The trade is the trade

This week I stood in front of the team. Two weeks into the work. Legs are heavy. Mornings are early. The grind has set in, and you can see it on their faces.

So I told them the truth.

The trade is the trade.

Nobody forced you into it. If you chose football, you chose early mornings. You chose sore legs and long lifts. You chose hard coaching and hot summer workouts. You chose the expectation that you show up ready to work whether you feel like it or not.

That is the deal. Every kid in that room signed it.

Here is the problem I see. Too many people want the rewards of the trade without accepting the cost of the trade. They want the Friday night lights. They want the wins, the respect, the moment their name gets called. But they want to skip the part where you earn it in the dark.

It does not work that way. It never has.

The price was listed before you signed. Nobody hid it from you. The early mornings were always part of it. The sore legs were always part of it. You knew what this would cost when you walked in the door.

Coach, the same thing is true for you and me.

We chose this. We chose the 4:30am alarms and the film at 10pm. We chose the budget fights and the parent emails and the summers we give away. Nobody made us. So we do not get to complain about the cost of a trade we signed up for.

Stop complaining about what comes with the job. Embrace it. Own it. Attack it.

That is the difference between the coaches who last and the ones who burn out blaming everything around them. One group accepts the price. The other keeps acting surprised by a bill they already agreed to pay.

The trade is the trade.

Keep the Fire Burning,

Leech