Twenty Seconds

by Ryan Krzykowski

It’s funny.  I used to take pride in being the biggest sports fan I knew.  This was from about age 7-21 when I apparently didn’t have more pressing matters to attend to in my life.  Nowadays, while I certainly enjoy my sports, I might be the fourth or fifth biggest sports fan in my own house.  That said, it still surprised me last month when people were making a big deal about the retirement of Buffalo Bills defensive lineman Kyle Williams.  Apparently Kyle has had quite a distinguished NFL career.  He played for Buffalo for thirteen years and made the Pro Bowl six times.  Pretty impressive — and yet until a month ago I had never heard of the man.

But in the past month, I’ve grown to admire this career that I had failed to notice for more than a decade.  In particular, I was drawn the press conference Kyle gave after his last game.  In this tweet by Matt Bove, there is something incredibly powerful.  It’s not hard to catch it, but is something every coach ought to consider.  And I quote:

And in a twenty second interaction, in a doorway in Rusten High School, it changed the trajectory of my life.  It changed my attitude, changed my vision, changed who I was…..you never know what makes the difference.

Can we all make it a goal to spend twenty seconds every day taking a shot at speaking words that might positively change the trajectory of a young person’s life?  I am certain we can.  Most of these kids won’t make six Pro Bowl rosters, but they can become pro bowl caliber people.

Coach With Purpose.