Too say he overestimated his level of responsibility, is to say that ESPN likes sports.

His first job as an assistant was to get the head coach a Diet Coke. His role had little to do with offense or defense and more to do with making sure coach Gary Blair didn’t get thirsty at practice and at games.

Neighbors could have sulked. His friends were giving him a hard time. He could have thought that task was beneath him and quit.

He choose a different route. He decided to take his job head on.

“If that’s on me, I am going to be the head coach of that.” Neighbors said. “I found out if he wanted it in a can, in a cup, or if he wanted his ice cubed or crushed, or Sonic-style.”

He always wanted to be a head coach and he decided that the best way to work toward that is to be the head coach of whatever he was asked to do. He took whatever duty the coach gave him and he performed to the best of his ability. This led to the coach developing a trust in Neighbors which led to more responsibilities.

Many times we expect big things right away. We write a book and we want to be treated like John Grisham. He start a restaurant and we want lines like Chipotle. We want to be number 1 from day 1.

But that is not how it works. When we are hit with reality we can choose to sulk or we can chose to be the head coach of any task we are given.

When we become the head coach of whatever, and perform to the best of our abilities, our role will grow and grow.

However, that doesn’t mean it will come quickly. Just ask Neighbors. He spent 14 years as an assistant, and was passed up for head coaching jobs numerous times.

But it eventually paid off.

Neighbors is now the head coach of being a head coach for the University of Washington.

And it will eventually pay off for us.

Photo credit: Wikipedia

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Tomorrow night the defending champion New England Patriots take on the Pittsburgh Steelers to kick off the new season. Gone are the days of talking about the draft, the preseason and Deflate-gate. We can finally turn our attention to the games that matter.

But that is tomorrow.

Today, I want to talk about something else that really doesn’t matter. I have a question about the quarterback. No, I am not wondering who the best fantasy football quarterback is. I don’t even care who the greatest quarterback of all time is.

I am wondering where the name “quarterback” came from. Why quarter? Why not penny, dime or nickel? Imagine how many more people would admit to liking Nickelback if the name referred to the most important position in football.

Where Did The Name Quarterback Come From?

The name “quarterback” predates American football. The term was born with 19th century rugby football, which featured players at different depths behind the bulk of players. The positions were half back, three quarters back, and full back, according to English and Scottish nomenclature, or quarter back, half back, and full back in the Irish nomenclature.

The Irish nomenclature of quarter back, half back, and full back came to North America for use in what was to become the dominant native form of football. The terms became hyphenated and eventually unhyphenated single words, “quarterback” (QB), “halfback” (HB), and “fullback” (FB).

Fun Quarterback Facts:

– Originally, the quarterback was not allowed to run forward of the line of scrimmage.

– The exchange between the person snapping the ball (typically the center) and the quarterback was initially an awkward one because it involved a kick. At first, centers gave the ball a small boot, and then picked it up and handed it to the quarterback.

– The forward pass was not legalized in American football until 1906

Sources: Wikipedia & Wikipedia

Photo credit: Wikipedia

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Turns out I have good company in my disdain for change. In fact, even a guy whose change netted him $80 million is struggling with change.

This summer, all star power forward, LaMarcus Aldridge left the Portland Trail Blazers as a free agent to join the San Antonio Spurs. He is from Texas, the Spurs are awesome and they offered a four year $80 million deal. Those are pretty great reasons to make a change.

But just because we have great reasons to change doesn’t make change any easier. Take it from a recent interview with Aldridge…

I don’t like change. That’s been a little bit difficult for me, trying to get used to a new city. I got lost like twice yesterday. That’s not fun.”

Change it tough. It causes us to adjust to new things and many times we feel lost. It is not fun. But it does it better.

Aldridge may be struggling now, but he knows there is a light at the end of the tunnel:

In the end, it should be great for me. Right now, it’s been tough because everything is so new.”

Think you are the only one struggling with change? Think again. Change sucks, even with 80 million reasons to change. Even though it may not be fun now, in the end, it can be great.

Photo credit: Flickr

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If I come across obstacle A, then I will respond with B.

Studies suggest that by creating an if-then plan, we can increase our perception, attention and memory which makes us much better at handling difficult situations. By developing a plan of attack a head of time, tasks are performed more automatically and efficiently.

It appears that Mark Cuban adheres to this strategy.

In reading about the free agent fracas between DeAndre Jordan and the Dallas Mavericks, I ran across a quote Cuban made prior to his handshake agreement with the Clippers center. In an interview last week with 1310 The Ticket in Dallas Cuban said he was prepared for his approach if the team was not able to land an impact player via free agency:

We literally had the discussion that if we couldn’t get a serious free agent, whether it was DeAndre or one of the others guys that are still out there or any of the earlier ones that went, that it was time to take a step back…If I don’t get that 1A free agent, then we’ve been able to put together some pretty decent teams and hope maybe we get a great trade.”

