Sunday Reflefctions

Hey everyone, hope your week went well. Time for Reflections…

Music to listen to: The Call Up by The Clash



I came across this song while looking for some songs from a rapper called The Coolout. Good stuff.

This weekend was good for me. My nephew and older brother came into town for the Vandy/Georgia football game. They are from Georgia and this normally wouldn’t be a major deal but it was different this time because my nephew was here for a recruiting trip.

Before all of you start asking me about what schools he likes, how good of a player he is, etc., I’m not going to go into all of those details. You will know what you need to know at the right times. I will say that he’s a junior and is receiving interest from Division 1 schools.

So he came up to have an unofficial visit at Vandy and it was a surreal feeling.

My nephew is really like a little brother to me because we are only 11 years apart in age and were very close. Having him visit my alma mater and even consider attending it is a good feeling.

He had a good visit and enjoyed seeing everything. When we drove up to Dudley Field and walked to the check-in area, he was quiet, which isn’t normal. This was his first college football game and the large scale of everything was good for him to see from the facilities to the players and everything in between.

My proudest moment came when I was in the press box preparing for the game and saw my nephew on the sidelines of the field seeing the warm-ups of the players. Seeing him in that position was great and almost got emotional but you know I kept my composure in the press box because I’m a professional and if there’s no cheering in the box, there can’t be crying as well.

I began thinking about the first time I ever saw him when he was about seven-months old, in one of those mechanical swing chairs. I picked him up and didn’t want to let him go. I would feed him, change the diapers, even rock him to sleep every night in a rocking chair. Sometimes I would stare at him sleeping because he was the cutest baby boy. He was my little buddy that I would sacrifice anything for him to be successful.

Of course, he’s now 6-3, 195 linebacker who is a sturdy young man and not a little boy anymore and I realize this, especially when he towers over me.

So he had a good visit and hopefully things work out how they’re supposed to. I’ve tried to stay out of the process this weekend as much as possible because I want him to go to the best place for him, even if it isn’t Vandy.

The main thing now is for him to focus on doing well in school and avoiding distractions which at his age is tough but we’ve all been there. I never liked anyone telling me when I was his age to do stuff like stay in school, don’t do drugs, don’t have sex, etc because it would feel like I was being lectured to and no one wants that. With all of the younger family members, I talk with them and not at them, and there’s a difference. The most important thing is to live a good life and be honest. If I’m encouraging them to live a good and positive life for themselves and others and I’m living a sinful life, that’s not right and not fair.

But this weekend also made me reflect on my misappropriation of priorities.

For the past two and a half years, I’ve been very focused on my career and academics when I was in graduate school. These are good things to work on because if used properly, they can be worthwhile pursuits.

However, they aren’t important as other virtues of your life. Not to sound military like, but your values should really be your family, your faith, your country and your beliefs in some order.

I think that I’ve been unhappier in the past month or two because I haven’t incorporated those virtues into my daily life. I should call my mother more, I should check in on my brothers and sister, I should acknowledge God’s presence, I should expand my cultural horizons, you understand what I’m trying to say.

Put it this way through a football analogy. I’ve been concerned with my receivers when my offensive and defensive lines have been terrible. In football, when you have bad line play, everything falls apart. You can’t run the ball, you can’t stop the other team from running the ball, your quarterback gets sacked a lot, bad things all over the place. Furthermore, if this happens, you can’t function and everything falls apart.

For me, I’ve been concerning myself with wide receiver-like things like my jobs, finding a girlfriend, making money, etc. These things are nice to have and can be valuable aspects of your life, but it doesn’t serve as good structures for your core.

If I work on my core values, the family, faith, my offensive and defensive lines, then the other things, the wide receivers, will take care of themselves.

So, this weekend has been good for me. Hope your week is going to be well.