Big Contracts Could Equal Big Problems

As we have seen in the past couple of weeks as the NFL free agency began, players are getting BIG contracts. This is occurring more and more as the price for players rises. Many athletes “deserve¹” the amount of their contracts and many don’t. The interesting thing about whether the player has played well enough to earn the big deal is if they can handle what the big deal means.

When the NFL free agency opened on March 13^th, many athletes flew off the board. Usually if you get a deal done in the first 24 hours you are making some big money. One of the players that intrigued me was Pierre Garcon who is now with the redskins but was formerly with the Colts. This is an interesting signing because he signed a 5 year $42 million contract. This is some pretty good money for a wide receiver. I will also be using an example of the huge payday of Calvin Johnson who just signed an 8-year $132 million. These two contracts are the difference between a good wide receiver and an elite, franchise, top 5 wide receiver. Now here is where the difference in their play comes in. Garcon was a wide receiver that filled the 2^nd/3^rd wide receiver in the system and was being passed to by Peyton Manning. We all know Manning makes everyone better. He was also matched up against the 2^nd or 3^rd best corner back on the opposing team instead of their best shut down corner. Calvin Johnson has been the number 1 wide out for the lions and has had a combination of matt Stafford, who is good but not manning, and his backups when he has been hurt. Johnson has been stellar against any and all opposing corner backs, even the best. So at this point in the discussion it would appear that the contracts make sense.

The problems with the large sums of money are when the player gets the new deal. If the player did not show up and play as they should they would never even receive a big offer. Now what happens when the players get a big deal? Some excel and some flop. Why does this happen? Well there are many variables that change with the deal but the two biggest are the team the player goes to and the mentality of the player.

We can only speculate about how the new contracts will play out however there are some contracts that were made years ago that we laugh about now. One that most football fans remember is the $100 million deal to Albert Hayneswoth. He played for the Titans getting a ton of sacks and tackles. He also was the anchor of the defensive line. He earned his new payday but that’s when it all fell apart. He got the deal and moved to the Redskins and tanked hard. He still had a few sacks but became lazy and a huge distraction instead of a huge force. He apparently could not handle the pressure of what a $100 million deal means. It means we are all looking to you for the anchor when he was used to being underrated help. This is what I mean by not having the mentality for a big deal. He became lazy, didn’t want to work anymore and felt “untouchable” when in reality he just became a loser.

If we go back to Garcon, he has been a number 2 or 3 wideout. Can he handle the on field attention of being a number 1? Can he still run good routs and get separation against the top corners? Can he handle his price tag following him and a team looking for him to be the best on the team? All these questions will be answered in time.

There was an interesting contract situation during this current NFL season. Ryan Fitzpatrick of the Buffalo Bills was signed to a big extension during the season because the team was 5-2 and he was playing great. Now I mentioned 2 of the biggest reasons for a flow was a team change and the mentality of a new deal. In this case he did not change teams so the issue would appear to be mostly mental. What happened was the Bills went 1-8 in their final 9 games and finished last in their division. It would appear that he could not handle then mentality of the price tag he now has. Before he was playing as an underrated quarterback that had not done much great until now. After he got the deal he was no longer underrated and players were coming after him instead of ignoring him.

The same story goes for all sports not just in the NFL. Its easy in baseball, basketball, and most positions where there is 1 starter in football. It changes a bit when you look at the NHL where for offence there are usually 4 per position and 3 per position on defense. In the NHL you can be a 1^st line center, 2^nd line center, 3^rd line center, or 4^th line center. All of these positions play during a game just some get more time and shifts than others. Now a big contract can mean so much more than other sports where you are a starter or reserve. If you have played out your rookie contract say it was for 4 years and the player was a 2^nd line center and did pretty well. Now he gets a huge second contract and a team looks for him to be their franchise 1^st line center and leader of the team.

