Photo By Terrance Bell | Super Bowl-winning quarterback Joe Theismann speaks to an audience of advanced...... read more read more
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FORT LEE, Va. -- A National Football League champion addressed hundreds of installation military personnel at the Lee Theater, Jan. 20, offering messages of encouragement, teamwork and resilience.
Super Bowl XVII winner and former Washington Redskins’ quarterback Joe Theismann spoke to near-capacity crowds during two separate sessions for an event hosted by the 266th Quartermaster Battalion Ministry Team.
In addition to his motivational speeches, the New Jersey native toured the U.S. Army Quartermaster Museum, Joint Culinary Center of Excellence, and Aerial Delivery and Field Services Department.
Brig. Gen. Ronald Kirklin, Quartermaster General, accompanied the 66-year-old businessman and sports commentator for the bulk of the visit.
“The event was a great success,” said Chaplain (Capt.) Paul Belcher, 266th QM Bn. chaplain who invited Theismann. “I had a lot of the platoon sergeants who said the Soldiers were excited to go.”
Theismann, an accomplished football player, is perhaps more famous for an injury he suffered at the hands of Williamsburg native Lawrence Taylor during a Monday night football game in 1985. He talked at length about the caught-on-camera, snapped-in-two leg break (viewed more than 2 million times on YouTube.com) that ended his career and how he rebounded to become a successful businessman and broadcaster. Audience members seemed captivated by his story and his passionate delivery.
“He was very motivational,” said 18-year-old Airman Myasia Steward, who attended the first session with members of her 345th Training Squadron. “The way that he lost his career made me think what I would do if I got kicked out of the Air Force and how I would bounce back.”
Speaking to a mostly advanced individual training audience during the morning session, Theismann said career-long references to him as “a hero” – due to his football skills – were kindhearted but grossly inaccurate. Those in uniform who are obligated to defend the country, he said, are the true heroes.
He said, “God gave me a particular gift to throw a football. He gave me the ability to play professional football … every one of you who puts that uniform on is the true hero because some of you don’t know when you will be called to protect the rights and privileges of us here.”
Theismann recounted how a Notre Dame University public relations person changed the pronunciation of his name, which originally sounded like “Theesman,” to “Thiseman” (which rhymes with Heisman as in the Heisman Trophy) and changed his life in the process.
“Back in 1970, I became Joe Theismann; I became a different person – all because of the changing of a name,” he recalled. Theismann finished second in the Heisman voting in 1971 and related the name change to a more positive outlook and mind set.
The story offered a segue into the importance of setting goals and working to fulfill them while ignoring the naysayers and overcoming obstacles. I ignore those who say success can’t be achieved, he said, because ‘you’re too short; too tall; not strong enough; not big enough; or you’re not this or not that.
“Don’t pay attention to anybody who says you can’t be anything that you want to be,” he said. “It has to start with every one of you believing you can be everything and anything you want to be.”
Theismann, who admittedly possessed a confidence bordering on arrogance, said he left college at 5 feet, 11 inches and 172 pounds. That stature was deemed too slight to play quarterback in the NFL, and he wound up in the Canadian Football League. Theismann never, however, stop believing he could play in the big league and found his way to Washington in 1974, playing there 12 years and leading the team to two Super Bowls.
Theismann encouraged audience members to spend the next few weeks deciding what they want – professionally, financially and spiritually – for the remainder of their lives and consider the cost of achieving each at the highest levels possible.
“Please don’t decide to be mediocre,” he said, pointing out great successes will require great efforts. “Average doesn’t cut it … Why be average? Why not be the best in the sky; the best on the ground. Why not be the best where you need to be? Do you wake up every morning and say, ‘Boy, I can’t wait to be average?’”
On at least one occasion, Theismann seemed to suggest the country’s youngest generations lack the drive and ambition to achieve at high levels, believing they are entitled to privileges without earning them. He said the military counters those beliefs because it is an institution built on traditional work values and respect for authority.
“You have a chance to change the direction of your life,” he said of the opportunities the services provides. “Don’t look at someone else and say, ‘Well, look at what that person has; why can’t I have that?’ Don’t be an entitled individual. Earn it!”
During the course of the speech, Theismann talked earnestly about how he lived in excess and touted his successes. Those included NFL and franchise records and one of the league’s highest salaries – facts he said he was glad to rattle off to anyone who listened.
“I was everything you could possibly want to be,” he said of his playing days. “With each step up the ladder as a player, I kept taking steps backward as a human being.”
Theismann said his success gave him a false sense of security and he developed a persona plagued with conceit and vanity. “What I had become was a despicable, egotistical maniac,” he said, “who didn’t need anybody – so he thought – because you know what? I was a star!”
The leg injury put an end to that notion and his time as a player, and he floated back to earth in a parachute of humility as a result.
Theismann went on to renew himself with the same kind of energy he expended playing football. He now owns a Washington-area restaurant and started a career in broadcasting to include stints on Monday Night Football.
He also has a newfound faith in his fellow man that is apparent in his charity work and other activities. The homepage of his website offers this quote:
“People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”
Theismann’s life is a testament that attitude, vision and hard work are key to achievement; notoriety is not necessarily an indicator of success. More importantly, he is proof that anything can be overcome.
| Date Taken: | 01.28.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 01.28.2016 07:54 |
| Story ID: | 187223 |
| Location: | FORT LEE, VA, US |
| Web Views: | 161 |
| Downloads: | 2 |
This work, Resilient Redskin: Super Bowl champion shares successes, failures, responses to adversity, by Terrance Bell, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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