Notice the if-then statements.

If they don’t get a top free agent, then it would be time to take a step back (save money and focus on next year) or make a trade.

Even while whining and dinning Jordan, Cuban was prepared with an implementation intention. He was putting plans in place for what his team would do without Jordan.

As of two days ago, it didn’t look like Cuban was going to need that back up plan. But thanks to Jordan’s change of heart and decision to spurn the Mavericks in favor of the Clippers, things have changed. Cuban is now forced to use his if-then strategy.

All reports clearly state Cuban is none to happy about the move, but thanks to an if-then statement it might be a little easier to move on.

Photo credit: Flickr

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Sure it would, unless you are a baseball player.

The seventh-inning stretch, a popular baseball tradition, takes place in the middle of the seventh inning during every game. Fans get out of their seat to stretch out their arms and legs while singing Take Me Out To The Ball Game.

Where did this tradition come from? Let’s find out in today’s edition of Wonder Why Wednesday…

Who Invented The 7th Inning Stretch?

The origin of the seventh-inning stretch, much like a teenager caught in a lie, has many different stories. Multiple people claim to have started this tradition. No one seems to know the definite history, but here are a few possibilities.

The Cincinnati Red Stockings played the Brooklyn Eagles in June 1869. The game’s recap in the New York Herald states, “At the close of the long second inning, the laughable stand up and stretch was indulged in all round the field.” Later that year, a report from the Cincinnati Commercial stated that a contest between Red Stockings and the Eagle Club of San Francisco featured, “Ten minutes’ intermission at the end of the sixth inning — a dodge to advertise and have the crowd patronize the bar.” Harry Wright, the Red Stockings’ manager at the time observed his fans’ ballpark behavior: “The spectators all arise between halves of the seventh inning, extend their legs and arms and sometimes walk about. In so doing they enjoy the relief afforded by relaxation from a long posture upon hard benches.”

On a hot summer day in June 1882, Brother Jasper (Brennan) of Mary, F.S.C., the coach of the Manhattan College baseball team, noticed his fans becoming restless during a game against a semi-pro team called the Metropolitans. To break the tension, he called a timeout in the game and told everyone in the stands to get up and unwind. The timeout was a hit and Brother Jasper began calling for a seventh-inning rest period at every game. The tradition spread to the New York Giants in the major leagues.

Yet another possibility comes from game 1 of the 1889 World Series when the crowd took a a seventh-inning stretch after somebody yelled “stretch for luck.”

One common origin story comes from April 14, 1910 when President William Taft attended a game between the Washington Senators and the Pittsburgh Athletics. At one point during the game, he heavy set president stood up to stretch, and upon seeing this, the crowd felt obligated to join their president in his gestures.

No one seems to know the real story, but one thing is known. The name “seventh-inning stretch” does not have any written records until 1920. However, in the 1870s there were references to something called the Lucky Seventh,which leads people to believe the original seventh-inning stretch has a superstitious background.

The song Take Me Out to the Ball Game was first played at a ballpark at a high school in Los Angeles, California in 1934. The song was written by Jack Norworth in 1908 to be used in the film Tin Pan Alley. Oddly enough, Norworth did not actually attended a baseball game until 1940, long after he wrote the song.

Sources: Wikipedia, Baseball-Almanac

Photo credit: Wikipedia

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McKinley teaches Solarski how to golf. In one important match, Solarski is faced with a difficult 22-foot putt. He steps up to the ball and nails it.

Amazed at seeing this novice handle the pressure, McKinley remarks, “Let’s see what he’s like in 30 years, after he’s missed a mile of five footers.”

I know it is just a line from a novel, and perhaps I am reading into it too much, but I found it to be a sad, and all too common mentality.

During his 30+ years as a fictional golfer, McKinley has surely missed quite a few putts. Just as we have missed putts, been dumped or had our business idea rejected. Life is tough, Eric Matthews taught me that.

It is sad if we see those 30 years of failure as cloud hanging over our heads, just waiting to unleash a hailstorm of defeat. Instead, wouldn’t it be better to view those 30 years as a helmet, built by experience, shielding us from the inevitable tough weather ahead.

We will all have miles of missed putt, we can turn those miles into frustration and resentment or we can take Eric’s advice, get a helmet and keep putting.

Photo credit: Wikipedia

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I’ve always wondered how they came up with that length, 26.2 miles. Why not 26 or 27? And what is that distance in kilometers? Let’s find out in today’s edition of Wonder Why Wednesday…

How Was The Length Of A Marathon Determined?

