Who Are You Playing For?
In retrospect, it wasn't really a fair fight. The Indianapolis Colts were only allowed 11 men on the field while the New Orleans Saints had 12 throughout the Super Bowl.
It's rare when a team and its fans bond in the way that the Saints did with the people of the Gulf Coast. The result seemed truly magical. Sure, when the Saints won 31 - 17, there were the inevitable shots of Bourbon Street being flooded with celebrants. What put a lump in my throat and gave me a chill was when Rachel Nichols, a reporter for ESPN based in New Orleans for the Super Bowl, said that during the game the streets were absolutely deserted because everyone was inside watching the game. She said the only sound was when the Saints made a big play like recovering their onside kick at the beginning of the second half or when Saints cornerback Tracy Porter ran an interception 74 yards for a closing minutes touchdown that sealed the game. Nichols said at times like that she could literally feel and hear the cheers echoing throughout the city of New Orleans.
Like I said, it gave me chills.
When I woke up this morning, I was thinking about the game and the question that kept turning in my head was, "Who are you playing for?" In his post game press conference, Saints quarterback and Super Bowl MVP Drew Brees answered that question:
"We played for so much more than just ourselves; we played for our city. We played for the entire Gulf Coast region. We played for the entire Who Dat nation that has been behind us every step of the way. What can I say? We've been blessed with so much. It's unbelievable... Four years ago, whoever thought this would be happening. 85 percent of the city was under water. People were evacuating to places all over the country. Most people left not knowing if New Orleans would ever come back, or if the organization would ever come back. Not only did the organization come back, the city came back and so many players, our core group of players that came in that year as free agents, we just all looked at one other and said, 'We are going to rebuild together. We are going to lean on each other.' That's what we've done the last four years and this is the culmination in all that belief."So, hats off to Drew Brees and his Saints teammates who became a part of the city they won a championship for. Hats off to Saints head coach Sean Payton, who made the right calls in the game, but laid the foundation four years ago when he brought his team to the field of the Super Dome, showed them scenes of a Katrina-devastated New Orleans on the Jumbrotron and told them that they were playing for a community that needed healing and redemption.
When you can define a purpose that's bigger than yourself or something as narrow and ephemeral as winning a championship, you create the conditions for something lasting to happen. The cliché in sports is that when you win a championship, they can't take that away from you. As the final seconds ticked away last night and Drew Brees took a knee to close the win, the people of New Orleans, Louisiana and the Gulf Coast got something that can never be taken away.
And now, as Mardi Gras starts early this year, to Saints fans everywhere, "Laissez les bon temps roulez!" You've earned it.
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Executive coach Scott Eblin’s goal is to help you succeed at the next level of leadership. Throughout the week, he’ll offer his take on the leadership lessons in the news and his advice on your most pressing leadership questions. A former government executive, Scott is a graduate of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and is the author of The Next Level: What Insiders Know About Executive Success.
"Who are you playing for" is grammatically incorrect. It should read "For whom are you playing?"
Janet Posted Tuesday, February 9, 2010 7:51 AMJanet: Whatever. There's a (perhaps apocryphal)story about Winston Churchill that he was criticized for ending a sentence with a preposition. He replied, "That is nonsense up with which I shall not put." I think most writers and serious grammarians agree that it's okay to break this grammar "rule" occasionally.
Reformed Grammar Nazi Posted Tuesday, February 9, 2010 12:42 PMHooray for the Saints!
Hmmmm, Scottie, if you get a lump in your throat knowing that everybody is inside watching a bunch of grown men playing a mindless little boys game then you've said all you need to about being able to respect you as an authority on the subject of "executive coaching." Wouldn't it be great if all the money that was spent on the Superbowl and all the things leading to it were spent on something truely usefull to society like paying down the national debt or fixing social security or even something truely novel like quality education or protecting the environment or housing America's homeless. Now that would truely be worthy of remarks about bringing lumps to one's throat. Don't you think so, Scottie?
Truth and Justice Posted Tuesday, February 9, 2010 8:01 PMTruth and Justice must have not shortage of "grey suites."
sam Posted Thursday, February 11, 2010 7:54 AMTeam sports, regardless of the level inspire leadership, great management and motivation. BTW as a life long Saints Fan and a Louisianan the remarks did bring a lump to my throat and pride in my heart.
Team sports inspire mindless spending on a childish game by idiots who fail to see that they, like the childish game itself, are useless to society other than for inspiring sensless spending on more sports. I once worked with a guy who threw a hissy fit about his property taxes going up $10 a year even though it all went to better his children's education but then spent several thousand dollars on seasons professional hocky tickets. This seems to be fairly typical of sports fanatics and parallels the behavoir of the people on crack who sell their children for their next fix. So talk to me about inspired leadership, and great management in that kind of behavoir! There is no greater fool than one who can't see or even justifies their own foolishness.
Truth and Justice Posted Thursday, February 11, 2010 11:01 PMThe point is not that it is an accomplishment of a sports team, but that the leaders of the team were able to join the players in a purpose bigger than themselves. If you have employees who are only focused on their individual goals, most likely the work group will not accomplish as much as if there is one greater goal.
Stopie Posted Monday, February 22, 2010 10:12 AMAs one who lives in New Orleans, the Saints represent more than a sports team. They represent a group that chose to stay in NOLA when so many said we should not even rebuild, we should all just move away because there was nothing for which to rebuild. We are a very passionate people who love New Orleans and all it represents. The Saints organization chose to stay and the leaders of the team were intuitive enough to see the higher purpose. As good executives they seized on something outside of X's and O's to bring the team to a place beyond their individual goals. They were rewarded with the love of the fans who believed in them the way they believed in us, that we could support them even when recovering from devastation. NOLA has a renewed sense of pride and so much hope for our future.
Thanks for the article and for recognizing that all business can benefit from what was accomplished here if executives go beyond the X's and O's.
The saints are definitely one of my favorite teams. i can never wait to see what happens next with them
andrew Posted Wednesday, May 5, 2010 7:43 AMI don’t believe it’s a First Amendment issue either. However, I do believe it’s a Fifth Amendment issue and a Tenth Amendment issue and at most, this should be a state matter
Jeniffer Kucel Posted Monday, August 16, 2010 9:48 PM