Key to winning is respecting legitimate authority

Published 11:15 am Thursday, February 9, 2012

The old saying is that rules are made to be broken. But really, they’re meant to be followed.

So why is a culture of rebellion against authority settling in at all levels in our society, even sports?

In the 1960s, the Baby Boom generation popularized the phrase, “Don’t trust anyone over 30.” Their disrespect and war against “The Establishment” got us to now.

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Countless college football and basketball players run afoul of legitimate authority and lose their opportunity to represent their school via the catch-all “violation of team rules.” The violation is never specified, but does it need to be?

The rule-breakers had a choice: follow the rules to remain part of the team or else. Failure to hold players accountable can lose a coach a team. And if your team is composed of too many rule-breakers, well, something’s gotta give.

A great example is last year’s Ole Miss football team. Too many of the players ex-coach Houston Nutt recruited were unwilling or incapable of following his rules, and roster attrition dissolved the depth chart like hydrocholoric acid. When your addition by subtraction turns into absolute zero, problems arise and losses mount.

Sports is an analogue for life. Youngsters learn lessons about defeat, victory, hard work and, of course, following the rules.

In an individualistic society, it’s difficult to submit to authority and do things the proper way. Some people are unable to square their individual agendas with that of a team.

The best coaches hold young people accountable and teach them a lesson that will help them achieve success in the future, be it on a court, in college or at a job.

It’s no coincidence that the two teams in the Super Bowl XLVI, the New York Giants and New England Patriots, are run by coaches who few would describe as touchy-feely. Both are rock-solid, my-way-or-the-highway types, yet both have been ridiculously successful.

Demanding and expecting the best while holding players and coaches accountable gets the best results.

It’s little wonder that certain players have prospered under Tom Coughlin and Bill Belichick and others have hit the exit ramp with a thud. The salary cap structure gives coaches an even bigger incentive to rid themselves of those who refuse to follow the rules.

Our popular social-media culture prioritizes the individual and denigrates those who sacrifice for the greater good of something bigger than themselves.

For authority figures at all levels of society, it makes their job seem like swimming upstream against a flood-choked current.

There’s nothing wrong with individual achievement. Our country is, by virtue of the Constitution, designed to inspire and nurture people’s aspirations to be the best they can be. That is the biggest blessing of liberty.

But ultimately, that liberty has boundaries. Learning that boundaries are not designed to constrain, but to focus and protect is a lesson we all need to learn.

Steve Wilson is sports editor of The Vicksburg Post. You can follow him on Twitter at vpsportseditor. He can be reached at 601-636-4545, ext. 142 or at swilson@vicksburgpost.com.