The Importance of being a leader in Sports

By Martin Chase, retired NFL player

During my NFL career, I learned that leadership is a trait that all athletes have deep inside of them. Unfortunately, I found that most players do not know how to apply their leadership skills. It is the inability to apply leadership that sets the regular NFL players apart from the true greats such as LaDainian Tomlinson, Marvin Harrison, Peyton Manning, and Brett Favre. These fine players are all strong leaders. It is their powerful leadership skills that inspire their teammates to come together as a team and play at the best of their ability - even when they are losing.

Sports leaders are able not only to lead people in the right direction but to also give them confidence. A leader makes his teammates believe deep in their hearts that if you follow me, we will win. This requires a lot of responsibility and charisma on the part of the leader, but it’s also what separates good players from the Hall of Fame players.

As a young athlete, if you want to make it first to college sports and then to professional sports, you must develop your leadership skills. It is the strength of your leadership skills that will help separate you from the competition. College and Pro teams want leaders. Leaders win games.

As a young athlete, if you want to someday make it to the pros, you must work on developing your leadership skills everyday. You need to learn how to motivate people and make them believe in you. To build your leadership skills, here are some tasks you should do.

1. Be on-time for your classes at school and work hard to get good grades. This shows your teachers that you are eager to learn and to work hard. It also shows your coaches that you are eager to learn and work hard. So, always show respect for your teachers and coaches and they in-turn will show respect for you. This is the first step for becoming a leader. You must show others that they can trust and respect you.

2. Be a leader in everything you do. At school, help your classmates learn. Lead them to going to class on-time and working hard to get good grades. Help your community. And, help your teammates improve their skills on and off the field. The sooner you take the role of being a leader who makes smart decisions, the sooner people will see that you are a leader and they will follow you. Also, when people who have power see that you are a strong leader, they will give you special opportunities that other people and players will not get.

3. Show leadership by example in your sport. Work at learning your skills and the strategies of the game harder than anybody else on your team. One trait the true sports leaders all have in common is they are always the first to arrive at the sports facility in the morning and the last to leave at night. They become the best players and the strongest leaders by working twice as hard as everybody else. If you choose to work twice as hard as everybody else, you will receive deep respect from both your teammates and from your coaches. And, you will become a master of your sport.

4. Being a leader is even more important during the bad times than the good times. A true leader remains confident and motives his team members even when they are losing. It is during bad times that a leader’s true colors will shine and he will do everything he can to help his team be confident and driven to win.

Finally, understand that leadership is not something that is given to you. Leadership is something that you give to others.


Martin Chase is a retired NFL player who has played with the Giants, the Saints, the Redskins, the Ravens, and the Jaguars. Martin now owns and manages a popular
sports memorabilia website - http://www.mcsportsfan.com.

How NFL Ego-Maniacs like Terrell Owens are Hurting the NFL

By Martin Chase

As a former NFL player, I know how players influence their teams both positively and negatively. What concerns me is the growing trend of players focusing on themselves instead of their team. This is having a negative effect on the NFL and even worse, it is having a negative effect on youth sports players who want to emulate the ego-maniac pro players.

As professional NFL football players, we all have different personalities. Most players have a positive and friendly personality and focus on helping their team. But, there are also players that have large egos and want the spotlight to always be focused on them. These are players like Terrell Owens and Randy Moss. As a former NFL player, I can tell you that ego-maniacs like Terrell and Randy are a cancer to their team and they always cause more damage than good.

However, what really concerns me is the impact these ego-driven players are having on youth. When young players in junior high, high school and college see players like Terrell Owens and Randy Moss in the spotlight and acting like spoiled children, they want to be like them. And to be like these players means focusing on yourself and acting like a jerk instead of focusing on helping your team. As these ego-maniac players become more and more popular, think of how this is going to effect professional sports. It is going to be a cancer that spreads through the NFL, tearing teams apart and making the NFL a circus instead of the greatest team sport of all time.

For the young people who are reading this article, I cannot stress enough how important it is for you to NOT behave like Terrell Owens or Randy Moss. Unfortunately these two players have gotten away with acting like fools because they are such incredible athletes and the best in the world. But, I can guarantee you that if they did not have the talent they have, they would be kicked off of their teams and not recruited to play for a different team. Both players and coaches HATE ego-maniac players.

One of the reasons why players and coaches hate ego-maniacs is that as the season wears on, a team will have many ups and downs. As a player, you need to support your team and do everything you can to help it during both the ups and the downs. Ego-maniacs love it when their team is winning because then they can claim they were responsible for their team’s success. However, when their team is not doing so well, you always see players like Terrell Owens blaming the other players and the coaches for their lack of success. Nothing destroys a team faster than a player blaming his teammates for the team’s lack of success. Just look at all the damage Terrell Owens caused with the Eagles when he was blaming Donovan McNabb for the team’s lack of success. Isn’t it ironic how Donovan McNabb is still on the team when Terrell Owens was suspended and then traded?

On the other hand, what coaches for college and pro teams are looking for are leaders like Brett Favre, LaDainian Tomlinson, and Marvin Harrison. These are the players who stand out and become the biggest NFL stars because they have a great personality, they always behave like professionals, they play to help their team, and they are positive leaders and role models for their teammates. If you want to emulate a pro athlete, emulate the leaders, not the ego-maniacs. You will go much farther in the NFL (or any other pro team), and you will be a positive role model for the young players who someday dream of playing in the pros and who want to be just like you.

Martin Chase is a retired NFL player who has played with the Giants, the Saints, the Redskins, the Ravens, and the Jaguars. Martin now owns and manages a popular
sports memorabilia website - http://www.mcsportsfan.com.