Let’s put it bluntly. Losing sucks. It is especially challenging when you are in the midst of a slump or a losing season. On the GameChange video podcast, McDonald & Sons, former NFL quarterback Paul McDonald mentioned his experience with the Cleveland Browns, “The only season I was a full-time starter in the NFL, 1984, we were 5-11. Not good.”
The show features Paul and his three sons, Michael, Andrew, and Matthew, who all played quarterback at the D1 level in college football. The four former quarterbacks offer stories and advice from their days playing on Saturdays (and in Paul’s case, Sundays). How to respond to defeats was the topic of the premiere episode of the show.
Do Your Job
Andrew, who started at New Mexico State, advised athletes to keep it simple. He stated, “Control what you can control, and that’s your job. Like Bill Belichick says, ‘Do your job.’” Andrew added a simple explanation for how to do that. “Focus on making a key block in practice or going through your progression in seven-on-seven, trying to get just a little bit better each and every day.”
Stay Present and Even Keeled
During a losing streak, it is very easy to look backward and recall mistakes that you made or to flash forward and circle games on the schedule that you believe might be winnable. Michael, who was on a national championship team at USC, spoke about the importance of staying present. He stated, “You can’t think about past losses or games you have coming up.”
Although it is sound advice not to dwell on your defeats, Paul countered, “But you do. It enters in. It creeps in.” To his point, we are human, and so it is inevitable that you can’t help but focus on the games you recently lost. Michael urged everyone to move on. He said, “You’ve got to have the belief that good things are going to come.” And he added the same advice that Andrew offered to work out the losses at practice. Michael challenged viewers to ask themselves this question before stepping on the field. “What am I bringing to this practice?”
Often, when we are in a slump, it is easy to believe that we are playing terribly from the first minute to the last, but this is typically not true. The margin of victory is often slim. Michael mentioned that his coaches at USC told the team, “The film’s never as good as you think it was after the game. And it’s never quite as bad as you think it was, too.” The point is not to panic when on a losing streak or get too full of yourself when winning. Instead, stay even-keeled and look to make the necessary adjustments that will help you get better every day. The wins typically take care of themselves when this is your mode of operation.
Don’t Be That Guy
Matthew, the youngest former quarterback in the McDonald household, started his college career at Boston College before transferring to Bowling Green. After losing a year due to transfer rules, Matthew was finally ready to start playing when COVID struck. Bowling Green ended up only playing five games his first season, and Matthew recalled how it didn’t go too well. “We went 0-5 and I’m like, ‘This is what I was waiting for? I’m getting my butt kicked.’” He added, “I tore my shoulder, had surgery, I’m like, ‘This is not fun.’” Even though it was a miserable season, Matthew and many of his teammates kept showing up ready to do the work to get better. However, this wasn’t the case for some of the players on the team. He explained, “We probably kicked twenty people off of the team that were locker room cancers.”
Adversity tests all of us, and when it does, you have the opportunity to make a decision as to what kind of person you want to be. Are you going to be the one who stays positive and keeps working to get better, or are you going to be the one that teammates later refer to as a cancer? The choice is yours.