Before I started researching this topic, I figured that a marathon was such an odd number of miles because it was a whole number of kilometers.

I was wrong. A marathon is 42.195 kilometers. So if it isn’t a whole number of miles or kilometers, where did the distance come from?

First some history…

The name “marathon” comes from the legend of Pheidippides, a Greek messenger, who ran from the city of Marathon to Athens to deliver the message that the Greeks had defeated the Persians in the 490 BC Battle of Marathon.

The most common route and the one Pheidippides would have used on his journey, is roughly 26 miles.

The marathon has been an Olympic event since the birth of the Modern Olympics in 1896. However, from the first Modern Olympics through 1920, a span of seven Olympics, a total of six different distances were used in the marathon.

• 24.85 miles in 1896 and 1904
• 25.02 miles in 1900
• 26.01 miles in 1906
• 26.22 miles in 1908
• 24.98 miles in 1912
• 26.56 miles in 1920

In 1921, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) figured it was time to determine an official distance for the marathon. They chose the 1908 Olympic distance of 26.22 miles (or 26 miles and 385 yards) which has been the official distance for the marathon ever since.

The course for the 1908 Olympic marathon was set to begin at the Windsor Castle and end with a lap inside White City Stadium. In order to have the race finish in front of the Queen of England and her Royal Box, the final lap was shortened to a partial lap. The distance from Windsor Castle to White City Stadium was 26 miles and the shortened lap was 385 yards. Thus the official length of the marathon was set.

Why did they pick the 1908 distance, you ask?

Because the 1908 Olympic marathon was one of the most famous marathons ever. Italian Dorando Pietri led as he entered the Olympic Stadium. He was well ahead of the competition but because the temperature was so hot, he was dehydrated and could barely walk. In fact, he was woozy that he fell numerous times on the final lap and even started running the wrong direction. As the other runners entered the stadium, Pietri was so close, but it was clear he could not finish on his own. Olympic officials decided to help him across the finish line.

Johnny Hayes from the United Stated finished second. The US protested the assisted finish and Pietri was disqualified. Hayes was awarded the Gold Medalist.

So there you have it. A controversial finish, an altered route and the Queen of England all helped determined the length of the marathon. And that length is still going strong 100+ years later.

Here are some fun marathon facts:

• Fastest time by a female – 2:15:25 by Paula Radcliffe of Kenya on September 29, 2013
• Fastest time by a male – 2:02:57 by Dennis Kimetto of Kenya on September 28, 2014
• On September 28, 2014, not only did Dennis Kimetto break the record, but Emmanuel Mutai, also of Kenya, also broke the old record of 2:03:23, with his finish of 2:03:13. He broke the record but had to settle for 2^nd place.
• Oldest finisher – Fauja Singh was 100 years old when he finished in 2011. But he could not produce an official birth certificate from India, so his record is not accepted by the official governing body.
• Youngest finisher – Budhia Singh from India finished at just 3 years. His coach was later arrested for exploiting and being cruel to the child. Shocker.
• There are approximately 500 marathons organized worldwide with roughly 550,000 finishers every year.

Sources: LA Times & Wikipedia

Photo credit: Wikipedia

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How often do you really feel like a boss? Do you wake up feeling like a top-notch, out of this world, authority in your field?

If we were strapped to a lie detector test, I would bet the results would show we experience this feeling very rarely.

I wish I could say we all spring out of bed in the morning, feeling like the best at our job, but that is not always true. We do not always feel like champions, or 1 seeds.

Most of the time we feel like the last person that should be invited to the dance.

In the NCAA tournament, this feeling should equate to a 12 seed. The teams that are selected as 12 seeds are usually among the last of the teams picked for the tournament. Teams that are 12’s are in the bottom quarter of all the team’s ranked the bracket. They are the last selected and should be first expected to lose, right?

Wrong.

The 12-5 match-up is the classic first round upset. I have no stat to back this up, but nearly everyone who fills out a NCAA tournament bracket will pick at least one 12 seed to defeat a 5 seed.

Why? Why do so many people decide to back a team that barely made the tournament?

Because these underdogs win. And they win a lot.

In the last 3 years, a 12 seed has defeated a 5 seed 66% of the time. Since the NCAA Tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985, the 12 seed has beaten the 5 seed 44 times. Compare that to the 11-6 match-up, where the upset has happened 41 times.

Why has the 12-5 match-up created more upsets than the more statistically equal 11-6 match-up?

Confidence.

Once upon a time, 12 seeds thought that, with a little luck, they might be able win. And somewhere along the way, 12 seeds really started knowing they can win. Teams are happy to be picked as 12 seeds because, what should be a dreaded ranking, has become a coveted title.

