Steve Schlageter

Great Player. Even better human being. Great family. Love to root for people like this.

Luke Falk shared a Mike Leach story that stopped me cold: Two kids. One rich. One poor. Every training camp, Coach Leach told his team about these 2 kids. The rich kid has two choices. Get soft. Get entitled. Expect everything handed to him because he was handed more. Or take the resources, the coaching, the opportunities, and compound them into something greater. The poor kid has two choices too. Say nobody gave him anything. Blame the world. Make his circumstances the reason he never became what he could have been. Or outwork everyone in the room. Luke said the locker room had both. Kids from wealth. Kids from nothing. Kids with every advantage. Kids who scraped for every inch. Same choice for all of them. Ownership or victimhood. Fuel or excuse. The rich kid can waste the head start or build on it. The poor kid can drown in the deficit or weaponize it. Greatness doesn't come from where you start. It comes from which kid you choose to feed. Credit to @coachlukefalk for continuing to share golden nuggets about Coach’s legacy

🚨 What if the secret to success isn’t talent or luck… but one simple daily choice? Nick Saban drops truth: Every single day, you face the same 2 questions: 1. Something you KNOW you should do… but don’t FEEL like doing? Can you make yourself do it anyway? 2. Something you know you shouldn’t do… but really WANT to? Can you stop yourself? Getting out of bed when the alarm hits Hitting the gym when you’d rather scroll Studying or grinding when Netflix calls Choosing the hard right over the easy wrong This is the invisible bridge between where you are… and who you want to become Put your choices ahead of your feelings Because if you only do what you feel like doing, you’ll never reach your goals This one mindset shift changes everything for champions — and it can change everything for YOU too.

Kirk Cousins gets it

Sniff

This is genuinely one of the most insane things I’ve ever seen in baseball. Robbing a homerun is hard and rare enough. Robbing two in a game is the record. But three?? One in a million chance. Take a bow, Jo Addell. #RepTheHalo

This was not written by me, but it touched me deeply… Sunday is coming. “He received 39 stripes because 40 was known to kill a man. They wanted him alive. They held handfuls of his beard, and hair and pulled it out by the roots. They wanted him alive. They kicked, punched, and spit on him for hours. Until there wasn't a single spot on his body not covered in blood. They wanted him alive. They shoved a crown of thorns down on his head so harshly it stuck in his skin. They wanted him alive. After hours of being beaten, mocked, whipped, flogged, and tortured they made him walk with a cross. They made him carry it. A rough piece of wood with splinters digging into fresh wounds. They wanted him alive. They wanted him to feel every ounce of pain they could bring. He had to feel it in order to heal us. Crucifixion was historically one of the cruelest most tortured deaths a human could face. Hours upon hours of torture. Torture most of us can not mentally think of because the cruelty isn't normal. It isn't something our minds can comprehend. We celebrate Easter with pastel colors, happy children hunting eggs, and chocolate. Truth is there was absolutely nothing happy about the day Jesus died. It was cruel, bloody, and nasty. He could have stopped all of it. He could have called every angel in heaven to demolish every person standing and shouting "Crucify Him!" He didn't. He knew in order to have a Sunday you have to have a Friday. He knew in order to have joy you have to carry your cross. He felt everything that day. He felt how your heart broke wide open when you had to watch your baby die. He felt how heavy your life was when you were staring down the barrel of a gun wondering if the man you called husband was going to shoot you. He carried the weight of the burden you have felt since your spouse died, and life just doesn't seem right since. On that cross he held the rapist and murderers, the sinner and the saint. He leveled every playing field and said ALL of you are worth it. He knew he had to carry the cross. He never promised the cross you carry in this life would not be heavy. His wasn't. His promise is that Sunday is coming. No matter how heavy Friday is. Financially, emotionally, mentally, or physically. Friday is heavy. That cross is weighing you down and you are about to crumble under its weight. His promise was simply this. He won't make you carry it alone. What kind of king would step down from his throne for this? Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God did. For you. He did every bit of it for you and me. Oh yes, it is heavy. So heavy sometimes you do not think you can take one more step. But look up, because Sunday is coming.”

Didn’t understand why my wrestling coach was so hard on me years ago. Then when I became a coach I completely understood why. He changed my life and I hope I did the same for my kids I coached.

Rob Rohn was down 14-2 with 15 seconds left. The announcers had already crowned Lambrecht champion. He hit a gator roll and pinned him. One of the greatest comebacks in NCAA history. Never count anyone out.

Pretty cool note I got from a tech CEO/founder who watched NCAAs about hiring wrestlers: “I'll say this: without question my favorite hiring profile is a D3 All-American wrestler. You competed in the darkness. No lights, no crowd, sometimes literally no one watching. You showed up anyway and you figured it out. Give me 10 of those guys and they're worth 50 fancy Ivy League degrees. Every time. The mat doesn't lie.” Thoughts?

