Tough Love

Toughness is a word that people hear very often, but I think almost everyone overlooks it. What is toughness? What is something that can be classified as toughness? In my opinion, if you want to be a complete athlete, you need to exemplify a lot of toughness. 2 football seasons ago, Alden was playing Lackawanna at Ralph Wilson stadium for the Class B Section 6 championship. My brother, Tyler was the starting quarterback for the Bulldogs. Midway through the third quarter, he took a hit and landed awkwardly on his shoulder. He had a great amount of pain, but he battled through the game to lead his team to a championship. The following week he would be going against the number one team in the state, Hornell. Throughout the week, Tyler was doing many things to make sure his shoulder was at the best possible shape it could be with the injury. Unfortunately, it bothered him throughout the week and through the game. Most people would probably sit out and call for the trainer. Tyler didn’t do that. In fact, he didn’t even want people knowing he was hurt. Tyler did not win the game, but he never gave up, and battled through pain to try to be victorious.  After the game, Ty went to the doctor for his shoulder to examined. The doctor told him that he had a minor sprain in his AC joint. For those of you who follow college football, Sam Bradford had the same injury the previous year. Now his injury was probably a little more severe, but it was only a sprained AC joint; there were no torn muscles. Bradford sat out for half a season.  If my brother’s injury was anything like Bradford’s I think this is a perfect example of toughness. Another example of toughness took place this past fall. I went to our JV football team’s final game of the year here at Alden. They were playing Cheektowaga on a cold, rainy night. The warriors jumped out to an early 12 to 0 lead over Alden. One of Alden’s best players, Phil Zobrest looked like he had an injury that was really bothering him. Come to find out, he visited the trainer during a break, and he was told he had a separated shoulder. It was popped back in, but with much pain, he probably shouldn’t have played any more on that night. It would have been very easy for Phil to back it all in and be done on the cold, rainy night where they were losing early. Phil didn’t do that though. Instead, he decided to go play his best half of football all year, and he just flat out dominated. He was tackling kids with one arm, running the ball, and he was taking hard hits. He was clearly in harsh pain, and he was clearly the best player on the field that night. That is toughness. Complete Athletes show toughness. They love the game they play, and nothing can stop them from doing it.