Live With your Vision

When I'm not watching sport, I somehow find the time to hold down a job with a company called Aum Consultancy.  We deal with stress, depression, anger management, well-being and many many other areas of mental health.  We do 121 counselling, as well as group training for business customers.  I really enjoy working for the company, as (cliche alert) it really feels like we are making a massive difference to people going through troubled times and educating people on mental health issues.

So what's this got to do with the NFL?  Well for a start, there have been numerous cases of mental health issues affecting players.  Ultimately, this can lead to tragedy, and this situation has raised it's head this very season.  I will shortly be writing about this and the issue of mental health in sport.

However, my first dabble at combining my working life with my NFL watching life concerns the amazing story of the Indianapolis Colts and Chuck Pagano.  In our line of work, we are always looking for ways to inspire people and make people think about things in a different way.  The Pagano story certainly inspired me  and his speech to the Colts players after they beat Green Bay was particularly memorable. The below is a short article that I wrote for our company website :

"Aum Business Development Manager Simon Day shares a story that has recently inspired him:

We all want to be inspired.  Some of us are lucky to have a boss who can inspire us.  Others are inspired by friends, family members or even celebrities.  However, it is often difficult to find inspiration.  When we experience stress, it seems impossible to be inspired to overcome situations.One of my guilty pleasures is the sport of American Football.  I have a strong (bordering on unhealthy) passion for the sport and recently I drew inspiration from a story within the NFL.  In September, Indianapolis Colts coach Chuck Pagano was diagnosed with leukaemia   He is currently undergoing a 4-6 month recovery programme, and is spending the majority of his time in hospital.  A few weeks after being diagnosed Pagano was allowed to leave hospital to visit his team on a matchday.  His team were widely expected to be one of the worst in the league, but they pulled off a shock victory, with Pagano looking on.  After the game, Pagano went into the changing room and delivered a speech that I found truly inspirational.

Pagano talked about how we all have circumstances, but we shouldn't live with those circumstances. -  We should live with our vision.  “I got circumstances. You guys understand it.  I understand it.  It's already beat.  It's already beat.  My vision that I'm living, see two more daughters getting married, dancing at their weddings”.  I found his quote regarding circumstances particularly poignant.  If a man facing a life threatening illness can think so positively, then surely we can all overcome whatever obstacles are in our way. We all need to have a vision of where we want to be, we may need help getting there but we should all have that vision.

Subsequently, the Colts have gone on a winning run and have played at a level beyond everyone’s expectations.  Pagano meanwhile is on the road to recovery.  It’s a touching story of how inspiration can be a 2 way concept.  Pagano inspired his team, and in turn they are inspiring him.  Furthermore, it's a story that has inspired a great many people all over the world - including me!

Pagano's full speech can be seen here"

Pagano's story is one of the reasons I love sport - it can be uplifting, thought provoking, emotional and memorable all at the same time.  The NFL seems to provide more than it's fair share of such stories, but few are as memorable as that of Pagano.   His message of "living with your vision" is one that we can all take on board, and no matter what is going on in life it's important to have a vision of where we want to be.  

My First Season as an Eagles Fan - End of Term Report

It wasn't supposed to end like this.  It was supposed to end in New Orleans next month with Andy Reid hoisting the Lombardi Trophy.  It was supposed to be the culmination of my dream first season as an Eagles fan, a triumphant justification of my absurd process for picking my NFL team.

Then the season kicked off and it all went downhill rapidly.  In fact, looking back, it's hard to think of a game where I genuinely thought the Eagles looked like a good team.  Perhaps the Giants at home, but even that game would have ended in defeat were it not for a last minute missed Field Goal.  4-12 could so easily have been 0-16, in fact the Eagles 4 wins were by a combined total of 6 points!

Fumbles, injuries, interceptions and just rank bad play were visible throughout the year.  With hindsight, I shouldn't have been surprised.  My preseason optimism was naively based around the fact that we hadn't garnered the same media attention as in 2011 and the pressure was off. Our star players would be able to perform, Michael Vick would be fit and raring to go and we'd quietly make our way to the Play Offs.  In reality, the Eagles were full of overpaid, overrated and under performing "stars" and whilst there were encouraging signs from some of the younger players, this was a team at the bottom of the NFL cycle.

Luckily, the key word here is cycle.  Teams very rarely stay at the top or bottom of the pile for too long, and the Eagles failure gives them an easier schedule and higher Draft picks for next season.  What's more, we'll have a new coach, probably a new quarterback, a bolstered line and hopefully some additions to the secondary.  Perhaps one year wasn't enough to scar me for life, but I'm quietly optimistic about the Eagles future.

So how did I find my first season as an Eagle?

First things first, I am still delighted that I picked the Eagles.  The franchise has a strong fan base in the UK and I am glad to be a part of it.  The British Eagles are a great supporters club and have made me feel very welcome.

One thing that genuinely surprised was that atmosphere at Eagles home games.  Whilst the crowd were behind the team at the start of every game, it didn't take much for them to turn on the Eagles players. A bad play call, a turnover or an opposition score were all it took for the boos to start.  And when I say boo, I mean BOOOOOOOO!!!!  In this country, talk show phone lines go berserk when a footballer gets a bit of abuse from the crowd.  There was outrage when Rafael Benitez was given a hostile welcome by Chelsea fans recently.  Compared to what the players and coaches have to put up with in Philly, Benitez had a stroll in the park. Personally, I'm not entirely sure what it achieves, but equally you pay your money so you have the right to express your opinion.  I think booing at the end or when the game is over as a contest is fine, but whilst the team still has a chance it seems pretty counterproductive.  It certainly didn't seem to inspire the Eagles players this term!

Another interesting aspect of the season was watching one team's games closely.  Previously, I'd just watched the live Sky games on a Sunday evening and highlights of any other action.  This year I got Gamepass and tried to watch all of the Eagles games in their entirety.  Aside from the weekend of the Wembley game and the irrelevant Week 17 defeat to the Giants I succeeded in this aim.  It gave me a very different perspective of the game.  I'd previously just noticed the big plays and who the star players were.  Now I was taking a much more detailed look at proceedings and the performance of the Eagles players.  For example, I could see that Evan Mathis was a shining light in an otherwise woeful O line, and that Demetress Bell was the worst member of said O line.  I could see that Demeco Ryans was a leader and the key player in Defence, whilst our much hyped Cornerback pairing were pretty dismal.

As my knowledge of the team grew, then so did my emotional involvement in the games.  So much so that Jeremy Maclin's last second TD in Tampa was greeted by some enthusiastic leaping around my living room, whilst the numerous defeats left me in a bad mood most Mondays!

What's Next?

The Eagles season is over, but there's still plenty of NFL Play Off action to enjoy.  I'm going to try and take more of an interest to the Draft and it's build up this year.  It's an aspect of the NFL that I've not really embraced before, so that should be fun.
In addition, I've started research on my next NFL writing project - The History of the NFL in the UK.  I've already found plenty of fascinating stories on the subject and I'm going to start writing up some of those stories very soon so watch this space!