This is just so odd to me; I really don't get why people are so opposed to this. I don't think I've ever had a player state the he/she was playing for a trophy. They're children for crying out loud. All that they want to do is to put on some gear, get a bunch of people together and go play football. They just want to run around with their friends and see who can lay out a good tackle, or who can catch a pass.

 

The players know who the best player on the team is, it's really not a secret. I mean, you'd have to require psychological counseling and/or chemical-based therapy if you didn't. Me standing in front of a table with a plaque and telling a 30 second story about the one time in practice that Johnny said something so funny that I almost had to stop practice because I was laughing so hard isn't going to skew his view of the world, it's just not. On my squads, everyone who finishes the season gets physical recognition for their participation. This makes sense to me because, the last I checked, football is predominantly a team sport. Each player who straps on a helmet is putting effort towards making the team better than it was the day before. If they aren't, it's on me to motivate them to do so.

 

We also recognize the best Offensive Player, the best Defensive Player, the best Lineman, the team MVP, and the Coaches' Choice player. Every single one of the players who win these awards, I make the player tell the group who they most owe that trophy to. Because -- surprise! -- they didn't get it on their own. They had a teammate who they had to beat, a coach that challenged them, a parent that they wanted to impress, or an opponent who required them to step up, but they didn't do it all on their own.

 

To me, all this is doing is telling the members that it's okay to ignore the contributions of the many who had a part in the success of the few. "Hey, your son has a love of football and all of that, and he sure did try hard this year, but we needed him to be a tackling dummy for this kid who is just more physically developed than he is. I mean, I know that he 'thinks' he likes football, but I don't think football is the game for him." It's pathetic, it's lazy, and it's entitlement at it's very core.

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