We got this in 1996 with a guy named Danny Wuerffel playing quarterback. In 1996 I was thirteen years old, and there was nothing I loved more at that time than football, and in football there was nothing I loved more than Florida Gator football (example: My entire room was blue and orange and EVERYTHING was Florida Gator, including a five foot inflatable gator wearing a #7 jersey I had hanging above my bed.) Danny Wuerffel was my hero. He was a true Gator, he was from Florida, he threw the fade route to the back of end zone like nobody I had seen before, he won, and was just an all around good guy. I wanted to be like Danny Wuerffel.
If you follow college football and the career of Danny Wuerffel you know that despite his greatness in college as a quarterback (i.e. National Championship, Heisman Trophy, Quarterback of the Year, etc.) he just didn't make it as an NFL quarterback. He was drafted by the Saints, played a few years there, went to Green Bay, Chicago, and eventually back to the "Ol Ball Coach" where they both ended their NFL careers in Washington. Danny didn't win as an NFL quarterback. I don't know why, I am not a quarterback coach or expert, but he just did not translate the greatness he had in college to the NFL. Maybe it was because he was unconventional. While he could throw the fade route very well. He wasn't your prototypical Peyton Manning style passer, but as a Gator Fan we really didn't mind. Danny had given us a National Championship and would always be a winner in our eyes.
Then Danny retired and became a true "winner" in my book. He left the NFL, every college football player's dream, and went on to do what I think was his true calling in life, work for Desire Street Ministries http://www.desirestreet.org/. Here is a link to their website and you can check out all the great accomplishments this organization has done and is still doing. What I want to get across here is, Danny Wuerffel did not win conventionally in the NFL, but he was not a failure. He went on to win as some might say unconventionally in a world that has far less glitz and glamor than the NFL world, but just as much if not more importance to our society the Non-Profit world. Winning unconventionally is not always pretty or deemed successful by society or media, but that does not erase it's effectiveness.
Last night I left my day job as a TPA to go volunteer with several young men at a catering job they were working. It was where I needed to be. I had great parents, teachers, coaches, and church members who mentored me as a young man and taught me how to be successful in life. I feel that it is my obligation as well as a gift I have been given to return the favor and share my knowledge with other young men who face difficult situations. In doing this though I missed watching the Denver/New York Jets football game. Now most people would probably wonder why a guy from Georgia who lives in Texas would care at all about that football game...well usually I wouldn't, but there is one guy playing for Denver that as a Gator fan makes me care. He goes by the name of Tebow.
He is quite the polarizing figure right now. People either love him or hate him. There really is no in between. As a Gator fan I love him, I love him because of what he meant to that University, it's football program and the way he played the game. He played at Florida with a certain passion that I hadn't seen in many years from a man of that age. Now I will be the first to admit I am biased, and this blog is being written from the point of view of a Tebow fan. If you hate him, that is your opinion and you are certainly entitled to it. He is a human and we all make mistakes and aren't perfect, but I am going to talk about some of the good things he has done and does (disclosure given).
Last night as I drove to the catering event I talked with my father on the phone about the Denver game and Tebow. This is common for us. My dad and I can always talk sports, it's always been our thing and I love it. He is the reason I am such a big Gator fan, but more importantly why I choose to make the decision to go to a catering event rather than stay at home and watch a former Gator great. My dad taught me to win unconventionally. That will be an entirely separate blog one day, and may take several blogs to detail the great lessons that man taught me and the respect I have for him, but back to my story. As we were discussing the upcoming game and the in and outs of Tebow and Denver's offense we both commented on the unconventionality of how it worked. No expert can explain it. It is the talk of all the sports radio and television programs and feeds sports media these days. The final point my dad and I shared before I got off the phone with each other and I went in to work the catering event was, in the end it really didn't matter. If Tebow won on the field great, it's unconventional, but a win is a win. If he didn't win on the field no big deal, he was a Gator great and in the long run we know where Tebow's heart truly is and that is missions (my dad and I both share this passion). Tebow we agreed was a winner and is fulfilling his purpose now and later.
As the catering job ended and the night wound down I found myself taking home several of the young men after the job, and we discussed things that were going on in their life and music (this is where my love of rap really comes in handy) and basically just them interacting with each other. Now this may not seem like a big deal to most, but if you understand the background of the three young men and how they came to know each other, and now working paying jobs and interacting in a normal manner, it's pretty amazing. Just looking back at the comments made by the people who attended last nights event, I couldn't help but stop and think these guys are slowly winning unconventionally.
As I dropped off the last of the young men my younger brother called me. I answered the phone and all I heard was "TEBOW! TEBOW!"...I immediately knew what he was calling about. I had forgotten about the Denver game, and he was calling surely to tell me Denver had won. In his excited fashion he recapped for me the the final 95 yard drive that Tebow led and ended with him running the ball in for the winning touchdown. I was instantly brought back to the excitement of all those Florida football games when Tebow would just take over and win. As I talked briefly with my younger brother about the win, and then got off the phone so that I could finish up my conversation on work with the young man I was dropping off, myself and the young man both briefly mentioned Tebow is the "truth" as the guy put it.
I'll wrap this all up and come to a point here, winning unconventionally in life is often not appreciated, but many times absolutely necessary. In my own life I gave up the opportunity to watch a football game and see a win on television to spend time teaching guys how to win in life. In the young men I volunteer with they are beating the odds and learning how to win in a society that often times rules them out before they are even born. In the case of my two former Florida Gators, winning to them on the field was and is great, but they both realize the ultimate win in life is not going to be on a field scoreboard, but what they accomplish off the field. The media, society, people around us may not get it because we are so used to understanding winning as being this certain concept that is easily measured in stats and numbers, but in real life winning isn't always pretty and can't always be represented by stats and numbers, but when it happens it happens, even if it's unconventional.
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