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AFM Magazine

AFM Magazine


Letter From the Publisher

In the Land of the Blind...
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In my parent's backyard, there lives a pack of stray cats that seemingly rule the neighborhood where I grew up and my parents still live. My mother, being the kind hearted soul she is, has seen fit to feed this pride of baby lions for what my father tells me is going on two years and $10,000. The leader of the pack is a one-eyed tomcat affectionately dubbed Big Boy. Now, it is important to note that Big Boy has taken on celebrity status and mythic proportions to my three-year old son Christopher. To Chris, Big Boy is the "meanest and toughest cat in the whole world." And, you know what, maybe my son is right.

The story of Big Boy is sort of amazing. As a small kitten, he straggled into my parent's yard and took up residence with the 10-plus other homeless felines, who no doubt spread word of my Mom's generosity throughout the cat network. No sooner had he arrived than one of the males in the group attacked and almost killed him. During the assault, Big Boy lost his right eye. My mother tried to catch the kitten to take him to the veterinarian, but, as she has lost a step or two, he proved too fast for her 75-year old legs. Big Boy did not leave, but stayed, healed up, and persevered to become the king of Morgan Avenue. Legend has it he rules with an iron paw. He is first in line to eat, runs off all newcomers, and has his pick of the ladies. Big Boy leaves no doubt that he is the ruler of all within his domain.

H.G. Wells once wrote, "In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man can be king." This always meant to me that just because you were on top, it did not necessarily make you the best. It just means you are better than your peers. Big Boy is a one-eyed king, but he does not live in the land of the blind. He ascended to the top of all that he sees in the face of a handicap, with formidable competition, and never gave up.

Big Boy is a metaphor for overcoming adversity and the lessons we all try to teach our children and student-athletes about the virtue of never giving up. It is an excellent story if you want to use it that way, but the story of Big Boy represents more than that to me. He represents and is a fighter who not only survived; he lives.

Recently, the tale of Big Boy and what he has come to symbolize, came to my mind in the middle of a conversation with a coach who was telling me what a great magazine we have. I thought to myself, "yeah, but we are 'the only' magazine for football coaches... it's not too hard to be the best." And, that's when it struck me that being "the best" is one thing, but being the best you can be is quite another.

I began to wonder if we here at American Football Monthly have always been the best we can be. Have each of you who just won the conference title done things to be the best? Have we challenged ourselves to get better in the face of little, if any, competition? Big Boy and his victories over one-eyed struggles would never have to answer that question. I, too, want to be able to answer that question every day without equivocation.

I do not want this publication and what we have come to mean to tens of thousands of coaches to just survive; I want us to live and thrive. I want us to be the best we can be, and I challenge each of you to help me achieve the goal of being like Big Boy. If you have story ideas, coaches we should highlight, or any suggestion about what we can do to become a more useful tool for football coaches, e-mail me at bterranova@lcclark.com. I promise I'll respond and take your suggestions to heart. Hopefully, each of you will remember Big Boy and not rest upon your laurels no matter how distinguished they may be.

This issue is the second annual Technology edition of our magazine. In it, we try to look at the ever-changing issues associated with the technology currently available for coaches and what is out there on the horizon. I hope there is one small tidbit that each person can take from this issue and use to make his program more successful.

Long live Big Boy.

Sincerely,

Barry Terranova






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