As Chris Borland, the former San Francisco 49er, retired recently citing future health as the reason, I knew it would add to the controversy on the topic of football. I cringed. Did I cringe because it could lead to more attacks on the game I grew up playing? Of course. Did it make me cringe because my brother is a Division 1 football player who has been playing the game at a high level for almost as long as Borland? Perhaps. Did I cringe because my Saturdays and Sundays in the fall and beginning of winter often revolve around the sport? Absolutely. But I mostly cringed because I know what the game has brought me, and what the game has brought many others, without many downsides at all.

I started playing football when I was in 2^nd grade. Every Friday, I wore my jersey to school. This continued until my junior year of high school when I stopped playing. Every day that goes by, I think about that decision, and whether or not it was the right one. Here are the things I learned and gained from the game of football that outsiders may not understand, and that is okay. I learned to work hard in football. I didn’t learn work ethic in the classroom. My parents preached about hard work in my household, but only football showed me hard work. At a young age I had already learned to test my limits both mentally and physically. I credit my work ethic in college to football, from staying up late studying to get an A on an exam or to waking up early on minimal hours of sleep to work out. In an era where hard work seems to be less and less valued, football put me on a path to pursuing success.

Race relations are in the news daily. Constantly people are wondering how we can coexist in a society that struggles to see beyond skin color sometimes. It’d be wonderful if we lived in a place like Martin Luther King Jr. once described, “little black boys and girls will be holding hands with little white boys and girls.” I can recall walking out on numerous occasions to midfield as a captain, holding the hands of my fellow teammates, some white and some black. I created lifelong friendships with kids that I may have never of had the opportunity of getting to know otherwise. In football practices, race never mattered to any of us. We were teammates, a bunch of guys working through late practices together, fantasizing about going home to drink some ice-cold water and have a nice meal. Without football, I wouldn’t have had that special bond with so many different kinds of people who I may not have had the chance to associate myself with in a different setting. The diversity of my football teams throughout my childhood and high school career would be a sight to see for any social reformer. This often goes unnoticed; football presents a field of equality and diversity when other places don’t.

Sure, the NFL may be dangerous for longtime participators. I am certainly not here to deny that. However, the game has gotten safer and safer throughout history. There is no question in my mind this trend will continue. From experience, no one is moving fast enough or colliding hard enough at a younger age in order to create some of these more brutal injuries you see at the higher levels. When I saw John Harbaugh’s recent release of a piece he wrote on “Why Football Matters” I agreed with everything he said. However, I thought a view from a person who doesn’t rely on football as a source of income may be more valid. From the outside looking in, it is so much harder to see the good in football. Injuries are open to the public eye, bonds created and lessons learned are not. Football to me meant opportunity. An opportunity to challenge myself mentally, physically, and socially on a daily basis. I played many sports growing up, baseball and basketball to name a few. None had a greater effect on the way I live my life today than football. I know others feel the same way, and that is what inspired me to write this.

I could go on and on about why some of us need football, but I certainly wanted to focus on a few points. Often, fighting for football can come off as selfish. Yes, we all love watching football games with our family and friends on the weekend. We don’t want that to go away. We also don’t want good leadership and teamwork to go away. Tell me ten professions where leadership and teamwork aren’t valued and required, and I’ll tell you you’re a liar. Is football the only place where these qualities can be achieved or learned? No. Is it an affordable, enjoyable, and effective one available to hundreds and thousands of kids across the nation? Yes. There is no worse feeling than the day you don’t have football to go to anymore, and instead of being happy to be done with the grueling practices, you are overwhelmed with sadness that you won’t compete with your teammates that day. There is not better feeling than being under the hot sun and hearing the words “Water break!” Those memories won’t be taken away from me, even if football is.

Football is like life – it requires perseverance, self-denial, hard work, sacrifice, dedication and respect for authority.

Vince Lombardi

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Wherever there are fanatic sports fans, there is major criticism of the coaching. Although the criticism tends to be fair at times and certainly unfair at others, it is always present. The University of Iowa is no exception. The absence of professional sports teams and presence of a major Big Ten school brings intense and loyal fans. Whether these fans are current students, former students, future students or just residents of the state, they want Iowa sports to succeed just like most fans do. Often sports audiences are left feeling unsatisfied after games or seasons, and this is when the inevitable blame game kicks off. A prime example of this is Kirk Ferentz, the longtime football coach, has been under major fire in the last recent years. His conservative style often disgruntles the passionate crowd. Through this season, the men’s basketball team has certainly gone through its ups and downs. The blame for inconsistency often rests on the coach. However, knocking the basketball coaching is where some people have gone wrong.

Fran McCaffery took over a struggling program in 2010 and hasn’t really looked back since. Before McCaffery was hired, the Hawkeyes hadn’t made the postseason since the 2005-06 season. They have not gone past the first round of the NCAA tournament since 2000-01. The culture of winning wasn’t really there for Iowa like it was for many of its Big Ten rivals. Since 2010, McCaffery’s squad has improved in Big Ten wins every single year, and has climbed from 10^th place in his first year to 5^th in 2015 with a 12-6 record in the highly competitive Big Ten conference. In addition to the consistent improvement of the conference wins, the Hawkeyes’ postseason results have improved from year to year under McCaffery. In his first year, the Hawkeyes were not fortunate enough to reach any sort of postseason. In his second, they reached the second round of the less prestigious NIT, and lost in the Championship in the same tournament the next year. Last year, the team lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament as they stumbled late down the stretch of their season. In contrast, they have finished this year with six straight wins after two tough losses to lesser opponents in Minnesota and Northwestern. This late streak has them sitting at a 7 seed in Joe Lunardi’s recent mock bracket, as opposed to last year, where the team was forced to play Tennessee in a first round play-in game for the rights to the 11 seed.

Often, smaller-name coaches yet to cement their legacy get blamed for the struggles a team may experience, but rarely will they receive immense credit when the team turns it around. The players usually get that. Take Aaron White, for example. The senior is without question the most important player on the team, but he wasn’t always a star. The first team all Big Ten player once was a skinny kid coming out of high school with no offers from the bigger time basketball programs around the nation. Northwestern and Boston College were the only other two power five conference offers for the Ohio native. McCaffery, as well as his staff, can be credited with seeing something in the beloved superstar that at one time, not many others saw.

While it will be interesting to see how the sometimes hot-headed coach fares in this year’s tournament, there is no question McCaffery has brought Iowa Basketball back. Although the strange inconsistencies of the team may frustrate fans, we must be patient. Whatever our coach is doing is works, and the statistics and year-by-year improvement  are evidence of that.

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