The Ravens-49ers 2013 Super Bowl was replete with lessons on the difficulties of managing success. We never mention the underlying powerful emotion of guilt when it comes to getting to the top, but coach John Harbaugh of the champion Ravens provided a vivid example.
With all his bravado and fearlessness, his cool under pressure, when all was said and done quarterback Joe Flacco and the Baltimore Ravens caught a huge wave of success phobia by their first game playoff opponent the Denver Broncos — and rode it all the way to a win in Super Bowl XLVII. I believe it was the golfer Jack Nicklaus who used to say “more tournaments are lost than are won” meaning too often a player will give the victory away in one form or another. Before the Ravens won it the Broncos — and number one seed in their conference — lost it. Heavy lies the potential victor’s crown.
Riding a phenomenal wave of success after leading Auburn to a 2010 national championship, Coach Gene Chizik started to show chinks in his armor. A shocking armed robbery by four players, writing a self-centered book, and loosening the reins of discipline all reflected Chizik’s difficulty handling sudden unexpected success beyond his wildest dreams. A key story in a Chizik speech at the beginning of the 2011 season revealed the huge burden of success which would prove too heavy for him to carry. Former Auburn Coach Pat Dye and the great Bear Bryant revealed the powerful danger associated with success in the back of our minds.
Auburn star Michael Dyer–MVP of the 2010 national championship game as a freshman running back — reveals how difficult and overwhelming the burden of early success can be. Dyer struggled through his sophomore year before completely caving into the pressure with his behavior resulting in being kicked off of two teams. He serves as a proxy for Auburn coach Gene Chizik who likewise could not handle his own early unexpected success, winning the championship in his second year as an SEC coach.
From ‘All In to All Out’
As college football prepares to begin its bowl season, a major player on the scholastic gridiron stunned its faithful fans by sabotaging its long-held tradition of success. The performance of the 2012 Auburn University football team represented an unprecedented collapse of historic proportions. No other former national champion has fallen so far so fast. Two short years after winning it all, Auburn posted the worst record ever for a former champion. The team lost nine of its 12 games.
Now Dr. Andrew G. Hodges, a prominent psychiatrist and forensic profiler, shows how a breakthrough to the mind sheds extraordinary new light …
@2023 Andrew G. Hodges
