What Defines Us?

A little over 90 days ago the recruitment and selection process for the University of Oregon football team didn't look very good. The brand new coach started his season with a loss and one of his top players punched out a member of the opposing team on national television.
The press of course made sure that the "punch" got plenty of airtime.

Many begin denouncing the selection of the new coach. Over the next two weeks he lost two more starters to injuries. The season looked pretty grim. Then something interesting began to happen. The coach talked to the players about the incident and whether or not they wanted to let it define them. He made a decision to suspend the player from participating in the game, but not from being on the team. The player was told he would remain on scholarship and be allowed to practice, but not allowed to play. Several weeks later the coach indicated that if the player met certain academic and behavioral conditions he could be reinstated; which he was later in the season. The critics of course labeled this as the plan all along and denounced the coach and the program. Of course they have chosen to overlook the fact that the reinstated player saw his first playing time last night in the final regular game of his season. Some claim it was what the team needed to win so the coach sacrificed his integrity for the sake of the win.

I say really? The young man who stepped up and took his place set a national record for rushing yards as a freshman. There were two games; one we lost and one we won in overtime where the reinstated player didn't play. I think perhaps instead a coach made a decision to give a young man an opportunity to play for the last time in front of his home crowd.

The team is headed for the Rose Bowl for the first time in fifteen years. They are the undisputed champions of the PAC 10. The coach makes no apologies for his decisions.

A number of players stepped up to make this season happen. When I see how the team reacted to the opening loss, the loss of starters, the ability to play through the distractions, and the joy and appreciation from a young man whose coach decided to invest in him rather than throw him away I think that says much more about this team and this coach. Detractors will say we needed him to win- a record of 9-2 going into the game says otherwise.

The press will relish this opportunity to play the "punch" video over and over, just as they will torture Tiger Woods for the next few weeks. I think what defines you is not whether or not you make mistakes or errors in judgement, but where you go from there.

So I guess I would leave you with this question- what defines you? Is it your successes, your failures, or your "whole person"?

Whole People

I am a big believer in the concept of whole people. On Thursday evening a football player from the University of Oregon in a state of high emotion made a terrible decision and struck a player from the opposing team. He also had to be restrained from striking others.
The player in question is 22 years old and had up to that point had a promising career even to the point of being mentioned as a potential Heisman candidate.

Within 24 hours his coach announced that his collegiate football career, at least at Oregon, was essentially over. The coach did also announce that the young man would be allowed to remain on scholarship with the team to continue to provide him with the structure he needs to fully develop as a person. Sounds like pretty good thinking to me.

In the heat of emotion a young man made a terrible judgement. His coach decided not to let that singular act define him. In the last 48 hours I have seen the young man and the program vilified. People have screamed for his prosecution and used it as an attack on collegiate athletics. Really? Is this what we have come to? Is it really unreasonable that the program took 12 hours to decide an appropriate course of action?

I have been a practicing human resources executive for over thirty years. In a number of times during the course of my career I have participated in deciding the appropriate corrective action to take when an employee has made a bad decision. I say corrective action, because that is my philosophy. The intent is to correct and to create a learning and a different outcome for the future not to punish.

I have seen occasions in college football and in professional sports where athletes were arrested and then allowed to play. That in my mind is inappropriate. We literally have a situation in my home town where the commissioner of a local utility was arrested on felony drug and weapons charges and is claiming harassment. She has indicated (and her supporters agree) that this should not be cause to request her resignation. I wonder how many of her supporters are baying for the young football players blood?

I applaud the decision on the part of the coach. He took in my mind appropriate action. The behavior was unequivocably unacceptable. He also took into the context the whole person who is this young man and said to throw him away and remove the structure of the team represented actions that were too harsh. College isn't about sports it is about education, educating the whole person. An important statement was made, we look at you in totality. If you make a poor decision you will be sanctioned, you will not be thrown away.

I also hope the media will get bored with replaying the incident over and over again. They aren't playing it as a learning experience, but capitalizing on a tragedy. Shame on them, shame on us.

For those of us that are parents I wonder how we will react when it is our child that makes an error in judgement, and trust me they will. Will we scream for their arrest and banishment, or will we we plead for their whole person to be taken into context? I think in our hearts we know the answer.

I am going to try and keep dealing with whole people, how about you?