This is very dangerous territory. Depending on his personality he could be great or he could flop. If this player got used to his underrated 2^nd line, not having the pressure to carry the team, he may have issues mentally being the one to carry the team on his shoulders. There is a big mental change when a team looks for you to carry a team when you were happy being support. Some players will play better when they know they are not the best and only the support of the team.

The tough part about this whole situation is as an athlete you want to be the one who leads the team and is the best. You don’t think about your role and want to make more money. Therefore a player would be insulted if the general manager went to a player and said we don’t want to move you into a top line role because you play better as support and not leader. If this league was not so money driven and players did not have such big egos this may actually be more possible.

If sports were more sensitive to the mental side of the game contracts would be done very differently and I believe there would not be as many busts. This is because we would look more to see if the player can handle the role change instead of just throwing money at them in hope that they can handle it. This could not work in today’s system because they go where the money is and not where they may actually fit best. Its tough to say how a player will mentally react to a new contract, with the current system you just have to throw the money at them and hope they can handle it.

These big contracts don’t even begin to skim the surface of the reason big contacts and the jump from college to pros creates so many busts. Look for the next blog examining the college to pro bust rate.

Notes:

1- I put deserve in quotes because its debatable that they actually deserve that sum of money.

Tiger Woods and the Self Fulfilling Prophecy

So much has been written about Tiger Woods. Even more has been said about the man who held the number 1 world ranking in golf for over 5 year. Yet this past week during an interview with ESPN’s Tom Rinaldi, Tiger uttered perhaps his most telling word yet. In response to the question “What drives you?” Woods responded with his typical focused and composed stare by using one simple word; “winning”.

You see, Tiger still believes. He believes that he still has the ability to recapture his old form and make that comeback that the media are equally as obsessed with as he is. Tiger Woods is a sports blogger’s dream! The material practically writes itself, yet for me, a blogger who focusses on the mental aspect of sports, Tiger Woods is still a mystery wrapped in an enigma. Yet following his latest interview, some pieces of this mystery wrapped enigma are beginning to become clearer. Specifically what motivates Tiger Woods and how he is using the concept of the self fulfilling prophecy to drive him forward.

It is no secret that Tiger Woods has an obsession with catching and over taking Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18 golf majors (Woods is stuck on 14), and this is clearly one of his central motivators, yet winning in general also clearly motivates Woods. He is closing in on 100 worldwide victories, and if Woods does reach that number, it will certainly go down as a historical moment in sport.  So Woods it appears is beginning to take a more systematic approach to his obsession. One win event at a time. 

The self fulfilling prophecy is when the capabilities of an individual are determined, and then due to these determinations, the capabilities are matched via performance. With Woods, by his continual referral about his desire to win, he is willing this event to happen. By continually referring to winning, perhaps he is trying to psych out his fellow tour members, and put the thought in their heads that this is the Tiger of old, and that he is still to be feared as he once was.

I hope that Tiger Woods is able to return to his old golf self. That Tiger never spoke about winning, he just won. He is now forcing the term winning to become part of his own everyday lexicon, and in doing so is willing the self fulfilling prophecy to take over. That sounds a little crazy, and perhaps it is, but after all, the one thing we do know is that sports are mental!

I SUPPORT P90X and P90X2 and you should too! (Part 2)

In my last blog, I tried to give you some of my thoughts about P90X and even admitted to some of the many mistakes that I made in my first round of P90X. When I began my second round of P90X, I had that experience behind me and made a few major changes. 

The man himself - Tony Horton!

Change 1 - Plan Ahead! I not only decided to do P90X (again), but I made the commitment to go back to back with P90X and the brand new P90X2. This gave me a 6 month plan, and addressed the 91^st day problem that I referred to in my previous blog. 

Change 2 – No more “cheating”! I know that I wasn’t really cheating by using a chair to help with the pull ups, but the fact is that I could do 5 or 6 before I started the program without the chair, and with the use of the chair I was able to do 18 – 20. Towards the end of my first round, when I decided to take the chair away, that 18 – 20 number dropped drastically to 8 – 10, and this was motivationally demoralizing.  When I began round 2 of P90X, I didn’t use a chair, and by the end of the 90 days, I was happily banging out 20 pull ups, and always increasing the number throughout the 90 days.

