Any successful coach uses psychology in football to maximize their athlete’s performance and build football confidence by increasing mental toughness. Effectively motivating the football mind relates to more wins, and in professional sports means more money for the team.
However, the latest scandal with a bounty system being investigated at the New Orleans Saints left four players and two coaches with suspensions, and undermines the very foundations of football psychology. The alleged bounty system of the Saints fuels a controversy over what should be ethical to motivate an athlete, and what is definitely off limits.
Goal setting and incentives are effective motivators for performance, and certainly money is predominant in this category. Otherwise why are there huge signing bonuses and performance clauses in sports contracts? Athletes should be paid according to superior performance, but is this compensation as a motivator truly a sign of mental toughness?
The great coach Vince Lombardi once offered, “Mental toughness is many things and rather difficult to explain. Its qualities are sacrifice and self-denial. Also, most importantly, it is combined with a perfectly disciplined will that refuses to give in. It’s a state of mind – you could call it character in action.” The best mental preparation in football occurs when all the necessary sacrifices have been made, and no shortcut was taken prior to the game.
If mental toughness is character, then is it reasonable to think that it can be bought or maintains a price tag? When an athlete’s performance is enhanced by exterior motivators such as money, then their true mental strength is undermined. When the pressures of the game or life exceed what “carrot” is currently being dangled, then the mental strength quickly deteriorates. In the case of the bounty, these athletes knew the idea was corrupt and morally wrong to maim an opposing player. By taking the offer, they in effect undermined their integrity thereby decreasing their true mental toughness.
The truly strong athlete finds intrinsic motivators that push them to greatness. This is why you witness players unaffected by the naysayers or circumstances of an individual game. They find motivation from within, and measure their success on an individual perception of performance and not the popular vote of outsiders. They play their hardest whether their team is winning or losing, in times of great success or great tribulation. The bounty system robs a player of their inner integrity and motivation. To regain inner ownership of self motivation and ultimately increase their football confidence, a player must find ways to build their performance based on their individual goals, and not those of external motivators.
One idea that stems from psychology in football calls to formally state what criteria qualifies a performance as poor, adequate, or great. Even in the team sport of football, a player should analyze their performance based on their individual successes and failures, and not necessarily that of the teams. Another idea is to build football confidence is to adequately prepare for an opponent, and not look for shortcuts to achieve a victory. Integrity starts with knowing the athlete put in the necessary hours of preparation to deserve the win.
In fairness, the players suspended for the Saints scandal are appealing the ruling with NFL’s commissioner Roger Goodell. Jonathan Vilma, a Saint suspended for the entire 2012 season issued the following statement: “I never set out to intentionally hurt any player and never enticed any teammate to intentionally hurt another player. I also never put any money into a bounty pool or helped to create a bounty pool intended to pay out money for injuring other players. I have always conducted myself in a professional and proud manner. I intend to fight this injustice, to defend my reputation, to stand up for my team and my profession, and to send a clear signal to the commissioner that the process has failed, to the detriment of me, my teammates, the New Orleans Saints and the game.” Certainly this battle will wage for quite some time, but the athletes involved must regain their integrity and belief in their abilities regardless of the legal outcome.
