With the NFL Combine taking place this weekend, team officials (management, coaches, and scouts) along with media analysts and fans will be watching as NFL prospects look to prove their fitness and abilities. With the NFL Draft two months away, highlight videos of college football stars are all over YouTube, ESPN, and the NFL Network. In true highlight fashion, viewers are amazed by the plays made by star players.
However, highlight videos are not the whole story. Highlight videos only seek to show players at their best. It is definitely worthwhile to evaluate players throughout the course of a game and in practice. (There are plenty of those videos on YouTube now, too.) In taking a step back to see the full picture of a player, evaluators can better see the details that matter.
When it comes to evaluating talent, especially in trying to look at potential stardom and greatness, evaluators should consider the greatness of Larry Bird. Bird has amazed people as a player, coach, and front office executive. As one of the greatest basketball players in history, his peers also considered him to be the best trash talker ever. Why?
Because he could tell opposing players what he was going to do and then went and did it. Even when they had specific play-by-play knowledge of what he was trying to do, they could not stop it.For Cleveland Browns fans and other NFL fans, all eyes are looking intently at the performances of Jared Goff and Carson Wentz. As ESPN NFL analyst and draft guru Mel Kiper Jr. recently stated, it is "a flip of the coin" looking at the capabilities and potential of both young quarterbacks. Everyone has a different perspective; each person will look for and see different things when they watch footage of Goff and Wentz playing. My challenge to each person watching is to not just look at what the quarterback does, but also look at what the rest of the players on the field are doing. Are the quarterbacks able to fool the defense? Are the defenders taking proper routes in guarding the receivers? If the defense knows what is coming--including play-by-play specifics of what the offense is trying to do--can the quarterback still get the throw there?
Meanwhile, Cavaliers fans and other NBA fans watch intently as the Golden State Warriors and San Antonio Spurs continue to dominate most games. Like Bird, the Warriors and Spurs are not surprising anyone with their game-to-game strategies and tactics. In watching footage of both teams, it is clear that they continue to run the same general set of plays, even running the same cuts and screens on the same parts of the court. Yet, in most games, opposing teams cannot stop them, even when they have specific play-by-play knowledge of what the Warriors and Spurs are trying to do.
Teamwork, practice, attentiveness, and other good habits go a long way towards achieving success and working towards greatness. As legendary football coach Vince Lombardi said, "I believe that if you block and tackle better than the other team and the breaks are even, you're going to win." Likewise, as legendary football coaches Chuck Noll and Tony Dungy added, "If you want to win, do the ordinary things better than anyone else does them day in and day out."
When players and teams make good plays and win games, it is easy to stop and be amazed at the success. When evaluating draft prospects like Jared Goff and Carson Wentz, opposing teams like the Spurs and Warriors, or any other personnel, it is good to learn from the greatness of Larry Bird. As the cliche goes, actions speak louder than words. In Larry Bird's case, he could tell opposing players what he was going to do and then went and did it. He was not just a great trash talker--he was a great player that followed through on what he said. In sports, business, and life, the separation between the great ones and everyone else is less about being able to fool and deceive. Rather, their greatness comes from their ability to articulate what they are going to do and then going out and doing it. Sure, Larry Bird was a one-of-a-kind talent. However, "The Larry Bird Test of Greatness" is a useful tool that can be used to evaluate anyone's potential stardom and greatness.
