My twenty-two-year-old son Joey was a phenomenal multisport, multi-position athlete in high school. He had the intangibles necessary to win—a big heart, a perceptive mind, and a tough spirit. Joey played football, basketball, lacrosse, and golf; he did each of them well. But the sport he loved the most was football. In one game, he scored all the points while playing quarterback, tight end, and place kicker in the same contest.
The position Joey loved most, however, was defensive end. He learned a lot about life playing on the defensive line. I did, too, by listening and watching. One thing I learned is that football games are won or lost in the “trenches.” The trench is the place and space where leverage is gained or lost, where advance toward victory or retreat toward defeat is achieved or taken away. In football, if you don’t have a strong offensive and defensive line, or if either of those lines plays poorly in a game, you lose. And depending on the opposition, you lose a close one, lose decisively, or get stomped!
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