Football: The Honey That Attracts the Bees

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The full text of “Football: The Honey That Attracts the Bees” by Akeem Davis, Graduate Assistant and Dr. Chris Croft, Professor of Sport Manageme, from the Vol 1 — Winter 2019 issue.

By Akeem Davis & Dr. Chris Croft M y name is Akeem Davis, and I am currently a graduate assistant football coach at the University of Southern Mississippi. My primary responsibilities involve coaching the defensive backs (nickels and safeties). I am a former defensive back for the University of Memphis where I lettered three seasons and was voted captain twice by my teammates. After playing at Memphis, I was blessed with the opportunity to play four years in the National Football League.

Over the course of four years, I was fortunate to have suited up for seven different teams. These teams included the Washington Redskins, New Orleans Saints, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Seattle Seahawks, Indianapolis Colts, Kansas City Chiefs, and the Jacksonville Jaguars. Through this remarkable journey, I was awarded the opportunity to witness Super Bowl winning coaches like Pete Carroll and Sean Payton manage highly successful franchises.

During this time, I noticed that the common denominator among these coaches was the fact that they not only emphasized being the best football player you can be on the field but they also challenged each player on the roster to be the best man they could be off the field. The principles I acquired from my journey in the National Football League are the same principles I use to uphold the AD47 Football Leadership Academy. These five principles are character, leadership, discipline, follow-through, and grit.

Throughout my brief NFL career, I had to exercise these principles on a daily basis. Although I was signed by seven different NFL teams, I was also cut by seven different football teams. This type of adversity will test your mettle as a man. For me, being cut seven times was a blessing in teaching me a life lesson. A lesson that I could pass down to the future generation of young aspiring professional football stars. A lesson that will teach them how to win not only on the field, but most importantly, off the field.

A lesson that literally taught me that no matter how much you love the game, one day, the game is going to chew you up and spit you out, leaving you to fend for yourself in a world that can care less about “former” football players. These principles compelled me to keep striving for excellence. Football: The Honey That Attracts the Bees

My primary goal is to instill these principles in young men who, just as much as I did, loved the game. I believe wholeheartedly that these principles will lead athletes to success--both on and off the football field. You can only do so much to become a better player, but you can do a lot to become a better person. With this in mind, I set out to form the AD47 Football Leadership Academy.

I am proud to say that on June 20, 2015, my dream became a reality, as I launched the Inaugural AD47 Football Leadership Academy, in my hometown of Laurel, Mississippi. AD47 is sanctioned and insured by the NFL Foundation, in conjunction with USA Football’s FUNdamentals program. In 2016, we expanded our scope and size from the original 53 campers we had in 2015, to a full 100 campers. Last year, despite Tropical Storm Cindy, we had all 100 campers show up and give it their all.

AD47 is a free, one-day, non-contact, football skills camp, focusing on leadership, citizenship, and healthy lifestyles. We teach proper football techniques and emphasize the importance of impeccable character, quality leadership, discipline, follow-through, and grit. I am proud to share this formula of success, and I am inspired by the differences we are working to make in these young people’s lives.

Football is merely the honey the attracts the bees, once the bees are on the honey comb, what will you leave them with? Building a Legacy, Brick by Brick I was born and raised in the small southern town of Laurel, Mississippi. I was recently asked what my ‘fortune cookie one liner’ would be to describe my life. It could not be more than a sentence and really should just be a phrase. The answer was quite simple. Brick by Brick.

My life, much like the town where I grew up, has been built piece by piece, day by day, brick by brick. Nothing was inherited. Nothing was gifted. Nothing had a short cut or a back-door. I am now 28 and have a wife and two children of my own. As I begin raising my own kids, I often find myself looking back on the life lessons I learned here in this small town. These are cornerstone elements that I have taken to each of the seven teams that I have played for during the first four years of my career.

These are the foundation upon which I have built my youth leadership academy. These are timeless principles for success in EVERY avenue of life. These are my pillars, and they have been assembled brick by brick. First, I am a man of FAITH. Without the word of the Lord and the light He has shown upon my path, I would be another sheep lost and alone in the dark. Character Character was the first brick that really separated me in an NFL locker room and it is something we harp on in the AD Football Leadership Academy.

