Greetings! With all eyes on the Super Bowl this weekend, I wanted to bring
to light the career transformation of San Francisco 49ers all-pro tight end Vernon
Davis. Someone I am watching closely.
He was a Top Six pick back in the 2006 NFL Draft. A supreme talent! He had
offensive skills that knew of no boundaries. He was featured in much of the
49ers offensive play calling although this is where the story begins as team
victories and team success were not achieved at all during his first five
seasons. His reputation was that of a player better known for scuffling with
his own teammates and for displaying a diva-like, ‘me-first’ attitude.
Today he is a changed player even though he still is a youthful 27 years of
age (and into his prime years). Yet, despite the 49ers amazing turnaround under
coach Jim Harbaugh (who preaches a team-first game), Davis has seen his
offensive role change in dramatic fashion just as victories began to pile up.
As an example, after averaging 67 catches per season over the previous three
years, Davis caught just 41 passes in 2012. The fans and media were waiting for
a verbal explosion from the tight end. “Yes, I probably would have been in the
media making a scene, going to the coach and just being a cancer to the team if
this had happened back in my earlier days," he said.
Even with lower statistical numbers, Davis
is considered a much better all-round player now. He’s seen as a more valuable
teammate for his ability to block on running plays, as a pass protector to give
his quarterback valued seconds to pick out a receiver, and of course, he’s
still a powerful locomotive out in the open field when given the football. It
was Davis’ 100-plus catching yards and a TD pass he snared that helped spark
the Niners to their amazing come-from-behind win against Atlanta a week ago
that advanced the team to New Orleans and an opportunity at winning the Super
Bowl! As a matter of fact, Davis has gone over 100 receiving yards with
at least one touchdown in three of the last four San Francisco playoff games
under Harbaugh.
"I just had to realize that the team
was bigger than me," Davis now says. "It wasn't just about me. This
is not a one-man game. And as far as making me realize those things, we had
(former) Coach (Mike) Singletary here to point 'em out to me, and
he stayed on me – man, he was always on me. He was like, ‘Vernon, you won't
take off, you won't succeed until you put the team first.' I grew. I'm very
thankful for that. I thank God for that.”
When the former Chicago Bears’ legend and Hall of Fame middle linebacker was
hired to coach the 49ers in 2008, he singled out Davis for his selfishness, and
publicly berated and stripped the player of his uniform right in front of the
entire sports nation during his very first game on the San Francisco
sidelines.
Then came the infamous post-game SPEECH with
each word directed back at Davis when Singletary said: “I will not tolerate
players who think it’s about them when it’s about the team. Cannot win with
them, cannot coach with them, can’t do it. I would rather play with ten people
and just get penalized all the way until we gotta do something else rather than
play with 11 when right now that person is not sold out to be a part of this
team.”
When reflecting back on those early days of
his career, Davis once again says: “I realized that I needed to do whatever I
could to help this team, whether it’s blocking, pass protection, whatever it
is. I’m going to make sure I’m there.” It wouldn’t surprise me that
Vernon Davis becomes the X-factor in this weekend’s Super Bowl and that
he takes home the MVP Trophy! I will be watching to see!
Fellas, in sports, in the workplace, in
marriage and in life, success will always come to the individual’s that realize
the word ME cannot exist on its own. This simple two letter word can
make your whole existence much more meaningful when you discover that by
turning the LETTER “M” upside down, it
will read “WE!”
All the best!
Jim Loria
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“Don't go through life, grow through life” – stated by Eric Butterworth,
New York City Minister
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“In every adversity there is a seed of equivalent benefit” – stated by
Pat Riley, President of the NBA’s Miami Heat
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“Success on any major scale
requires you to accept responsibility… in the final analysis, the one quality
that all successful people have… is the ability to take on responsibility” –
stated by Michael Korda, Writer and Novelist
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“There is a lesson in almost everything that
you do, and getting the lesson is how you move forward” – stated by Oprah
Winfrey
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“Think of a Team as a Train and
its star player as the locomotive. There is much more to a train than just that
engine. If any part of a train fails, if just one nut or bolt gives away, the
whole chain of cars can derail” – stated by John Wooden, legendary
college basketball coach
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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, Novelist
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“The trouble with most of us is that we
would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism. The tests of life are
not meant to break you, but to make you” – stated by Norman Vincent Peale,
Minister and Author (‘The Power of Positive Thinking’)
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E-Mail: loria@sfstampede.com
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