A Positive Life Lesson by Getting "Trucked" and More

I played two years of football at the community college level. There were a couple of guys on those teams that went on to play division one college football and the NFL. I had the opportunity to be challenged by players at that level.

I was not a good football player at all. I did not play football in high school. I joined the team as a way to stay active in school and give my father something positive to reflect on when thinking about his son. He was terminally ill at the time and even though we had a strained relationship, I wanted him to feel like I was heading in the right direction. I wanted him to at least be a little proud.

At that time, I weighed about 150 pounds, soaking wet, with a full padded uniform! What I had was speed. I ran the 40 yard dash in 4.6 seconds, which is pretty quick. I was sort of a misfit, and not one of the guys for sure. The trainers called me “architect.” I can still hear our head trainer Hambone saying it when I walked in to get my ankles taped. “What’s up architect.”

During my second season we played a practice game versus the offense. I played defensive corner and the coaches put me in for a play. The offense stepped to the line and set up. I was focused on the wide receiver and the ball was snapped. He took off fast, full speed down the sideline. I shadowed him in pursuit. Twenty yards down he turned and began to block. I worked around him and looked downfield - it was a run.

I can still see this in my mind like a slow motion film. The ball was handed to our biggest running back who was appropriately named “The Bus.” This young man was roughly 260 pounds but he moved like a big cat. I turned to pursue the ball, but he was coming right for me. He made it through the big defensive linemen. He broke through the linebackers and now it was just me and him. He was running full speed. It was like a safari when the elephant charges the caravan.

So here comes the bus. 260 pounds versus 150 pounds. I do not remember what my mind set was, I must have been out of my mind. What I did not do was get out of the way. I squared up, shuffled my feet, and braced for impact. BAMMMMM!! There was the sound of cracking plastic and a scene that would look similar to watching the screen of a camera that was thrown off of a cliff. I see the sky, now the ground and the sky again, and then someone else making the tackle on the sideline. I can still hear the loud “OHHHHHH!” erupting on the sideline. I got trucked bad by the big ‘ol bus.

I peeled myself off the grass and dusted off the tire tracks. The defensive coach called me over and I ran to hear his message. He patted me on the head and laughed while he said “Hmm. Lot of guys would have jumped outta there. Now all we have to do is teach you to bring those hips.” I will never forget him looking me right in the eye. He had these intense, laser eyes and he would chew you out if you were not up to expectations. I do not know what he might have been thinking at that moment, but I imagine it was on the lines of “not a good football player, but at least he’s got some courage.”

That practice game was a few days before the start of the season and I played in every game that year. I learned a lot about myself during that season. I gave it everything I had and dedicated myself to improve a little everyday. I started to get a feel for the game and in practice I intercepted a couple of passes. The season ended and I went on to architecture school at the big university. My football career was over as I silently retired to a crowd of one, my mother, who reflected that I was probably lucky to still be alive.

During my first semester in architecture school I had a professor that would constantly tell me that I needed to humble myself. He never gave much of an indication as to why that was the case, but it was always in response to me challenging his criticism of my work. I always felt that college was a time to issue relevant challenges to your instructors. I felt that those challenges tested my own concepts, building them up and breaking them down.

I clearly understood the message that he was trying to convey. I was letting me know what they do to young professionals that present themselves as haughty and egotistical. He was letting me know that the building industry is a humbling field that can break you and mash you up and spit you out as something unrecognizable. I understood him and he was a tremendous professor. I sorely miss our intellectual arguments about architecture.

What I learned is that the industry does not care if you are confident or meek, strong or weak. The building industry is like a mashing machine and devours everything regardless. I thought back to my experience on the football field playing against men twice my size. Football is a team sport and everyone has a clearly defined role. My role was never going to be on a highlight reel making the big hits that make the crowds roar. My role was to stand firm and do everything I could to make the play while ten other big guys moved in to support the effort.

I guess the fine line between confidence and egotism is obscured. That makes me think about these top ten draft picks that go into the NFL. They do not go into the locker room humbled or hanging their heads. They walk in there understanding their role and their station. They walk into the scene knowing that they are prepared to do what it takes to be productive and contribute to the team. That confidence can lead to some chippy tension with the veterans. It can lead to loud exchanged and sometimes physical conflict.

