The Forgotten Ones

“Coaches who can outline plays on a black board are a dime a dozen. The ones who win get inside their player and motivate.”

I woke up this morning to see the news that one of my favorite football players growing up had passed away.  I am pretty sure a few of my friends like Timm, John, Hubie, Ron and Tom feel the same way as I know they loved watching this guy when we were younger.  (Click Here) to read about the death of former New England Patriot fullback, Mosi Tatupu, who was living in New England coaching high school and most recently at Curry College.

As I wrote above, Tatupu played fullback for his entire NFL career (and also played on special teams).  For those not familiar with football, the position of fullback rarely gets the glory.  They are not the flashy running back or wide receiver who makes the spinning runs or acrobatic catches.  They are also not the quarterback who always gets publicity or at the youth level, is usually your best athlete.  But the fullback is your hard-nosed bruiser that throws his body around the field to not only make these other players look good but also protect them from getting “lit up”.  Usually, they do their job with little fanfare and even littler recognition from most who watch but certainly not their coaches who if you know the game, appreciate their efforts more than can imagine.

The paragraph below jumped out at me from the above story as Tatupu described how the fans, known as “Mosi’s Mooses” made him feel: 

"They are great fans, but just to have your own section is an honor," Tatupu said in a 2004 interview with the Globe. "It inspired me to play harder because they were cheering for me and backing me up."

It inspired me to play harder.  Truer words were never spoken whether you are a professional athlete, Olympian or kid just starting out as fans (think parents and see where I am going with this) were cheering for him and backing him up.  Baseball season is right around the corner and then football will be here before we know it.  Let’s remember Mosi Tatupu any time we step on a field and what it was about his effort and attitude that made him a memorable player.  In addition, let’s remember what made him work so hard and selflessly to make his teammates successful despite getting little attention for his actions.

I did not follow Mosi much when he was coaching in high school and college but somehow I feel like our opening quote from Vince Lombardi applied to him.