Lesson 11- Reading #3

Seasons of Life

J. Marx. (2004).  Seasons of Life.  New York:  Simon Schuster.

Note:  This reading is about Joe Ehrmann and his life as a player, coach and teacher.  If you want to know more about Joe Ehrmann, Click Here. The reading begins as Joe is about to speak to a University of Maryland football clinic.  One of the coaches asked the following and the discussion began.

"You gonna be talking about offense, or defense?"

Joe's answer surprised this man who'd been expecting a chalk talk focused on the X's and O's of football diagrams.

"Philosophy," Joe said.  "I'll be talking about how to help boys become men within the context of sports."

After introductory remarks, Joe started into the substance..."I spent thirteen years in professional football.  And when I look back over my career, I have to say that the thing that impacted me the most, that I've taken away out of the game into my current life, really, is this concept of team.  In the NFL, what you have is fifty-three men--black men and white men, men from the inner cities, from the suburbs, from the farmlands of America--and they're able to come together every year and kind of set aside their own personal goals, wants and ambitions, in order to put the team first.  And I think that's the challenge, really facing us in this society, is how we learn to come together, across all racial, economic, and geographical divisions, to make this society a much better place."

..."So I am part of a football program in Baltimore, and we use this as our base philosophy.  Our understanding is that sports -- football-- is nothing more than a context to help connect with boys and teach them, one, a clear and compelling definition of what it means to be a man.  Second is to give them a code of conduct for manhood.  And then third is to help them figure out what their own unique, transcendent cause should or could be in this world."...