I remember a offensive lineman and a defensive lineman that had a rough blocking session and it spilled out to the parking lot after practice. Those things happen. The new unproven rookie comes on the scene and the vets look on them with some disdain even though they clearly know that they were once rookies too. It is a right of passage when you come into the league or any industry.

Watch a football game sometime and look for the rookie or freshman. Watch that youngster make a big play. When that happens, all the rank and status, and numbers, and contract salary, flies out of the window. The focus is on getting the job done and helping the team accomplish their goals. Maybe in any industry, whether your an athlete, entertainer, designer, developer, or politician, the moment that you make a play that helps the team, is the moment that you begin the transition from a rookie into a professional.

That is what makes being a rookie or a start-up so difficult. You are always working towards making that contribution. In the architecture and development field, you are patiently wanting to make that positive contribution to society.

Going back to the football metaphor, I track the difference between a football professional and an architect. In football, being the best and being unique and outspoken is rewarded by the crowd. People love that stuff; they want to emulate that attitude and live through that intensity. In the architecture field, at least through my lens, the public is adverse to designs and ideas that are idiosyncratic. The public wants uniformity and idealistic symmetry since that is comfortable. The problem is that leads to the deterioration of society. Society needs new ideas and new forms and new perspectives in order to progress and survive. These new ideas and forms are instrumental for a society to avoid stagnation which will eventually poison the economy.

I am not suggesting that we build twisted, mirror-like forms. I am suggesting that a sprinkle of uniqueness benefits society in totality as a marker of time and the evolution of humanity in cities. Those sprinkles inspire the next generations to generate their own new ideas and society moves forward as a chronologically layered event, one generation pushing the next forward. When we stunt that growth and dissuade our young bright people from expressing their own thoughts on the built environment, we degrade our cities and we degrade our culture. A nation that stunts this growth devolves into the thoughts and ideas of previous generations and society does not move forward, but rather stays trapped in a spin cycle.

Speaking of spin cycles, I will now bring us back full circle. The evolution of society is similar to the offensive and defensive attack of a football game. In an ultra-connected global society, there are many players moving forward with the ball. The ball represents new ideas and the evolution held within the grasp of the future generations. If we are not aware and prepared our society can get trucked and significantly decrease our capabilities to produce and influence.

With an offensive metaphor we need to get the ball into the hands of the capable players. We need to establish connections and clear lines of communications. With a defensive metaphor, we need to set aside our differences while we are on the field and come together as a unit. Remember, the guy that gets trucked still slows down the play and provides time for the team to bring the ball carrier down. A divided squad running in different directions cannot accomplish the goals.

As I grant myself a bit of freedom to digress in my own writing forum, I believe the problem in the States ay not be that we are being divided into separate teams. Every football team is essentially broken into two factions: offense and defense. During practice we wear different color jerseys, red and white. During the game, when it is really time to play, we wear the same uniform. Maybe we lack the understanding of our separations and divisions and see them as fractures, when in fact they are simply offensive and defensive methods of thought. The offense wants to attack and score. On the global stage, I would see that attack as innovation and the ability for our labor to be accurately reflected on the scale of price and wages. To achieve this we need a more accurate cost of living and quality of life. We need to create work and allow people to feel a sense of purpose. In contrast, the defense wants to stop the other team from progressing down the field. We are not very good at this as a country. We spend to much time strategizing and not enough time building. It is like we are too caught up in determining the rules of the game while the game is being played. It is similar to playing a game with a small child that is constantly changing the rules to work in his or her favor. All the while, our competitors are crushing it, scoring, and destabilizing society in the process. We need to set the rules to benefit those that are carrying the damn ball and throw the rules to the sidelines for a while. We need to build. That is how we stop the forward progress. We need to build up the cities that we have. We need to reintroduce the trades back into our education system and put people to work building, maintaining, and repairing.

As I mentioned at the start of this epic rambling, when I got trucked, I spun round about two or three times, came to rest flat on my back, and tilted my head back to see that the tackle was made. Can I get a “Speed Bump!” Mission Accomplished: Check. When we apply the football metaphor to society, we may get trucked, flip around, and realize that no one was there to make the play. What we see is the other team celebrating in the end zone.