Odin's Thoughts

  The Irony of Athletes Supporting Socialist Policies _______________________________________________________________________ Sports provide us with a perfect parallel to economics, and there is something particularly baffling about multi-millionaires overwhelmingly supporting a socialist agenda. Success in athletics is the result of a complicated function of traits including athleticism, size, strength, speed, endurance, and most importantly work ethic. Financial success in the free market is the result of a similar equation with the physical traits replaced more with mental ability, while athleticism would be replaced with something like family well-being. Work ethic remains the constant, and the most heavily-weighted variable of each function. Over the years, many high-profile athletes have held-out because they felt they deserved more money. The specific details behind every hold-out is different, but generally hold-out athletes believe they produce more than others and shoul

  Why the College Football Playoff Must Change ___________________________________________________________________________________ For as long as we have been alive there have only been two seasons where, arguably, the best team in the country did not play for a national championship. This happened in 2005 where undefeated Auburn sat at home while Southern California carved up Oklahoma 55-19. The other instance was back in 2008 when Georgia watched Louisiana State crush Ohio State while Georgia throttled Hawaii in the Sugar Bowl. We bring these examples up to recognize that both the Bowl Championship Series and the College Football Playoff have overwhelmingly let the best teams in the country play for the title. The problem is that the ends do not justify the means, and the current selection process is a disservice to college football players around the nation. College football is the only major team sport, at any level, that does not utilize a standardized post-season system. In t

  The National Football League has a Problem ___________________________________________________________________________________ Professional football players have put themselves in a bad position. Pictured above is Drew Brees, future Hall of Fame Quarterback for the New Orleans Saints, with a name tape on his helmet reading “Jacob Blake”. Most people know the story of Jacob Blake by now. We imagine most folks hate any situation that results in death or near-death, regardless of what led to the incident. There is certainly a place for detailed reflection about the role of Police and how to hold them accountable for their actions (both good and bad). But that’s not the purpose of this article. Our purpose is to warn the players of a sport we love to be careful not to not waste their platform, because that is exactly what they are doing. According to USA Today, there have been 12 NFL players accused of either domestic or sexual violence in the past two years (excluding Odell’s erron

Welcome to the Odin Development blog- Odin's Thought! Every few weeks we will share some thoughts about the relationship between the sports world and the "real" world, and how student-athletes can apply lessons from sports to everyday situations.  In addition to this blog, we have a presence on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube, so be sure to check us out on those platforms and help us spread our leadership lessons.  If you are a leadership professional, particularly an athletic director, and you are interested in our programs, check out our website at www.odin-development.com for more information about how to get started with out Advanced Leadership Course. Thank you to everyone for the support, and we are happy to help student athletes in any way we can!