Low is the way to go for athletes
Wait a minute.
I'm trying to grasp it all and put it into words.
Being humble can take you a long way in life and as it relates to sports, usually the ones that are humble are the ones that end up on top.
Just take a look at the recent national champions of college football. The Florida Gators quarterback Tim Tebow is the excellent example of a humble leader. He has always directed the praises to his coaching staff and his teammates. I'm not a fan of Florida, but I must admit that I always pull for the student-athletes who are humble. Being humble doesn't necessarily guarantee you a championship of some sort, but it sure heads you in the right direction.
On the other hand, being proud, which is opposite from being humble, can almost guarantee you that a big target will be on your back. For example, I'm one of the biggest Dallas Cowboys fans around, I believe. But, from what I've seen in the past few years, they have a roster full of proud individuals. Yes, they may be the most talented team in the National Football League, but for whatever reason they haven't been able to put it all together on the field. Even though they are by far my favorite team in sports, it's hard for me to accept such a proud franchise, with a roster full of a bunch of proud players. I can remember back in the 90s when Troy Aikman and Emmitt Smith were the faces of the franchise, which was good for the organization as a whole. Both players were humble on and off the field whenever they engaged with the media. And, as a young athlete coming up, I looked at the way that they carried themselves. They knew the secret to take the low-road approach. And, of course that led to major success as the Cowboys asserted themselves as the dominate team of the 90s.
During the fall, I heard one of Conway's junior high football coaches, Jeff Prince, preach to his guys over and over to be humble, while addressing the team in his postgame speeches. Something so simple means so much. As a result of Prince urging his guys to be humble, the Conway Blue team didn't receive an unsportsmanlike penalty all season. And, I never saw one of their players jawing at another player after they made a big play. The Kitten responded by winning their final three games of the season to finish with a conference record of 4-3. Being humble carries a lot of weight in the sports world, especially when dealing with youth sports.