On selection Sunday, 12 seeds don’t get any more talented. They don’t add any new players. The players they have, do not develop special new skills. They are the same exact team they would be if they were given a 13 or 11 ranking. Only one thing has changed.

Confidence.

The change has less to do with the challenge ahead of them and more to do with what is inside of them. They believe they can win. And because of that, they do win.

Photo credit: Wikipedia

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–

It’s the most wonderful time of the year

With all the fans yelling

And every team telling you “the championship is near”

It’s the most wonderful time of the year.

It’s the hap-happiest season of all

There will be buzzers for beating and upsets in seeding

With so much college basketball

It’s the hap-happiest season of all!

There’ll be big men for posting

Guards coast to coasting

And highlight plays that make you say whoa.

There’ll be Cinderella stories

And tales of the glories of

Tournaments long, long ago.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year

There’ll be Grant Hill a-throwing

To Laettner for showing

When Duke games are near

It’s the most wonderful time of the year.

There’ll be great picks for boasting

Bad decisions for roasting

And Kaminsky putting on a show

There’ll be injuries that are gory

And tales of the glories of

Bryce Drew long, long ago

It’s the most wonderful time of the year

There’ll be much replays for showing

And tears will be flowing

When losses are near

It’s the most wonderful time

It’s the most wonderful time

It’s the most wonderful time

It’s the most wonderful time of the year!

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Perhaps you’ve played it at family game night in between trying to remember how to play Boggle and fighting over the thimble in Monopoly. Did you know that the guessing game where one player acts out a word or phrase and his/her teammate tries to guess the word/phrase contains the secret formula for coming up with good ideas. Seriously, it can teach us how to be more creative.

In order to explain what I mean, check out this video from the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.

Other than the fact that Charles Barkley might not be able to count, did you notice anything about the game?

Perhaps you observed that there is a certain strategy that is very effective, yet quite simple. The best strategy was to just guess anything. It was far better than not saying anything at all.

Ewan McGregor guessed goat and horse before he correctly found the word cat. Barkley on the other spent most of his first turn staring blankly at Jimmy Fallon. He hardly guessed at all and it was no surprise that he got the answer wrong.

It wasn’t until the last round when Barkley got the right idea by yelling out Leonardo DiCaprio before correctly answering Titanic. You could see Barkley’s brain muscles churning as he verbally and mentally worked his way to the answer.

Believe it or not, this same tactic can help us in developing our creativity and our ability to come up with better ideas.

As author Seth Godin says, the best strategy in games like Charades or Pictionary is to just guess. And he equates this to being creative.

It is free to guess, it is free to be wrong. So that is really important if you want to do creative work.”

There is no penalty for a wrong answer in Charades, so you might as well just throw out as many wrong answers as you can think of. Eventually one might lead you to the right answer, just as goat led McGregor to the correct answer, cat.

This is great in board games, but much harder in real life. We are afraid to guess because for some reason we think our answers are permanent. We think that wrong answers will be the end of us.

Here’s an example…From time to time, I come up with ideas for different segments I can use on this site. Most of the time they aren’t great (think Wonder Why Wednesday, only much worse). I start to write them down, but then I quickly erase them. My fear is that one awful segment will scar my writing for life.

Even before I give it a chance, my “wrong idea” feels permanent. I shoot down my creative idea before it sees the light of day because I don’t want to be the guy who made the terrible decision. I have the fear of looking like the man who now regrets the barbed wire tattoo he got on his bicep while in college.

In all actually, one awful segment on a website is more like guessing the movie Frozen in a game of Charades (when the right answer is Ice, Ice, Baby) than it is like getting a bad tattoo. My awful segment might just have pointed me in the right direction to something that would be very successful.

So how do I get over this?

Godin says the only way is to just start yelling out guesses (figuratively and literally). Only by doing that in small situations will we be ready to do the same in breakthrough moments.

Godin is one of the most creative people in the world. He has written numerous best selling books and started million dollar companies. But he says he didn’t gain the ability to overcome the fear of guessing by building massive companies or writing 50,000 books. He did it through two-page articles and 100 word blog posts.

He guessed and guessed until eventually he landed on a few right answers.

So whether you are writing for a website, running a podcast or starting a eBay business, start guessing. Dedicate a chunk of time, 15 minutes, an hour, whatever you have, to coming up with ideas. 99% may feel forced and no good, but inside that 1% you may come up with something useful. Or maybe you won’t.

In the video clip above, Fallon spouted out everything from Frozen to whiskey while failing to identify the song Vanilla Ice, Ice, Ice Baby. He never did get to the right answer. And sometimes this will happen to us.

But at least Fallon was guessing. And we should be too.

Photo credit: Wikipedia

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