to focus on improving ourselves, we need to extend that next natural step of focus to translate in achieving our goals.
Just as the offseason was what you made of it, so is life after football. The first step is to get focused on the physical, mental, and spiritual things that make success the natural conclusion.