Change 3 – Nutrition is my mission! Let me admit that I have a problem, bordering on having an addiction. I love chocolate and cookies (especially ones that my family brings over from the UK). When starting P90X, these things WILL slow you down, they definitely slowed me down. During my first round, I took no notice of the nutrition advice that came with the program, so when I decided to go for another round of P90X, I committed to sticking with the nutrition plan. This included incorporating protein shakes and/or bars into my daily routine. Take the time to take a good look at what you eat – it is only now that I realize that the reason I do not have that washboard 6 pack is because of my own poor choices of food.

With these changes in place, I pressed play, and continued to press play day after day for 90 days. But there was one more change that I made, and this would be the change that allowed me to not only complete the program, but also follow through on my 91^st day plan and beyond. I told anyone and everyone exactly what I was doing. This is the notion of having a support system in place, and for me, it made me accountable to all of the people who I had told. I told my wife, my family, my work colleagues, my facebook friends and I even tweeted to Tony Horton himself (I never did get a reply by the way Tony). Now of course, my real hope was that all of these people would come up to me and tell me that I was in great shape and ask me if I had been “working out”? Only for me to reply “working out? No, I have been P90Xing it!”

Results aside, by completing the exercise program, and actually sticking with it (yoga and all – but more on that in part 3), the feeling of satisfaction was just as important to me as the other benefits normally associated with exercise.

Have you ever wondered why so many people, and feel free to include yourself in this problem, are unable to complete an exercise program from start to finish? One of the biggest reasons for this is that they have no one to hold them accountable for their goals. This is why I told everyone I knew that I was doing P90X. Developing a strong or vast support system will ensure that someone will help you maintain your goals. No one can physically force you to work out, but having a support system will increase your chances of finishing what you start!

In part 3, I will share some of my thoughts about P90X2, and will also share with you some of my obscure observations about all the characters and interactions that went down in the P90X DVD’s. It’s not to be missed…Thanks for reaching, and remember that sports really are MENTAL!

P90X - P90X2 My journey part 1

You have all seen the infomercials before. The ones where you see a picture of an average or even slightly overweight guy, and then the same guy 90 days later looking like an Abercrombie model. Then you hear all about how he did this program called P90X and it changed his life. I am kind of like that guy, except I was never overweight and I do not nor ever will look like an Abercrombie model.

For those who do not know me, I used to be a professional wrestler. But let me preface that statement with the fact that I am only 5 foot 8 and have never weighed more than 165lbs.I wrestled for about 10 years on the independent scene in the UK. Having a small amount of success and getting the chance to wrestle all over the UK and being paid for what I loved doing was awesome. So I was in shape. I also played soccer my entire life, and have run a sub 4 hour marathon. I am not bragging, I just want you to know all of this as I think it plays a big part in the rest of my story here.

I also love anything that says as seen on TV. I own a sham wow, a slap chop, a graty and a power washing hose. My dream one day is to own a sonic knife, but I digress. I like everyone saw the P90X commercials and being a sport science geek had a basic understanding of the muscle confusion part, but just didn't really want to make the admission that my gym membership was beginning to be a waste of time and money. I really liked going to the gym, but hated seeing guys who were bigger than me lifting heavier weights than me and then spending 20 minutes starring at the hot girl on the treadmill. I was in a fitness rut for sure. Then I did the math, and worked out that I was basically paying close to $500 a year for the gym. I couldn't believe that number at first, but it was true. How much do you spend on a gym? or a personal trainer? or even a home gym that is now doing a great impression of a clothes hanger? I am not judging you, because I really used to be that guy. Then, my life changed. And before you sigh a here we go again sigh, and think that this is the part where I try and sell you P90X, it’s not. Buy it, don't buy it – I am not on commission. I am just giving you some background as to where I was before I started P90X.