I competed in the NFL—a $12 Billion a year industry with 32 teams and roughly 1600 players. With the new focus on analytics and saber-metrics, virtually everything has a stat or some form of measurable comparison. Virtually everything but one trait: character. As I tell our campers during the AD47 Football Leadership Academy, character is who you are when nobody else is around. Character is not inherited; it cannot be bought. One cannot “fake” character. You either possess it, or you do not.

Leadership I have learned from many experiences that in order to be a great leader, we must first be humble enough to be a great follower. Whom and what we choose to follow will determine the type of influence and impact

28 we have on those who follow us. In essence, leadership is influence. Every human being on the face of the planet is a leader because every human being on the face of planet has influence over someone or something. Identify the player on your team with the most influence. Is he influencing in a way that builds the team up, or is he leading in a way that tears the team down? As a coach, do you lead by your word? By actions? By example?

There can only be one quarterback in the huddle, but it takes ten other players to score a touchdown. Discipline Discipline is the mortar that holds these bricks together. It is the drive that gets you out of bed early in the morning. There will be times along your journey where you feel as if you are not progressing. There will be times where your mettle is tested. Your discipline to the cause that you have committed to will be critical in determining if you are successful or not.

Discipline is the deterrent that keeps you from deviating from your plan. Discipline keeps us focused on the primary objectives. Without it, you might get started, but you will never finish. Grit I was introduced to this term twice in my career. Once while playing for Pete Carroll and the Seattle Seahawks, and then again while playing for Andy Reid and the Kansas City Chiefs. Grit is the common denominator that links all highly successful people together.

This personality trait is possessed by individuals who exemplify perseverance and passion towards a goal despite being distracted by various forms of adversity. Grit in essences is “sticktoittiveness”, a diligent spirit; the nagging conviction that keeps you pressing on when it would be easier to give up. Those with grit do not look at their difficulties or failures as a reason to quit; rather, they utilize them as opportunities to grow stronger and become better equipped for the next challenge.

Follow Through Follow through simply means fortitude. It is the measure of your character when times get hard, the chips are down, the odds are long, and the outlook is grim. As I alluded earlier, I have been signed by seven teams in the NFL while also being cut by seven teams in the NFL. My pride might have been dinged, but my resolve has never wavered. I will get up tomorrow and work harder than I have today.

All of these bricks, these lessons I have learned watching guys like Pete Carroll and Sean Payton lead Super Bowl winning franchises. These are lessons that I have shared in locker rooms from Seattle to New Orleans and five other stops in between. They are all stepping stones to the one thing in this life that all of us truly want: opportunity. Nobody ever fell to the top of the mountain. We all start from the bottom and have to find our own way to the top. Along the way, our faith will be tested.

Our character will be proven. Our leadership will be hardened. Our discipline will be the difference maker. Our follow-through will be on full display. And if we make it. If we stay the course and never waiver from our path, no matter how hard life’s climb might seem, we finally get that very thing that had us start the climb in the first place. We get an opportunity. In this life, that is all any of us can hope for: an opportunity to compete.

The prayer that the mistakes we make today; are the lessons we teach our children tomorrow. These are the principles we hope will make an indelible impression on young men who aspire to play football at the highest level. In conclusion, the principles that I have learned from my time playing in the National Football League have sustained me in my professional career now as a graduate assistant football coach.

By implementing these principles on a team or in an organization, one can assure that the maximum potential of their team or organization will be reached. I am a product of these principles and as long as I coach, these will be the pillars of which I will build my program. Authors’ Information: Akeem Davis is a former football player at the University of Memphis, NFL player, and current graduate assistant football coach at the University of Southern Mississippi. Dr.

Chris Croft is currently an assistant professor of sport management at the University of Southern Mississippi. Additional information regarding AD47 Football Leadership Academy can be found at https://www.ad47academy. com/ .