WEEKLY MOTIVATIONAL PIECE!

“OPPORTUNITY TAKES JUST ONE CHANCE TO MAKE A LIFE. ONE WRONG CHOICE TO RUIN IT!” – Jim Loria

“It is our choices ... that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities” – stated by J.K. Rowling, British Novelist and author of the Harry Potter fantasy series

Greetings!

For the second week in a row, the sporting world was stunned by the news of another professional athlete taking the life of a human being while erasing (possibly) his own career in the blink of an eye.

Let’s look at the Dallas Cowboys’ football player – Josh Brent – who was charged with “intoxication manslaughter” in the aftermath of last Saturday’s devastating car accident that killed his teammate Jerry Brown. This life-changing incident took place just hours before Brent’s teammates were going to board a plane and fly out to Cincinnati to play the Bengals in a must-win game that had playoff implications on the line for the Cowboys’ franchise. 

Here was a player taken in the 7^th round of the 2010 NFL Draft. When he arrived in Dallas, Brent was not even allowed to drive a car because of a past DUI charge that occurred while in college (he served 60 days in jail). He played sparingly in his first three seasons for the Cowboys and just this year finally worked his way into the starting lineup due to injuries suffered on the defensive front line … finally reaching a childhood dream … only to now possibly throw away his entire career down the drain.

After a night out at a club, all Brent had to do was call the number from the ‘Safe Rides Solution’ program organized by the NFLPA that provides each player and team with a courtesy ride home when needed. Now his athletic career and freedom have been put into the hands of a judge that could sentence Brent up to 20 years in prison for the charges stated above.

Another incident I want to touch on, took place 26 years ago. During my lifetime, this may have been arguably the greatest tragedy in American sports history, when Len Bias passed away less than 40 hours after being selected No. 2 overall in the 1986 NBA Draft by the Boston Celtics. This player was so dominant of a college basketball player that he drew comparisons to Michael Jordan.

At Maryland, he was twice the ACC Player-of-the-Year.  He was a true All-American – both as a person and in game action. Considered a neighborhood hero to so many kids. After flying to Boston hours after his  draft selection to meet the Celtics’ brass and media, Bias would return to Maryland at night to celebrate his newfound career with friends and then later with an unidentified group of people  at an off-campus gathering near the university. Within hours of this party, Bias died of cocaine intoxication.

The sports world is no different than society in which we all live and share our own hopes and dreams. It doesn’t play favorites with people that choose to do knucklehead things. For the athlete? Why does someone, who has put in so much blood, sweat and tears to accomplish their dream to  play in pro sports, somehow then decides it time to roll the dice and let their guard down. It only takes one mistake, small or large, to either stain a career and the person’s earning capacity or to end it all in a blink of an eye.

Every day, you get the opportunity to walk out on the field and make a new memory for thousands of faithful followers. To become that next hero. To live a charmed life because of your athletic skill. To bring a home a monthly paycheck that the largest body of the American population could never earn in a lifetime! Fellas, don’t be that next tragedy. Please do not ever screw up your opportunity!

MY BEST ALWAYS!

Jim Loria

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 “If a man has a talent and cannot use it, he has failed. If he has a talent and uses only half of it, he has partly failed. If he has a talent and learns somehow to use the whole of it, he has gloriously succeeded, and won a satisfaction and a triumph few men ever know” – stated by Thomas Wolfe, best-selling American author and journalist

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“To the question of your life - you are the Answer; and to the problems of your life - you are the Solution”  - authored by Joe Cordare, Author

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You must constantly ask yourself these questions: Who am I around? What are they doing to me? What have they got me saying? Where do they have me going? What do they have me thinking? And most important, what do they have me becoming? Then ask yourself the big question: Is that okay? Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change" - Jim Rohn, Author and Motivational Speaker

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“A difficult time can be more readily endured if we retain the conviction that our existence holds a purpose – a cause to pursue, a person to love, a goal to achieve” – stated by John Maxwell, Leadership Trainer

 

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Jim Loria
E-Mail: loria@sfstampede.com