05-12-2019, 02:49 PM
(This post was last modified: 05-19-2019, 06:28 AM by Fordhammer.)
Complacency is the enemy. Every player has heard this a million times and the good players are the ones who have actually taken it to heart. In my first year in the DSFL, I had a huge chip on my shoulder from being drafted in the fourth round, so complacency was the last thing on my mind. All I wanted was to get better and show the doubters that I was a player worth betting on. I worked hard and grinded under the veteran players on the team to learn everything I could about this sport that we love. I studied the schemes, I practiced new moves, and I even experimented with new workouts.
Coming off of my first Ultimini championship, I am aware that the team and I have less to prove to the world. Everyone already knows that we’re the reigning champions and the wonderful people of Portland have already been sent home happy. But this isn’t even close to the end of the journey.
At practice the other day, I failed to cover my receiver and one of the DB coaches told me that it was fine and that he knew normally I play better than that; it was just a fluke on the field. That is completely unacceptable. It made me realize that our team has been defined by what we have already achieved. I know that I may have impressed the coaches last season with our championship run, but all that means is that the other teams have more tape on me to scheme against. Us being the reigning champions means nothing.
On top of all of the inherent problems with losing the chips on our shoulders, many crucial members of our team have left to go to the NSFL. We are certainly not the team that we were last year. Does that mean we are a worse team? Not necessarily; I expect a lot of the rookies to really step up this year and maybe even make a bigger impact than some players last year did. What that does mean though is that we still have a lot of work to do. There is no room for us to rest on our laurels or take it easy because we once played well.
I’ve seen a few season predictions claim that the Pythons will do well just because we won the Ultimini last year. The teams last year and this year are too different to make a prediction purely based on that alone. If you did evaluate the talent on the roster this year, I think it is fair to say that we could win the Ultimini again, but it is unreasonable to assume that we will be successful purely because of last season.
I can’t believe that I was treated so nonchalantly at practice and I think it is representative of a paradigm shift I’d like to bring to Portland. Instead of focusing on being the reigning champions and fighting to make it a two-peat, we should work to prove that despite the huge losses the team took in the offseason, we’re just as good as ever.
Since I’m transitioning from CB2 to CB1 this season, I know that I will actually have a lot to prove on the field this year. I played my part last year, but I could always count on Emoji to take point and face the challenges that I couldn’t. While I will have excellent talent in either Johnson or Marshall across the field from me this year as CB2, they’re going to be counting on me just as much as I counted on Emoji. In addition, Portland will have rookies at both FS and SS behind us and we have yet to see how quickly they can adjust to the DSFL level of play. This is my year to prove that I can lead a secondary to success.
If every player and coach in the Python organization can adopt this perspective, I think we’ll all end up fighting and training even harder than we did last year. And since we know we have the talent here to get it done, I think the outcome of this season will just be an inevitability.
X
Coming off of my first Ultimini championship, I am aware that the team and I have less to prove to the world. Everyone already knows that we’re the reigning champions and the wonderful people of Portland have already been sent home happy. But this isn’t even close to the end of the journey.
At practice the other day, I failed to cover my receiver and one of the DB coaches told me that it was fine and that he knew normally I play better than that; it was just a fluke on the field. That is completely unacceptable. It made me realize that our team has been defined by what we have already achieved. I know that I may have impressed the coaches last season with our championship run, but all that means is that the other teams have more tape on me to scheme against. Us being the reigning champions means nothing.
On top of all of the inherent problems with losing the chips on our shoulders, many crucial members of our team have left to go to the NSFL. We are certainly not the team that we were last year. Does that mean we are a worse team? Not necessarily; I expect a lot of the rookies to really step up this year and maybe even make a bigger impact than some players last year did. What that does mean though is that we still have a lot of work to do. There is no room for us to rest on our laurels or take it easy because we once played well.
I’ve seen a few season predictions claim that the Pythons will do well just because we won the Ultimini last year. The teams last year and this year are too different to make a prediction purely based on that alone. If you did evaluate the talent on the roster this year, I think it is fair to say that we could win the Ultimini again, but it is unreasonable to assume that we will be successful purely because of last season.
I can’t believe that I was treated so nonchalantly at practice and I think it is representative of a paradigm shift I’d like to bring to Portland. Instead of focusing on being the reigning champions and fighting to make it a two-peat, we should work to prove that despite the huge losses the team took in the offseason, we’re just as good as ever.
Since I’m transitioning from CB2 to CB1 this season, I know that I will actually have a lot to prove on the field this year. I played my part last year, but I could always count on Emoji to take point and face the challenges that I couldn’t. While I will have excellent talent in either Johnson or Marshall across the field from me this year as CB2, they’re going to be counting on me just as much as I counted on Emoji. In addition, Portland will have rookies at both FS and SS behind us and we have yet to see how quickly they can adjust to the DSFL level of play. This is my year to prove that I can lead a secondary to success.
If every player and coach in the Python organization can adopt this perspective, I think we’ll all end up fighting and training even harder than we did last year. And since we know we have the talent here to get it done, I think the outcome of this season will just be an inevitability.
X
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