GopherLady
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I just got back from another fantastic National Football Foundation Awards dinner. For those of you who don't know about NFFMN, here's the website: http://www.nffmn.org/ - I'd highly recommend becoming a member. They honor football legends and greats - but to me, the best part is the fact that they give scholarships to the top Minnesota seniors that play football. The kids that aren't getting D1 scholarships, but excel in leadership, and academics (their average combined GPA this year was 3.89).
There was slew Minnesota football celebs there, but I thought you'd be really interested in what Jerry Kill had to say as the keynote speaker. I tell you, in the 4 years they've been putting this on - there has never been a more positive vibe in the room, more people signing up for memberships, and just celebrating all the award winners. Coach Kill was so happy to stay after the event, and talked with anyone that wanted to chat with him. His talk wasn't the typical cheesy "motivational speaker" talk, it was really genuine and from the heart - and hence, motivating for me.
Here are the notes:
• Said this was the who’s who in the state of Minnesota
• He should be sitting back and listening to all the people in this room
• Recipient of the NFF Courage award 3 years ago, that’s proudly displayed in his office at the U
• Go through things that along the way that may help you
• Only person to graduate from college in his family
• Went to school, worked 3 jobs, said he reinvented financial aid he had to borrow so much
• An average guy trying to achieve extraordinary things
• Football was his way out, and wouldn’t be standing here if it wasn’t for football
• Thank you high school football coaches
• He is old school, won’t apologize for it, believes in discipline and hard work
• Joked that since his wife came from a similar financial background, if they got married, he hoped for more financial aid
• When he started coaching high school football, he made &22K/year, and thought he was the richest man on earth. When he got the opportunity to coach college, he was offered $250/month, his Dad thought he was crazy to do that for 3 years, but he put in his time
• He was diagnosed with kidney cancer 6 years ago, when he was only 5-6 weeks into the season at Southern Illinois. He talked his doctor and his wife into delaying the surgery for 5 weeks until the season was over. He said his players save his life. The kids rallied around him every day, and he attributed his life to them.
10 Life Lessons (I apologize, I missed one, I could only write so fast – I think I may have combined two together)
1. There is no substitute for hard work: You can accomplish anything with it. Need to teach that to the players at the U.
2. Handle adversity: He’s been through 1-11 seasons, losing his best friend, cancer, etc. You see people how they are when their back is against the wall. Go to faith, family, and fundamentals
3. Give Back: Do community service, you have to give back, it’s important. The cancer fund he started is very important to them
4. Take care of your family: Your family is your family, friends, football family, etc. Care about all of them more than you care about yourself. He used the example of his defense, there are 3-4 guys out there that are selfish. Have to have them get rid of the “I” mentality.
5. Loyalty: Lack of loyalty is a problem with our country. He’s had coaches that have been with him for 19 years. He’s been loyal to his wife, and she’s been loyal to him. Stick to your word.
6. Communication: Kids will say he’s way out of touch. He found his daughters “Twittering” in the house together. He called the older one and told her to get downstairs and talk to her sister in person. It’s all about people, he doesn’t want to Twitter someone, he wants to meet you. If these kids can’t communicate on the field, they’re going to have issues, they’re too busy Twittering. Look someone in the eye and talk to them.
7. Don’t judge people by the way they look: If people judge him by appearances, he joked that he’d be in trouble. He’s having a tough time having to evaluate his players so quickly now. When he met one of his players, Paul Spicer, if he would have judged him by 1st appearances, he would have missed out on a great kid and player. He met Coach Kill with a tore up shirt and holey jeans, but that’s all he had at the time.
8. Never Quit: There’s always a way. Gettting married so young, he and his wife had problems. When he got into coaching and was working until 2am, there were times when she thought about packing her bags. Instead of giving up, they saw a priest and worked through things, they didn’t quit
9. Live the life you have: Live it, live it, live it. Don’t apologize for living it. Live it the best that you can.
There was slew Minnesota football celebs there, but I thought you'd be really interested in what Jerry Kill had to say as the keynote speaker. I tell you, in the 4 years they've been putting this on - there has never been a more positive vibe in the room, more people signing up for memberships, and just celebrating all the award winners. Coach Kill was so happy to stay after the event, and talked with anyone that wanted to chat with him. His talk wasn't the typical cheesy "motivational speaker" talk, it was really genuine and from the heart - and hence, motivating for me.
Here are the notes:
• Said this was the who’s who in the state of Minnesota
• He should be sitting back and listening to all the people in this room
• Recipient of the NFF Courage award 3 years ago, that’s proudly displayed in his office at the U
• Go through things that along the way that may help you
• Only person to graduate from college in his family
• Went to school, worked 3 jobs, said he reinvented financial aid he had to borrow so much
• An average guy trying to achieve extraordinary things
• Football was his way out, and wouldn’t be standing here if it wasn’t for football
• Thank you high school football coaches
• He is old school, won’t apologize for it, believes in discipline and hard work
• Joked that since his wife came from a similar financial background, if they got married, he hoped for more financial aid
• When he started coaching high school football, he made &22K/year, and thought he was the richest man on earth. When he got the opportunity to coach college, he was offered $250/month, his Dad thought he was crazy to do that for 3 years, but he put in his time
• He was diagnosed with kidney cancer 6 years ago, when he was only 5-6 weeks into the season at Southern Illinois. He talked his doctor and his wife into delaying the surgery for 5 weeks until the season was over. He said his players save his life. The kids rallied around him every day, and he attributed his life to them.
10 Life Lessons (I apologize, I missed one, I could only write so fast – I think I may have combined two together)
1. There is no substitute for hard work: You can accomplish anything with it. Need to teach that to the players at the U.
2. Handle adversity: He’s been through 1-11 seasons, losing his best friend, cancer, etc. You see people how they are when their back is against the wall. Go to faith, family, and fundamentals
3. Give Back: Do community service, you have to give back, it’s important. The cancer fund he started is very important to them
4. Take care of your family: Your family is your family, friends, football family, etc. Care about all of them more than you care about yourself. He used the example of his defense, there are 3-4 guys out there that are selfish. Have to have them get rid of the “I” mentality.
5. Loyalty: Lack of loyalty is a problem with our country. He’s had coaches that have been with him for 19 years. He’s been loyal to his wife, and she’s been loyal to him. Stick to your word.
6. Communication: Kids will say he’s way out of touch. He found his daughters “Twittering” in the house together. He called the older one and told her to get downstairs and talk to her sister in person. It’s all about people, he doesn’t want to Twitter someone, he wants to meet you. If these kids can’t communicate on the field, they’re going to have issues, they’re too busy Twittering. Look someone in the eye and talk to them.
7. Don’t judge people by the way they look: If people judge him by appearances, he joked that he’d be in trouble. He’s having a tough time having to evaluate his players so quickly now. When he met one of his players, Paul Spicer, if he would have judged him by 1st appearances, he would have missed out on a great kid and player. He met Coach Kill with a tore up shirt and holey jeans, but that’s all he had at the time.
8. Never Quit: There’s always a way. Gettting married so young, he and his wife had problems. When he got into coaching and was working until 2am, there were times when she thought about packing her bags. Instead of giving up, they saw a priest and worked through things, they didn’t quit
9. Live the life you have: Live it, live it, live it. Don’t apologize for living it. Live it the best that you can.
