“Let’s be honest. Sitting on the bench is not fun.” Former New Mexico State quarterback Andrew McDonald spoke the obvious truth that anybody who’s played sports (at any level) keenly understands — riding the pine can be a big blow to your ego. So, what do you do if you end up on the bench?
Andrew spoke on the GameChange YouTube podcast McDonald & Sons, featuring his father, former USC All-American and NFL quarterback, Paul McDonald, and his two brothers, Michael and Matthew. Like Andrew, his brothers were also former D-1 college quarterbacks. Although all four McDonald’s played football at elite levels, it did not make them immune to sitting on the bench, and the conversation on the podcast focused on their experiences and how they responded.
For Michael, it was especially challenging to find playing time because he played at USC during the Trojans’ national title years when the team was loaded with talent. Michael stated, “I was the number seven quarterback in the room at USC. I was barely in the meeting room.”
Contributing
Andrew expressed the frustration that many good players feel when they find themselves sitting on the bench for most or even all their games. “You work your tail off to be the guy. Maybe you’re never the guy, but you want to try to find value to add to your team.” How to add value is the question that Michael asked himself when he sat at USC. He said, “How am I going to add value to this incredible team when I’m playing quarterback, one guy, Matt Leinart just won the Heisman Trophy….(so) where else can I fit in?”
Everyone wants to fit in. Quite frankly, the difference between having a good experience versus a bad one in a season when you’re sitting a lot is feeling that you are contributing. So, how do you do that? Michael cited a couple of examples of what he did. First, he took some of the younger players who were new to the program under his wings. He explained, “It came in the form of knowing the offense, bringing energy and enthusiasm to the quarterback room and… helping them learn the offense.” Second, he did his part to ensure that the Trojans had great practices. Michael is a very competitive guy, and he unleashed that fire to compete during practice. “I took ownership of running the scout team offense. We’re going to be the best scout team in the country. We’re going against the best defense in the country,” recalled Michael.
If you’re in Michael’s shoes and the majority of your field time is during practice, you should take careful note of his desire to make the most of that situation. It can’t be emphasized enough how important it is for non-starters to prepare the starters during practice, and it is the best way you can feel like you are contributing to the team’s success if you aren’t playing much during games.
Quit or Compete
Riding the pine for a prolonged period of time can be frustrating and, for some, even feel humiliating. The frustration at not playing can make many of you think about quitting the team. That is the situation that Matthew found himself in during his freshman season at Boston College. He was frustrated, homesick, and ready to quit the team and move back home. Matthew’s family was visiting him in Boston when he told them he was thinking about quitting. He recalled the response. ”I’ll kind of give the nice version, but Dad basically said I didn’t raise a quitter and gave me the tough love that I needed at that time.”
The tough love talk that Matthew got from Paul helped him to change his perspective on how to approach his standing on the team. He described how he rediscovered his love for football during the time he got to play on the practice field with the team. “I treated scout team practices like it was my Super Bowl.”
Here’s the deal. If you are sitting on the bench, you have to accept the fact that your coach believes the team has a better chance to win with the players who are starting ahead of you. They won the competition during preseason and in practice. You can complain, and you can mope, but obviously that will only make things worse.
If you genuinely believe that you are the better player, there is only one thing you can do. Compete. After getting over the frustration of not being the starter, that is the perspective that Matthew had. He explained, “I wanted to make our starting defense look bad so that they could have no reason not to put me on the field.”