Needless to say I took the plunge and got everything I needed for P90X...or so I thought. First thing first, and if you are thinking about starting P90X, this is where you will want to pay close attention. There are 2 main things that you need before you start - All of the equipment and most importantly time. Now I don't really care if you work 40 hours a week or have 2 kids or have 2 jobs - if you want to do this and decide to do this, then you will find the time, but, you still need time. The commercials state that you need about an hour a day, but let me be more specific , for almost every workout, you will need one hour and 20 minutes a day, and for the yoga workout, you will need 90 minutes. That’s right; there is a yoga workout, but more on that later. On top of the scheduled workout, every other day there is an additional 16 minute ab ripper workout, which is awesome, but never really mentioned. Then of course there is the equipment, and it is up to you how you decide to go for this. I chose the buying a standard pull up bar and some dumb bells from target route. Now here is the other thing I will point out to anyone who is thinking of starting. The weights you start the program with will seem very light if you finish the program. You should probably have a few different weights, with something to strive for, like a really heavy weight that you intend to build up to. You will also need lighter weights, so don’t let your ego get in the way of buying some light weights too.

Ok- so you have the time, and you have the equipment. The next thing you need before you start is an understanding of what the outcomes of this program might be and how to best equip yourself to reach those outcomes. This is when we look to sport psychology and goal setting for advice. There is a well-known acronym that is used when it comes to goal setting, SMART, which has been used by professional and amateur athletes for years.

S - Specific

M – Measureable

A – Action Oriented

R - Realistic

T – Time sensitive

P90X is a program that really helps you stick with the SMART goal setting method. It provides you with all the tools you need, and all you need to do is press play everyday!

Yet, advancements in goal setting research have made all of us a little bit SMARTER.  The ER of SMARTER relate to two things that are vitally important with P90X:

E - Evaluate

R – Recreate

With P90X, you will do the same workouts a number of times, and this gives you the chance to evaluate your goals for each exercise, and continue to improve at them. With P90X, the way you go about goals in your everyday life should become SMARTER.

Have a plan of what to do on day 91 (other than tell the world how good you look). This is so important. I would say that P90X is more about the first few weeks after you have finished than the 90 days you worked your butt off. I started my first round of P90X in April of 2011, and I started my second round of P90X on December 1 2011. You do the math! 6 months in between the two, and I really tried to maintain my shape. I cycled to work - that lasted less than a month. I purchased a cheap nasty P90X rip off from bed bath and beyond - that lasted a month. I even went back to a gym for a month (don’t worry that was free). But the bottom line is that after finishing my first round of P90X, I was in the best shape of my life, and then 6 months later when I started again, I was not. I had let myself go. I did not put on 100 pounds or anything like that, but for my own high standards, I was out of shape.

During my first round of P90X, I made some critical errors which I am going to share with you. First of all, I gave up on the yoga after 6 weeks. It was too time consuming I told myself, but truth be told, I couldn’t do it well enough. I sucked at it. Secondly, and this goes against what the dvd’s tell you, I used a chair to assist with pull ups. I became dependent on that damn chair. My advice about the pull ups are just don’t bring the chair into the equation unless you absolutely need it. If you can do 3 or 4 pull ups without a chair, then you don’t need it. The final error I made with my first round of P90X was that I ignored the nutrition aspect of the program completely. My thoughts were that I eat healthy anyway so there really is nothing I can learn about nutrition...wrong! I always wondered why I never had a washboard 6 pack, and the answer is because a 6 pack is not made in the gym, it is made in the kitchen. Learn from my mistakes; stick with the yoga (or any of the workouts that you think you suck at), push yourself to do what you can without cheating and do not underestimate food and supplementations.

Deadline Madness: How Would You Feel?

 For the most part professional athletes know what they are getting into when they enter their respective leagues. They are expected to give their very best every day under the pressures of the fans and the media for a large sum of money. Seems like a pretty good gig. Many of us play sports and we would love to fill their shoes with their skills. They get all the attention and a ton of money for what we do for fun. However not many of us understand the extreme pressure they have every day of their lives.

