How can you measure toughness?

In the wake of the Chicago Bears loss to the Green Bay Packers on Sunday, Jay Cutler has been heavily criticized by media as well as past and present players for quitting on his team. The Bears quarterback suffered a knee injury in the first half which eventually lead to him being pulled in the third quarter of Sunday’s NFC championship game by head coach Lovie Smith.

After Cutler’s first series in the third quarter it was pretty apparent that he had a significant injury that limited his accuracy and mobility. Cutler did not look sharp prior to his injury, completing 6 passes for 80 yards. Cutler’s benching and demeanor on the sidelines lead to several players questioning Cutler’s toughness via Twitter. Maurice Jones-Drew, running back for the Jacksonville Jaguars was one of the more vocal players criticizing Cutler on Sunday. Jones-Drew tweeted “"Hey I think the Urban Meyer rule is effect right now... When the going gets tough........QUIT." He later went on to tweet “"finish the game on a hurt knee... I played the whole season on one." For those who don’t remember Jones-Drew missed the final two games this season with a knee injury as his team was fighting for a playoff birth.

I understand that most players will never get the opportunity to play in a championship game so if given the chance they would do whatever it took to stay on the field. Ronnie Lott, former safety and Hall of Famer for the San Francisco 49’ers once had part of a broken finger amputated so he could finish a game. Now some would consider this both tough and crazy. But Football requires toughness; it’s one of the most physically demanding sports on your body. Every player has to be both mentally and physically tough to make it to this level.

It’s important to remember that football is a team sport and if you’re physically unable to perform at the high level the NFL demands because of injury then you’re doing more harm than good to your team as well as yourself. Everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion but to question a person’s toughness is unjust. Every person’s threshold for pain is different; something that is bearable to one person might be extremely uncomfortable for another person. Therefore a person’s toughness is a difficult thing to measure.

The Chicago Bear’s training staff reported on Monday that Cutler has a grade two MCL sprain and would be questionable for the Super Bowl even if the Bears advanced. Although this diagnosis provides proof that Cutler did suffer a significant injury on Sunday there are still many critics who will forever question Jay Cutler’s toughness for not finishing Sunday’s game.

Rhode Island High School Football Team Sends The Wrong Message

Earlier this month St. George's, a private school in Rhode Island cancelled their football game against fellow Independent School Lawrence Academy from Massachusetts. St. George's headmaster Eric Peterson told the Boston Globe that they cancelled the game because of the students safety. "We are trying to keep our kids reasonably safe in a game that can be terribly exciting but has risks", said Peterson.

Lawrence Academy has been dominant thus far, putting up over 30 points a game on their way to a 4-0 start. They have five players that have committed to Division I schools and an offensive line that outweighs St. George's by an average of 100 pounds. Still the announcement of a forfeit came as bit of a surprise as it’s not something we typically see in high school sports.

If you go to St. George's athletic page on their website you will find articles titled "Athletics is a way of life at St. George's" and "St. George's has along athletic tradition." To me cancelling a game based on the competition's size and athletic ability seems to be a contradiction of these headlines.

In life there is always someone that is going to be bigger, stronger, smarter or faster than you. However, the bigger team does not always win. Not allowing young men to compete in athletics because they face a superior team sends the wrong message. Football is a physical sport and injuries do occur. Why would St. George’s field a football team if the school was concerned about the young men getting injured?

Once you quit one thing it becomes easier to quit on other things in life. These are young men that are in high school they are not little kids. The message that was sent to these young men is that when you encounter something in life that may be difficult it is ok to give up. What about those young men on the team that wanted to play because they respect competition? Eric Peterson’s message to them was that you’re not good enough to compete with Lawrence Academy.

Part of growing up involves being defeated at times. You learn from your mistakes after a bad loss and try to improve for the next game. Suffering a sound defeat could have been a humbling experience to the St. George’s program. The forfeit sent the wrong message to young men about facing difficult challenges in life.

March Madness and Business Sadness

March Madness, it’s every sports fans favorite time of the year and business owners’ nightmare. Employees spend hours surfing online sites, researching all 64/65 teams in hopes of picking that winning bracket. They use the company scanners and printers to fill in their brackets. In between creating TPS reports for their boss they also check sites like ESPN and CBS Sports for scores and updates. Some of these brave employees even stream live games from work (not me of course).

What does all this wasted time mean for employees? Well for starters productivity is down during this three week period. Employees make fewer calls and send less e-mails. According to the consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, it’s estimated that March Madness could cost employers as much as $1.7 billion in wasted work time over the course of the tournament. The study also found that employees spent an average of 10 minutes a day checking scores or updates from work. I find this estimate to be on the conservative side since none of my friends took part in this study.

Another problem that businesses are faced with during the tournament are busy servers and slower internet speeds. With many employees streaming live games and refreshing their browsers every 30 seconds for score updates, many systems aren’t equipped to handle the surge in activity. Slower Internet connection can be a serious problem for companies who depend on systems to log customer data or provide an online service.

On the positive side, March Madness brings a new excitement into the workplace. It also brings a fun social aspect back into the office and provides grounds for a good water cooler conversation or two. The tournament sparks office rivalries with different employee Alma maters. And usually, an unsuspected worker emerges victorious from the company pool.


March Madness is the one time of the year when most employees engage in sports gambling. According to Las Vegas, the NCAA tournament is the second largest sports betting event behind the Super Bowl. Most employees take part in multiple brackets to better their chances of cashing in at the end of the tournament. Every game has a significant meaning to person’s pool, which provides excitement as well as stress.

This March Madness we’ve already witnessed buzzer beaters and a double overtime game. We’ve seen two number 1 seeds go down and a number 14 seed knock off a number 3 seed. And even crazier, we watched an Ivy League school and a Mid-major turn most brackets upside down. If the true definition of March Madness is what you want to seen, then this tournament has not disappointed. On any given day any one of the 64/65 teams selected could win. This madness is what myself and millions of other workers look forward to every spring and what many business owners can’t wait to see end.