I LOVE FOOTBALL.I started playing when I was nine years old, and football got me through difficult periods. It helps make me who I am today. And even though I did not reach the National Football League, I sometimes think I got more from achieving that dream, without realizing it.
My romance with football started when my dad drove me, kicking and screaming, to join a league. I didn't want to be there at first. I was naturally weak and small. Fear turned to awe (敬畏) when I met my coach, Jim Graham, a huge and strong guy. And he was really strict and old﹣school.
Coach Graham used to drive me hard. I remember one practice in particular. "You're doing it all wrong, Pausch. Go back! Do it again!" I tried to do what he wanted. But it wasn't enough. "You owe (欠) me, Pausch! You're doing push﹣ups after practice.
When the practice was over, one of the assistant coaches came up to me. "Coach Graham drove you pretty hard, didn't he？" he said.
"Yeah."
"That's a good thing," the assistant told me. "When you're doing badly and nobody says anything to you anymore, that means they've given up on you."
That conversation has been with me closely my whole life. When you see yourself doing something badly and nobody's willing to tell you anymore, that's a bad place to be. You may not want to hear it, but those who always push you hard in your life are often the ones telling you they still love you and care about you, and want to make you better.
There's a lot of talk these days about giving children self﹣respect. It's not something you can give; it's something they have to build. Coach Graham knew there was really only one way to teach kids how to make it stronger: You give them something they can't do; they work hard until they find they can do it, and you just keep repeating.
When Coach Graham first got hold of me, I was a weak kid with no skills and no physical strength. But he made me realize that if I work hard enough, there will be things I can do tomorrow that I can't do today. I really felt thankful to Coach Graham for what he had done to me, though it surely didn't feel good at that time to do so many push﹣ups after practice.
