Matthew Stafford shares how his QB coach, Dave Ragone, once studied his performance after turnovers and sacks. They found his stats on the next possession are exponentially better than league average. “I just equate that to being able to compartmentalize…Be honest and real about it and not ultra emotional.” In performance environments, your execution on the next play often depends on how long you stay attached to the last one. The key is not wasting energy arguing with reality and training yourself to respond and re-engage quickly. 📹: Magic Mind

Being a Major League Baseball scout the past 35 years, I’ve narrowed down three important characteristics when considering a prospect to draft. Not perfection!..but consistency. 1) Character: Determines who you are and how people trust you when nobody is watching. 2) Chemistry: Determines if you’re a great teammate, and if people want to build with you. Do you add value to the locker room. Do I win with the “nine best” players or the “best nine” players? 3) Competency: Determines whether you have the talent and skill level to deliver the results to win a championship. You can fake one for a while. You cannot fake all three for long. • Character — Who You Are Your character is your real reputation. It’s who you are at the core. Not your image. Not your branding. Your habits under pressure. Talent can open a door. Character keeps you in the room. Weak character destroys strong opportunities. Discipline matters more than motivation because motivation changes daily. Integrity is expensive — that’s why so few people have it. Your private decisions eventually become your public reality. The fastest way to lose respect is to compromise your values for short-term gain or comfort. Successful people are trusted because they are consistent, not because they are perfect. Don’t miss that! If your words and actions don’t match, your future will eventually collapse. • Chemistry — Are You a Good Teammate? Nobody becomes great alone. Your ability to work with people multiplies opportunities. Poor chemistry destroys a locker room culture. People don’t just hire skill — they hire energy and coach-ability. A toxic player eventually becomes a liability. Humility makes collaboration possible. Ego kills more careers than lack of talent. The people who rise fastest are usually the ones others trust in hard moments. Great teammates make everyone around them better. They are winners! Listening is more powerful than constantly proving you’re smart. If people feel smaller after talking to you, you will lose immediate influence. • Competency — Are You Actually Skilled? Confidence without competence is noise. Results matter. Work ethic without skill eventually hits a ceiling. Being busy is not the same as being valuable. Excuses never outperform preparation. Average skills with consistency beats raw talent with laziness. Organizations respect execution. The higher you rise, the more competence becomes non-negotiable. At the end of the day, competence matters. Summation: Your future is connected to the value you consistently create. Character earns trust. Chemistry builds relationships. Competency creates results. When all three align: People respect you. People enjoy working with you. People can depend on you. That combination is rare — and rare people become unforgettable.

Talent gets you there. Process keeps you there. Nick Saban said it best: “You must focus on the things that have made us good all season long.” Championship teams don't chase the moment. They live the process. 🎥 Watch the clip.

Matt Rhule (@CoachMattRhule) is widely regarded as one of the best builders of culture in the world. Much of his philosophy with @HuskerFootball was shaped by his experience as a walk-on at Penn State, where he learned three foundational truths: 1. "Everything Matters". 2. Every person deserves to be held to championship standards. 3. The most important investment you can make is in the person, not the player: 🏆 Championship standards only stick when they apply to everyone. The moment the rules bend for one person, the culture begins to break for everyone. The fastest way to erode trust in a team is to be selective with accountability. If the star player can skip the line, arrive late, or ignore details that would get someone else corrected, the message is clear: talent earns exemption. When no one is above the standard and no one is beneath it, trust deepens, entitlement disappears, and discipline becomes a shared identity rather than just a set of rules imposed by coaches. 🪣 Every player carries water for the program. The star may score the points, but the walk-on who dives on the floor in practice also helps build the habits that win championships. The star may finish the play, but the walk-on helps build the foundation that makes the play possible. When a team understands that every person carries water, no role feels small, and everyone takes OWNERSHIP of the mission. 🫡 Holding every person to the same standard is one of the highest forms of respect. It tells your best players they are not above the team, and it tells your role players they are essential to it. It will take everyone to win a championship, and just one person to mess it up. The most disciplined teams transform accountability into a shared promise: we will honor each other enough to demand the best from everyone, regardless of role, situation, or title.

Year 19 and the mentality hasn't changed one bit. @CalaisCampbell

👀👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

Just Epic Sax Gorilla and his biggest fan (Casey Lawrence) getting ready for the game

The most undercoached skill in your program? Effort. TJ McConnell said it best: “I genuinely believe that playing hard is a skill, because if it wasn’t, everyone would do it.” You can’t just demand it. You have to develop it. x.com/OldManAndThree/status/…

Reminder that we will have Mariners/Rainiers center fielder Rhylan Thomas in the shop for a meet and greet tomorrow at 5:30!!! Tickets are $20 and can be purchased at the shop today or in the link below!!! checkout.square.site/merchan…

I once sat in on a film session where OKC’s Mark Daigneault clipped every rim roll that didn’t get the ball… but the team scored anyway. That’s advantage creation. I asked him about this in this clip 🤩

Chris Fowler shares a must-listen message on coaching and why it's more than just a profession. "You have been nasty and irrational and deeply personal in your criticism of coaches from time to time. If you're a sports fan, I guarantee it. I've certainly been guilty." "But do you know why coaches choose that as a profession in the first place?" "Almost every single one of them - because they want to help people learn, grow, and improve as people and as athletes. I promise you, that's why they get into it." "Coaching is a calling more than a profession. Lee Corso taught me that a long time ago." It's one of the greatest examples of being a servant leader. It's pouring yourself into the growth of other people. "You have to have what it takes to pour yourself into others in order to make a difference. Not everybody can do that." "Yes, they're accountable for the wins and losses. But consider that so much of that is actually beyond their control. You're accountable for it. You're responsible for it. How much do you really control it?" "Know the grind. What each and every coach at whatever level puts into it - whether you're a coach in Little League or AAU or high school - what they put into that is so demanding on them and their loved ones." The sacrifices are invisible and the criticism is public. "Consider them as human beings when you rip into them." "I promise you, at their heart, they just wanna help people. That's the greatest joy they get out of it." Coaching is a calling. The wins feel good. But watching someone become who they're capable of becoming that's why they do it. (🎥 @cbfowler)

With this strikeout, Casey Lawrence now has 1,216 minor league strikeouts in his career. Since his professional debut in 2010, no pitcher has recorded more minor league strikeouts than Casey Lawrence. Congrats Casey!

Sean McVay on creating "togetherness": When you love the person next to you, effort stops being a requirement, and it becomes a reflex: ⚙️ Connection creates an extra gear. 🤝 Standards become shared, not forced. ❤️ Culture isn’t built in meetings, it’s forged thru relationships. You rise to the level of the people you’re connected to!

"It's called accountability. Holding a player accountable to play up to their individual potential. When you do that...it permeates through the entire team." Your greatest ability is accountability. Because, your accountability determines how far your potential can take you.

Culture doesn't change when coach tells a player he's wrong. It changes when players tell other players: "no that's not how we do things here"

"You have to tell the players the truth. If you tell them the truth, they're going to hate you for a day. If you lie to them, they're going to hate you forever." Comfort feeds ego. Truth builds players. Average players resist truth. Elite players demand it.

“Those people who can celebrate others’ success live a more stress free, less anxious life” Choose encouragement over comparison.   The strongest teams are built by people who clap for each other’s growth, not compete with each other’s shine.