After the win over Iowa State, a video circulated of Tennessee participating in the Lord’s Prayer. How has Rick Barnes’ beliefs rubbed off on the team? “I know specifically that one of the reasons I came to Tennessee was because of Rick Barnes and his faith” -Nate Ament

TWO INCREDIBLE DEFENSIVE PLAYS FOR TEAM USA 🤯 Bobby Witt Jr. was making plays in USA's win vs. Mexico 🔥 🇺🇸

There are moments in life when words just aren’t enough. Losing Coach Holtz is one of those moments. Coach was so much more than a football coach to me. He was family. I still remember the day he came to my house to recruit me. He didn’t just sit down and talk to me about football or what I could do on the field. He talked to me as a young man. And he spoke to my mom the way a man should speak to a mother who was trusting someone with her son. He looked her in the eye and promised that I would be taken care of at Notre Dame. That moment meant everything to us, and it’s something I’ve carried with me my entire life. Coach Holtz believed in people. He believed in building men, not just players. He welcomed my entire family into the Notre Dame family and always made sure we felt that love and support. That’s who he was. He cared deeply about the people around him, and he made every one of us feel like we mattered. The lessons he taught me went far beyond football. His faith, his discipline, his belief in doing things the right way shaped who I became as a man, a father, and a leader. My heart is broken today, but I’m also filled with gratitude for the time I had with him and for the impact he had on my life. Coach will always be with us—in the lessons he taught, in the lives he changed, and in the love he gave so freely. Thank you for everything, Coach. I love you. You will forever be in our hearts. Go Irish ☘️

“I follow three rules: Do the right thing, do the best you can, and always show people you care.” — Lou Holtz

"Your wife is not your best friend. Your dog is. Lock the two in the back of a trunk, come back two hours later and see which one is happy to see you". Coach Lou Holtz RIP Coach Holtz. The best motivational speaker I've listened to

I played for Nick Saban, Bill Belichick, and Sean Payton. I studied under some of the greatest coaching minds in the history of professional football. And after the Lord saved me, I realized something that changed everything. Every single leadership principle that made those teams thrive is biblical. They just did it for the glory of man instead of the glory of God. Here is what I mean. Belichick taught us to do our jobs. Scripture commands us to work as unto the Lord, not for the approval of men. (Col. 3:23) Belichick held Tom Brady to a higher standard than anyone else. Scripture says to whom much is given, much is required. (Luke 12:48) Belichick cut the cancer immediately, no matter the cost. Scripture tells us that a little leaven leavens the whole lump. (Gal. 5:9) Belichick sacrificed personal credit and took responsibility for every loss. Scripture calls leaders to be servants first. (Matthew 20:26) Brady sacrificed personal stats for the good of the team. Scripture says do nothing out of selfish ambition, but in humility consider others above yourself. (Phil. 2:3) Brady could encourage a teammate and confront him in the same breath. Scripture says speak the truth in love. (Eph. 4:15) These men did not know they were pulling from eternal, biblical commands. But the principles worked. They always work. Because truth is truth whether the man wielding it knows its source or not. Now imagine this. If these principles built a two-decade dynasty in professional football with men who did not know the Lord, what would God do through His church if we humbled ourselves and followed the same playbook? What would happen in your marriage if you coached yourself harder than you coach anyone else? What would happen in your home if you cut the cancers of laziness, passivity, and selfishness? What would happen in your leadership if you stopped protecting your ego and started serving your team? The blueprint is not new. The playbook has been written for two thousand years. The question is whether you are willing to run it. I spent 10 years in the NFL and the best locker rooms I ever walked into operated on principles that Scripture laid out long before football existed. Stop looking for a new framework. Open the Book. And do your job.

Impossible for me to LOVE these dudes anymore than I do! Thank you boys!!!!!! USA 🇺🇸

Drew Brees shares a masterclass in leadership. It's 2004, he's about to lose his job, and he asked for 10 minutes with the team before the season. What happened next turned a 4-12 squad into a 12-4 contender. Brees passed out goal sheets to every player. "I said, 'We're going to accomplish great things this year. But we need to create that path for ourselves, and then we need to hold ourselves accountable for this.'" The sheets had three sections: • Top 5 team goals. • Top 5 offensive/defensive goals. • Top 5 personal goals. "I had already had a list of things I felt should be our goals, but I wanted it to be a collaboration." "If it comes out of their mouth, then they gotta own it. And they have to become accountable to it." That's the key. Goals that come from the team belong to the team. "It gave guys the opportunity to verbalize things that maybe they otherwise wouldn't have verbalized." "I didn't want to leave anything up for chance. I didn't want to leave anything up for assumption." "What are we trying to accomplish? Goal number one - win a Super Bowl. Okay, in order to do that, what do we have to do? In order to do that, what do I have to do?" "You just set these short-term goals in order to achieve the big one." "Nobody had ever done that before. I'd never done that with a team. But when guys came together, put their heads together, put something on paper - they committed to it and became accountable to it." Goals without ownership are just wishes. • Make them say it. • Make them write it. • Make them own it. That's how you build accountability and set a shared standard for the team. (🎥Jeff Fenster Show | @drewbrees )

My America!

Today feels like it should always. We’re all together. All the emotions. But we’re all together. Thanks hockey.