by Daniel Sisk

Created on: January 30, 2009

The end of another football season prompts a new tally of my teenage sons' gridiron injuries: bruised ribs, two broken ankles, broken leg, assorted concussions. Financially, besides the insurance deductibles, I count outlays for buckets of Muscle Milk, a dietary supplement for building bulk - and egos - and its corresponding hit to the food budget. I'm starting to see an upside to daughters.

Still, the investment has yielded some unexpected insights. These I gathered over many chilly evenings as the wife and I huddled under a blanket on the bleachers waiting for our second and third stringers to get the nod. My final collection of these pearls reveals wisdom much deeper and broader than the brutal game itself:

- You can't score if you don't have the ball. This fundamental truism anchors the road to success. The "ball" is opportunity, happiness, love. Grab it and hold on tight. It may not come your way often.

- When you get the ball, run with it. Duh. But the gravity of this gem didn't hit me until my youngest son's epiphany at the dinner table. During a recent game, he stood dumb-founded at midfield holding a freshly punted ball. Confused a second too long, he offered easy pickings for charging defenders. Henceforth, he vowed to move the ball down field for whatever he could get. For the rest of us: go as far as you can with the gifts you have and the opportunities you find. As Al Pacino said in "Any Given Sunday", life, too, is a game of inches.

- If you don't have the ball, block. The unsung heroes of the gridiron are the fullback and the offensive line. They punch the holes and clear the obstacles. Too many times we forget those who blaze the trails and grease the skids, but where would we be without them? If you find yourself in this nameless and forgotten brotherhood, take pride in this. Somebody's got to step up or game over.

- Run away from the butts. If the blockers are doing their job, the ball carrier sees only their backsides. Run away from backsides and you run away from tacklers. My oldest boy proclaimed this crude maxim after chasing dreams on and off the field. Often, a dreamer's challenges lunge from every direction, many driven by others' fears and cynicisms or our own uncertainty. Field your best defense hope and perseverance - then find a path, keep the goal in focus, and don't stop until you get there.

- Don't yell for the punt team on third down. Some coaches holler down the sidelines to ready the punt team while the offense huddles for one last attempt to move the chains. This disturbing practice does little to rally confidence that might keep the drive alive. Instead, play every down like it's your last, and when it's third and long, put the ball in play and don't give it up without a fight. Attempts may number more than wins, but quitters have neither.

One concept from football gives me pause: forward progress. This curious Yogi Berraism (if I can mix sports) begs the question, "Is there any other kind of progress?" Politics comes immediately to mind, but that's a whole other topic. At the least, the term helps stress the difference between running around and running toward a goal. Can't tell which I'm doing with my two bruisers. Even after all my coaching, they seem to call their own plays.

But I'll keep trying. They've kind of grown on me.

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