Five things we should learn from Russell Wilson

Russell Wilson is my new favorite football player.

Photo courtesy of blogs.thescore.com

Growing up, my favorite football player was Kansas City Chiefs running back Joe Delaney, a player who heroically gave his life saving three other boys drowning in a swimming hole in Louisiana. (Read Delaney's story here.)

Delaney will always be my all-time favorite player. 
  
But my favorite current player is Wilson. 

I love the fact he's from Virginia. I love that he's been told he couldn't his whole life, only to prove time and time again that he could. I love the way his teammates rally around him. And I love that he carries himself with integrity. As I've followed his career, here are five things I think we could all learn from Wilson.


 1. Sometimes things don't go your way. You can't give up!  In the biggest game of his athletic career - last Sunday's NFC championship matchup against rival San Francisco - Wilson fumbled the first snap. 

Then he found his team down 10 points early. But he didn't give up. He helped his team fight back and pick up the victory. In life, you and I will fumble sometimes, too. And, just like Wilson, we have to get up and play the next down. We can still win, too.

2. Leadership matters.  Wilson transferred from N.C. State from Wisconsin as a senior in college. He quickly won the starting quarterback job, but he also won the affection of the other men in the Badger locker room. He was even named team captain shortly after his arrival on campus. 

There are two types of leaders: 

• leaders you follow only because his or her title says boss. 
• leaders you follow willingly because you believe they will lead you where you want to go.  

While physically gifted, Wilson isn't a prototypical NFL quarterback as far as height and stature. Yet his ability to lead himself and his teammates is unquestionable. Each of us has a sphere of influence. At the end of the day, do you want to be the type of leader people follow because they have to or because they want to?

3. Make the most of your opportunities. His Wisconsin Badger teammates put their faith in Wilson with good reason, as he led the Badgers to the Rose Bowl and was named an all-American. Still, NFL teams were hesitant to draft him, because he was only 5-foot-10. However, Seattle did take him in the third round, after every team had passed on him twice. Wilson, however, made the most of the opportunity, beating out Matt Flynn for the starting position, and now he's in position to lead the Seattle Seahawks to the Super Bowl in just his second season. 

I'm not telling you to have faith in faith. I'm 5-foot-8, 37-years-old, and a few (dozen) pounds over my college basketball playing weight. It's not like if I dream hard enough to be LeBron James, that I will be LeBron James.

What I am saying is that if you know there was something you are meant to do, do it. There were always be naysayers and people who don't believe you can. And when you get discouraged along the way, remember at various points Russell Wilson was probably discouraged, too. But he didn't give up. And when the opportunity presented itself, he literally ran with it.


4. Don't be good when you can be great.  The 41st round pick of the Baltimore Orioles out of Richmond's Collegiate High School, Russell Wilson actually committed to N.C. State as a baseball player. In 2010, he was the fourth round choice of the Colorado Rockies. But at some point, he chose the sport he was most passionate about and felt like he could excel in the most. Choices between good and bad are usually easy to make. When it comes making choices between being good or great at something, that's usually more difficult. We have to learn to pursue what we can be great at and not settle for something we where could be simply be good.

5. The thing we're most known for doesn't ultimately define us. My favorite thing about Russell Wilson isn't that he looks like one of my best friends Jeremy Hartman (see here), or that he grew up 90 minutes from me, or even that he's a short athlete balling out.  It's that he knows that sports isn't ultimate, and that he knows what is ultimate.  

I've been a sports writer for 15 years. You'd be hard-pressed to find someone who enjoys sports more than me, but sports isn't ultimate. In fact, sports play a very small role in my life compared to the story of God's redemptive work in the world through His only son Jesus Christ. That, Wilson believes and so do I, is what's ultimate in this life. 

 

Chris Lassiter is a Christ-follower, a husband to Emily Lassiter (read her blog here) and a dad to five crazy but wonderful kids. A Young Life leader in his hometown of Staunton, VA, he has written for VIBE, Rapzilla.com, The News Leader, JamTheHype.com and many other publications. 

Recently, Moody Publishers released his first book You're Grounded, which you can read about here. The Cross Promotion Blog gets updated twice a week. Please consider subscribing by e-mail or at at the bottom of the blog where it says 'Join This Site.'