Misaligned Priorities
It's college football season and I am a happy camper. I love the fall and the cooling weather. I love the color changes in the leaves. And I love college football. Maybe one team over any other, but any college football game is good with me.
At the commencement of the season, I was completely taken aback by the comments by the head coach at Oklahoma State University, Mike Gundy. In a press conference a couple weeks before the first game, he commented to the press that he was tired of players and agents coming to him asking him for more money as a part of their name image and likeness (NIL) contracts. In fact, he went on to say that he's done negotiating with anybody because it's time to play football and everyone should be concentrating on that first game and preparation.
Literally within the next 24 hours, I heard a story on a podcast, for which I cannot verify but sounds correct, that last year, on the way on the bus to The Rose Bowl, hours before the game, and the playoff semifinal, a player came up to head coach Nick Saban of Alabama it indicated he needed more money. The commentator indicated that was the final straw that drove Nick Saban to retire. Whether true or not, I'm guessing there are other examples that aren't that far different.
I do not begrudge people wanting to make the most amount of money they can. I want to make as much money as I can. But in these stories are indications of misaligned priorities. While having money is a good thing, there are aspects of life that are more important…and there are appropriate times for monetary discussion and times when it's wholly inappropriate.
All this is to say that sometimes we let lesser important things get him the way of profoundly important things in life. Relationships are more important than money. Trust is more important than money. Honor is more important than money. Love is more important than money. And these stories mentioned earlier fly in the face of all of these.
And while we think college football is a long distance from our lives, the lessons here are important. Do we build the right relationships with the right people based on trust and putting the other person's needs ahead of yours, or are your needs more important than theirs? Does pushing your agenda at the wrong time override the circumstances or timing because it's important to you?
While most of us are not playing college football, we can understand the lessons that these two stories bring forth. And it's a reminder to me that the college football I grew up with and love isn't today what it once was years ago.