We all know how pressure affects us. We get stressed out, don’t sleep, don’t perform well, and even age faster. Do we face extreme pressure in our lives? Yes some but I don’t believe on a daily basis it’s the same. Mentally they have to be extremely resistant. As we have seen in the past the mentally weak suffer. We often see high draft picks drop off the sports world. Some examples of the fallen that often come to mind are Ryan Leaf (NFL), Kwame Brown (NBA), Patrik Stefan (NHL) and Billie Beane (MLB). It takes a certain amount of “mental toughness” to handle the pressures of professional sports.

So now not only do you have to perform at your best everyday of your career in front of millions but you also are trying to live up to the fans and owners expectations and the “potential” that scouts put on you. As you can see the pressure just keeps stacking up and you have to keep the stress down to keep your mental stability high.

Burnout is a term that is used to explain what happens when someone has had enough and just can not mentally handle the situation any more. They start to experience depression, fatigue, boredom, and just general disgust.

On top of all of these daily pressure comes once every season that I am pretty sure almost every player dreads. I am talking about the trade deadline. Most if not all of the leagues have a deadline where it is an intense day of trade after trade that is fun for fans but unbelievably stressful for the players.

Just think about this situation for a moment. You have been with a team for several years. You have friends on the team and have grown to like the city and the fans. You have a game on or before the day of the deadline and start to wonder, will this be the last time I wear this uniform, the last time I play with these guys, and the last time these fans cheer for me? Its very possible and many players have these questions answered yes.

So now you start asking yourself how in the world do you perform under the circumstances that you may be gone at any moment? Well it depends on how “mentally tough” one would be. Can you shake off the fact that one organization wants to get rid of you? Can you shake off moving in a matter of hours to a new probably foreign city with players you don’t really know? For the players with families, how are you going to tell your wife and how is your kid going to feel being uprooted from their friends and school?

These are very tough questions to block out and just play the game. Some can handle the pressure and some cant. It also may depend on when you get traded. Some leave early in the process at a good time and some do not. An example of this is Ubaldo Jimenez of the Cleveland Indians we traded 1 hour before he was supposed to start for the Colorado Rockies. He still went out and pitched for the Rockies and went 1 inning and gave up 4 earned runs. This was a very poor performance for a solid pitcher. You could question if he was just mad at the club that traded him and so he wanted them to lose. However, if you think about it professional athletes always have a drive to perform well and it impedes their desire for the team to suffer. Another reason this doesn't make sense is they are his stats and not the teams stats. The bad game will follow the player not the team!

“It was a complete surprise for me,” said Dave Steckel, now a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs. “I didn’t find out until like 3:30 and the trade deadline ended at 3 (p.m. ET), so obviously it was a last-minute deal. When I got the call from my agent, I thought ‘Hey, I didn’t get traded. And then he’s like ‘Actually, you did.”

The other factor that greatly affects the pressure and the mentality of the athletes is something that seems minute but has a big impact on them. This new factor is media, especially twitter. Think about it, you get fired from your job but you don’t find out from your boss nicely, but in fact you are watching TV with your family and hear that you have been canned. Now that is not realistic in our daily lives but for them it is very realistic. Trades get leaked so often that they are more likely to come across it on twitter or watching sportscenter before they get the call from their own team or the team they were traded to. This has to be tough to hear such big news from a random writer from ESPN or from the local paper.

“If you start paying attention to everything that’s written on the Internet and said in the media, it’s going to make you crazy,” said Winnipeg Jets defenceman Mark Stuart.

All of these factors add pressure to the already very pressure filled life of the professional athlete. This is why it is so common to see players burn out and have their performance falter. Its not a mystery why this happens. However they need to understand if they can reach a point that allows them to mentally block some of this out their mental toughness will increase and will most likely have a longer better career.

