The Connection between Leadership and Football

What?

Case Tech H.S. Football team

To be honest, I really am not a football fan.  I grew up in a house with a father and two brothers who loved and played football.  To me, the sport makes little sense and I often wonder what would possess a guy to allow others to chase him down and tackle him to the ground – all for a piece of pig-skin leather.  But football is an American past-time and loved by many especially at my current institution Virginia Tech!

Oddly, while thinking about what to write for my first Leadership blog, I stumbled on a web series called “Hell Week” starring Cass Tech H.S. football team.  I began to understand the past-time through a new set of lenses.  I didn’t just see the passing, running, tackling and touch downs but a sport that is based on the concept of leadership. 

So What?

Peter Northouse writes  “Leadership is a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal.” The video takes his concept and shows how the leader, followers and influence must come together and interact in order to bring about a common goal. 

While watching the Hell Week web series, constantly I saw Coach Thomas Wilcher (the leader) influence the football players (the followers) to meet the goal of becoming a team.  The common goal of both the coach and the players was to:

 1. Get better as a team

2.  Bond

3.  Improve on the field. 

Coach Thomas Wilcher

One thing I noticed as I watched Hell Week was not only did Coach Wilcher understand the goal, but his players repeatedly were able to verbalize the goal and were working towards it.  Leadership cannot occur if only the leader understands the goal and the followers do not understand or are not able to put it into their own words. 

Now What?

So what did I learn about leadership from watching football??  It is not just enough to have “an individual influencing a group of individuals” but there needs to be a process - “a systematic series of actions directed to some end*” and a desire to “achieve a common goal.” Each piece working together makes up leadership.   For Coach Wilcher and the Cass Tech team, this formula has won them the Michigan Division 1 H.S. Football Championship!

* process. (n.d.). Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition. Retrieved September 15, 2012, from Dictionary.com.