"Vontae Mack No Matter What"

I miss sports.  There are certainly more important things in life, and I fully realize that a lot of us are struggling right now.  Some of us are even fighting for our lives.  I still miss sports though.  We can learn so much from sports, whether we are watching them or playing them ourselves.  It was the actor, Robert Redford, who once said, "Sports are a wonderful metaphor for life."  I wholeheartedly agree.

We can often find some of the best sporting metaphors for life in movies.  A few years ago, while flying across country, I watched an in-flight movie called Draft Day.  The movie was about a guy named Sonny Weaver, Jr (played by the actor Kevin Costner, who may be the king of sports movies), who happened to be the General Manager of the National Football League's Cleveland Browns.  The movie takes place on one day, the 2014 NFL Draft.  The Cleveland Browns have the 7th pick in the draft, and as in real life, the Browns aren't very good.  Another team, the Seattle Seahawks, hold the first overall draft pick, and the General Manager for the Seahawks offers to trade the pick to the Browns.  Sonny gives away the team's first-round draft pick for the next three years, but on the surface it seems worth it.  There is a once-in-a-lifetime quarterback prospect (think the next Tom Brady) that everyone - the fans, the team's owner, and the the team's new head coach are very excited about drafting.

Sonny seems to have made a great trade.  Earlier that morning, he had written down a name on a Post-It note.  You are led to believe, all through the movie, that Sonny wrote down the player he was going to draft on the Post-It note.  Which player's name did he write down though?  There's an All-American linebacker from Ohio State that Sonny seems really keen on drafting.  There's also a really good running back whose father played for the Browns and really wants his son to play for the Browns too.

Sonny has his doubts about the quarterback prospect.  Slowly, the facts start to come out - this guy is not a team player.  Along comes Draft Day and who does Sonny pick?  The linebacker from Ohio State, Vontae Mack.  Everyone is incredibly angry - the team owner can't believe it and is ready to fire Sonny on the spot.  But something miraculous happens (it's the movies after all) - teams that are picking below the Browns suddenly get spooked.  What does Sonny know that made him not pick the quarterback?

Recall that the Seahawks still have the seventh pick.  Sonny convinces a rookie general manager for the Jacksonville Jaguars to give up the sixth pick in exchange for the Browns' second-round draft picks for the next three years.  By doing so, Sonny has mortgaged the Browns' future.  Here's where the movie gets interesting.  Sonny calls up the Seahawks General Manager and tells him, "I'm taking Callahan" (the highly touted quarterback).  He convinces the General Manager to trade up for the sixth pick, getting the Browns' original first-round draft choices back plus an All-Pro punt returner.  The Seahawks take the quarterback, and with the seventh pick, the Browns choose the running back with the Cleveland Browns heritage.  ESPN sportscaster Chris Berman, in a cameo role, summarized Sonny's Draft Day as follows:

"General manager Sonny Weaver, Jr. took one pick in the first round, the number seven pick. He sprinkled it with fairy dust, wished upon a star, and somehow, he turned it into not one, not two, but three potentially impactful players for his team next year. One pick!"

Incredible!  In the end, the only thing he gave up were the Browns' second-round picks for the next three years.  Later, towards the end of the movie, you get to find out just what Sonny wrote on his Post-It note - "Vontae Mack No Matter What."

Sonny Weaver, Jr knew exactly what he wanted.  At all costs, get the Ohio State linebacker, Vontae Mack.  No matter what.

What's the metaphor for life outside sports?  Stick to your primary objective.  Whether you are in a difficult negotiation or making a critical decision, remember your core values and focus on your primary objective.  At the end of the day, nothing else really matters.  Sonny knew he wanted the linebacker, and he was ready to risk everything, including his career, on making sure that he was able to get the player he wanted.

We will never know whether Sonny made the right decision - the movie ends at the end of the first night of the draft.  I think you will learn, however, that when you stick to your primary objective and remember your core values, every decision that you make will be the right one for you, at least in the long-term.

It's been several days since my last post.  As I mentioned before, I took a brief hiatus from social media and blogging.  I used the time away to think about my core values, as well as my primary objective.  It was a good exercise, and now I am ready to return to writing.  It's good to be back.