Potentially speaking they are who we thought they were! And now they're on the hook!

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Potential is the worst word in the English language. It is defined as the existence of possibility or capable of development into actuality. I first learned that having potential was a bad thing while sitting in Jim Lambright’s office at the University of Washington. He was the defensive coordinator at the time and had been at U.W. for over twenty years either as a coach or player. He bled purple. We nicknamed him “Tough Ass Jim” and he had a gaze that could melt steel.

I was a portly freshman at the time and I had no idea what it meant to work hard. Football was easy. I had played most of my life. Between the white lines was where I excelled. Outside the lines, meaning the track is where I struggled mightily. I was not the best conditioned athlete back then. I had trouble with mental toughness. My coaches named my struggles with conditioning “the demons”. I would talk myself out of making the mile test we had to run to begin camp. Six minutes and thirty seconds was the maximum time allotted to make it around the track four times. It was tough but not impossible. Several players successfully completed the test. Players that weren’t as good as I was. I thought my ability on the field would overshadow my conditioning shortcomings. I was wrong. I was third string and buried on the depth chart. In practice I would dominate some of our starting offensive lineman but I would remain regulated to the bottom of the depth chart.

Once camp ended we began preparations for our first game against San Jose State. I assumed that things would change and surely the coaches would value winning above some silly conditioning drill. I was on of the best defensive lineman on the team and everyone knew it. I just knew I would play on Saturday. I was wrong again. The week of practice flew by and I was still on the non traveling team. That Thursday I blew up on the field. I completely snapped. I became a distraction. I got hauled into Tough Ass Jim’s office in full uniform. He locked that gaze on me and I tried to remain vigilant and defiant but he broke me in a matter of minutes. I told him all I wanted to do was play football. I asked him if he watched practice and if he had noticed how well I was playing. He told me I had unlimited potential! I smiled because I thought he was paying me a complement. He went on to say that potential is the worst word in the English language. I stopped smiling. He told me I should be playing on Saturday but I wasn’t going to. He said I was hurting the team because I couldn’t control my demons. I learned that day that playing football was more than about playing football. I learned that earning your place on the team was more than about athletic ability. I watched from the sidelines that Saturday fully dressed in our home uniform. I watched other guys go out on the field and demonstrate their talents to the roar of our home crowd. I watched. I told myself this will never happen again.

The rest is history!

I share this story because as I sit here on Wednesday morning, two days before the Rams take on the Jets in preseason game number one I’m thinking of three veteran players with tons of potential who are running out of time. This isn’t college football where your next four years is virtually guaranteed. This is the NFL and your time in it is finite. In the NFL your replacement walks through the door every single year. It’s up to you to hold them off if you can live up to your potential.

So, to 4^th year T.E. Joe Klopfenstein, 3^rd  year RB Antonio Pittman, 3^rd year LB Quentin Culberson, 2^nd year QB Brock Berlin, and I’ll even throw 3^rd year DB Jonathan Wade and 4^th year Tye Hill into the mix, I say it’s time to start earning your way onto the team. I believe they are all extremely talented guys that can help this team become contenders for the 2009 NFC West title. They have shown flashes of brilliance to tease a coaching staff and the fan base but now they must turn a flash into a blaze. It has to start this Friday versus the Jets.