American football season is in full swing.  My schedule is now booked up on Monday nights, Thursday nights, and all day Sunday!  No judging - I still make it to church in the morning (watching the occasional London game from the pew, haha).

My editor (mrsdepasquale.com), is no doubt rolling her eyes while she reads this.

I’ve talked about football many times on this site.  See the September 22, 2020 edition of the E-Impact Blog for my dedication to the game at a young age.  We also had Adam Harstad on Speaking of Impact episode 27.  I would imagine your don’t hate the sport if you’re an avid reader/listener.

Uniqueness

A vital quality for things to stand out in this over saturated world of entertainment is uniqueness.  You have to be a bit different.  The thing about football is that it is a collision sport (more than just a contact sport) and it includes players of various sizes, speeds, skills, and responsibilities. 

A secondary thing that makes football unique is the rule set.  In some ways, it’s about as free flowing as you can get (part of the reason why I believe it requires the most athleticism) but it also has some special restrictions.  

I think anyone who is exposed to football after they’re grown is likely to be confused on how the game is officiated.  First of all, there are seven officials on the field at once.  And no, they’re all not referees.  In fact, there is only one “ref” and it drives me nuts when people call the “side judge” or the “umpire” (yes, like a baseball umpire) by that name.

It would be funny though, if a frustrated player yelled, “C’mon ump!” or, “Terrible call, blue!” in a game.

A Simple Call

For as complicated as the rules are for football, today I want to concentrate on a pretty simple one - the “false start”.

A False Start is not Offsides!  This mistake is pretty common amongst the common fan.  Offsides is when the defense crosses the line of scrimmage (the point at which the offense is on the field and must start behind for the next play) and the ball is snapped.  

This is not an officials training session but if you are interested in a detailed explanation of a “false start”, “offsides,  and “illegal motion” (also look up “encroachment”) then see this article from Sports Fan Focus.

A false start occurs when an offensive player makes a sudden movement as to start a play before the ball is snapped (one player is allowed to move laterally in the National Football League and in the National Collegiate Athletic Association, more confusing rules, I know).  

A false start penalty is completely inexcusable in any scenario.  The offense is supposed to know at what point the ball will be snapped.  You could argue that an offsides penalty is less egregious because a high leverage situation might call for a player to try to anticipate the snap to get an edge.  

It’s a pretty simple call for a referee (yes, the referee is often the one who makes this call) and would be a great advantage if it were not illegal.

False Starting in Life

I suppose I could write a whole blog entry on how we shouldn’t seek an advantage on others by “false starting” in life.  

Don’t cheat.  Play by the rules kids!

What good is it to win something in life if you cheated to do so?

I’m going to assume that if you are reading this you are interested in positivity and desire to make things better in the world.  It’s not likely that you are intentionally false starting to cheat others.  However, we all make mistakes and even the best football players can be distracted by an assignment on the upcoming play, an intimidating defensive player, or crowd noise.

NBC Sports published “What are the Loudest Stadiums?” the day before I typed this.  Check it out to see just how much of an effect crowd noise has.

The world is fraught with overwhelming sense of responsibility, intimidations, and “noise”.  This is another reason why I love the sports-life metaphor and the lessons we can learn from team sports.

Impactmakers are highly susceptible to “false starts”.  We are driven people with a desire to do well.  We want to get ahead and win albeit in a fair way.  Thus, we’re likely to false start from time to time.

Knowing the Snap Count

The basic function of understanding when your team intends to start the play is critical to an offensive players success.  In most cases (unless the crowd is so loud and it’s impossible to hear), a team’s quarterback will call a series of verbal signals (a cadence or snap count) to indicate when the Center should snap the ball and start the play.  In theory, any player who understands the cadence should never false start.  Theories mean nothing between the white lines to every coaches dismay.  You know that deflating feeling when your team commits the penalty, momentum is killed, and a five yard penalty is assessed (this usually brings out the worst of my character, haha).  Interestingly, a good coach knows at that point it may make the most sense to accept the penalty and punt the football away to the other team.  You can’t always make up for the false start on the next play.

There are some lessons we can apply to The Impactmaker Movement from this scenario.  First of all, the amount of time a team practices snap counts is incredible.  We should be as prepared as possible to being our next “impact play.”

Secondly, there is no way that we can be perfect.  Don’t settle for silly mistakes but if you jump the gun on something that’s okay.  At least you tried and didn’t miss an opportunity.  

And finally, and most importantly we must be patient and diligent.  I find the more I work on things the more I learn and the less patient I become.  I often think what it would be like if it were the opposite.  What if the more I learned about something the more I was willing to wait for the moment to act?

The problem is in the impact space we usually don’t know that perfect moment.  In some ways, we have a bit of an excuse to false start.  There’s no exact cadence.

Being Alert

One of my favorite coaching clichés from the football field is “head on a swivel”.  I have plenty that I despise but this one can be applied to most sports.  It’s a reminder to be alert of everything going on around you.  Before football starting getting soft (don’t get me started) vicious blocks, called “crack backs”, were popular.  Defensive players chasing a ball carrier would be blindsided and some of the hits were downright violent.  See this video and maybe don’t show it to your kids (or maybe show it an explain the “glory days” of football).

We must be alert as to what is going on around us.  A good non-profit organization or impact project has a distinct awareness in its space.  The people understand deeply the problem they are solving, and the people affected by it.

As a project or organization grows, that alertness becomes harder and harder.  There are more people to help and more people helping that need to be directed.  An impactmaking leader may have to travel and has less time to spend with each person.  A calendar can yield quite the balancing act.  

One of the hardest things to do when leading a positive impact group is knowing when to start the “next play”.  Your main purpose can never be abandoned (unless the problem is completely solved and if that’s the case you deserve the highest of praises) but you may have resources to help additional people or improve another situation.  These are key moments.  

Mission Drift

You can’t let your impatience or ever thrill seeking mind distract you from the most important focus.  This is called “mission drift” and Inc. has a great article called “How to Avoid Mission Drift and Stay True to Your Purpose” fit for non-profit and for-profit organizations alike. 

This is the number one cause of false starts in the impact space and probably in the business world too.  Successful organizations are lead by high achieving people and tend to appreciate exciting new things.  

A friend of mine once described himself as a donkey.  It seems like a boring, non-productive animal but we can learn a lesson of diligence and consistency from this four-legged mammal.  Your impact project definitely needs a cheetah or two to chase after the fast new things in today’s modern world, but don’t ever forget why you started what you did.  The donkey perseveres and makes sure that the foundational tasks are done.  

Mission drift occurs as you lose concentration and are distracted by ancillary issues, intimidated by new struggles, and deafened by all the “noise”.  It’s very similar to an offensive football player that spent hours upon hours preparing for fifty five second plays on a Sunday afternoon (or one of those nights during the week that my schedule is jammed up by football appointment television).   

You’ve prepared so much to make the world a better place.  Trust your own efforts and understanding of what needs to be done before being distracted by everything else.  If a false start occurs, accept the penalty and get back to basics.  You may have to punt in the moment and come back strong on the next “possession” or opportunity.

Mission drift and false starts are a function of misplaced energy.  Coach says stay focused on what matters most.