Read in Browser September 1, 2026 No Days Off: Lesson #2 from a Lifetime of Leadership I make an effort to ensure that this space is inspirational, educational, but also realistic. In last week’s newsletter, I cut a short sentence just before publication because, while it was inspirational, it wasn’t realistic. The sentence was, “Everyone can be a leader.” I want this to be true. But more than 30 years of being on teams has taught me otherwise. Leaders don’t take days off. Not literally, of...
12 days ago • 8 min read
Read in Browser August 25, 2026 No Excuses: Lesson #1 from a Lifetime of Leadership Leadership is one of my favorite topics. I learned a lot about it playing organized football from ages 14 to 45. It’s a complicated subject, essential to success. It requires integrity, humility, self-awareness, selflessness, trust and accountability. But one thing we don’t talk enough about is what leadership actually looks like in practice. What does a good leader do? What do they not do? And why? Over the...
19 days ago • 8 min read
Read in Browser August 18, 2026 Proving Season is Here As I got home the other day, from a few weeks of decompressing and making some life-long memories with my kids, I looked at my calendar and realized it was already the middle of August. This summer really flew by. Most people think about August as the end of summer and many of them get disappointed by that. I see it a little differently. August has always been exciting for me, because it signals the approach of fall, football, and what I...
26 days ago • 10 min read
Read in Browser July 28, 2026 Everyone Needs to Find Time to Decompress If you subscribe to this newsletter, you may have noticed that it’s been more than a month since the last time we’ve talked. After my Georgetown commencement speech in May, then my son Jack’s high school graduation and a handful of commitments right after that, I found myself in a fairly familiar spot: needing to take a beat and decompress for a bit. Interestingly, I’ve found that a lot of people have it wrong about...
about 2 months ago • 6 min read
Read in Browser June 2, 2026 Make the Most of the Opportunities You Get I recently saw a great video of a really sweet mom talking to her son at the end of his baseball game. He was upset because he got into the game late, but he didn’t get an at-bat, and he really wanted a chance to hit. Still, in the short time he was on the field, he made a great catch. He’d contributed to the team in just the way his coaches had asked of him. And what was so heart-warming was the fact that his mom...
3 months ago • 7 min read
Read in Browser May 19, 2026 My Commencement Speech at Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business Four months ago, I was asked by a good friend to give the commencement speech at the graduation ceremony for the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University. I’d never given a commencement speech before, so I jumped at the opportunity to impart some hard-won wisdom on our next generation of business leaders at one of the country’s great universities. Here’s a lightly edited version of...
4 months ago • 10 min read
Read in Browser May 13, 2026 “NO” is NOT the end of the process With the draft in the rearview mirror, the prep work for my third year in the booth for FOX is about to kick into full gear. Part of that work is looking at rosters and schedules to refamiliarize myself with teams that maybe have a new look or new players at important skill positions. But another part of the work is looking at myself, reviewing last year’s tape, and figuring out how I can continue to improve. It got me thinking...
4 months ago • 6 min read
Read in Browser May 5, 2026 Advice for the 2026 NFL Draft Class With the completion of the NFL Draft in Pittsburgh a couple weeks ago, there are 257 new members of the fraternity of NFL players. Many of them are going to feel like they’ve just “made it.” They’ve arrived. All their hard work has finally paid off. While they should be very proud of what they’ve accomplished, they also need to understand that the work has just begun. They’re each joining a new team that has very well-defined...
4 months ago • 9 min read
Read in Browser April 21, 2026 Every week, I sit down to reflect on the events of the week before, extract their lessons, and gameplan how to apply those lessons toward greatness and growth. It’s a system that has always worked for me, it can work for you too. Welcome to The 199! Sign up here if this email was forwarded to you. Surround Yourself with Force Multipliers Sixty-five years ago, John F. Kennedy uttered the famous line: “ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do...
5 months ago • 9 min read