The Personality Clash 1 Year In The Making

Photo Credit: WWE.com

On April 1st, in Miami Florida, The WWE will present it's biggest show of the year, Wrestlemania. The main event will be The Rock (Dwayne Johnson) taking on John Cena. This match was made following the controversial ending of the main event of last years Wrestlemania, when then WWE Champion, The Miz, was able to record a victory against heavy favorite John Cena in part thanks to the interference from The Rock.

The very next night on RAW, on April 4th 2011, Cena and The Rock were in the ring together, verbally sparring. The Rock claimed that him and Cena were complete opposites and that The Rock flat out doesn't like Cena. Cena responded quite simply by asking for a match, there and then! The Rock, then layed down the gauntlet, of having the match at Wrestlemania 28, and it was sealed with a handshake and an obligatory stare down. The main event of WWE's marquee event was made an entire year in advance,  this was unprecedented in the 28 year history of this event.

The WWE had one of its biggest challenges in recent memory. How would they promote this match? On name value alone, both The Rock and Cena would be able to sell out an entire arena, so putting them against each other would seem to be a marketing no brainer, yet what was hook, the substance, the rationale for these two fighting one another. In wrestling terms, what was the angle? Sure, Cena was angry about his Wrestlemania 27 loss, but that momentum could never last a full year.

The Rock is still a Hollywood movie star, and was not returning to the WWE full time. Yet Cena and The Rock were able to continue their verbal sparring for a few months, mostly with the Rock appearing via satellite, much to the chagrin of Cena. The Rock made the occasional (heavily promoted) live appearance, and during the Survivor Series pay per view, The Rock and John Cena were tag team partners (with the tag line, never before, never again!), but again after Survivor Series The Rock would be needed back in Hollywood.

In The Rock's absence, Cena continued being John Cena, rarely changing the act that had made him one of the biggest superstars of this generation. However this act, as The Rock was never shy in pointing out, was getting a little tiresome for the WWE Universe's 18 + demographic. The kids still adored Cena, but the boos outweighed the cheers considerably. The irony here of course being that The Rock made his triumphant return to the WWE, after a 6 year absence, and came back with the exact same act that made him one of the biggest superstars of all time. The only difference was the lure of nostalgia, which continues to work in The Rock's favor.

Now, as we approach Wrestlemania 28, with all the hype and publicity focusing around this match, the angle is perfectly clear to me, and with the help of Sport Psychology, I will explain it. You see, The Rock was wrong on April 4th 2011 when he declared that him and John Cena were complete opposites. They are in fact, far too similar, and this is what makes this match so exciting. In the history of the WWE, this match will go down as one of the most important ever. In sport psychology, we learn about personality types, and how they can often be used to predict behavior. Using a simple personality test such as Eysenck's Personality Inventory (1965), both The Rock and Cena would be described as being extroverted and stable. It should have been obvious that as soon as The Rock cost Cena the main event of Wrestlemania 27, Cena would become obsessed with an adequate response. Both men are extremely talkative, and have at one point in their careers been the leader of the WWE brand. John Cena always elicits a powerful reaction (sometimes cheers, but mostly boos) and The Rock is justified by calling himself "The Most Electrifying man in all of Entertainment", as both men are exceptionally lively in front of a live audience. The similarities are exactly what makes this match so important.

The WWE universe, at various times have both cheered these men to heights never before seen in their respective generations, only now that the WWE universe is having to choose, nostalgia is playing a role. Yet at Wrestlemania 28, The Rock is the hometown hero, and Cena will be revered by the majority of the audience. You will still have your Cena loyalists, but I do not think it would surprise anyone to hear Cena booed louder than ever. I also feel that this is more a reflection of The Rock's mainstream hollywood popularity and nostalgic wrestling return than it is on Cena's legitimate unpopularity. The crux of this main event comes down to a personality clash between two of the biggest superstars in modern day professional wrestling. Can two extroverts share the spotlight? Can two stable men keep their game faces on and focus on the match rather than the spectacle that is Wrestlemania? These are the questions that will define this match, and one year in the making, John Cena Vs The Rock is a mouth watering prospect!