http://mmqb.si.com/2013/08/08/
Inspired by the article above:
It's a little amazing to me how similar the preseason weeks are to sorority recruitment. You train in camp, compete against others in scrimmages and are critiqued with penalties and broadcasters on what needs improvement and which players are the right fit and not the right fit. Weeks in preseason football equate to formal recruitment. You tinker and work to find all the right fits for the roster to be the best 53 it can possibly be. In sorority America we know our 53 is metaphorical and can change every year but the aim is identical - you work at building the best possible roster to get you through the next year and create a legacy. Everyone in the process has their role to play. We don't ask punters to specialize in the tackle yet they know how to do it when necessary. Drink duty does not eliminate our need to understand rotation or conversation, at any time we can be called upon to be the next woman up - especially if that PNM breaks out for a long run towards the endzone.
A coaching staff and front office never have an easy task in whittling down that roster. Some players are a sure bet, sometimes you take a risk because of grit and determination. The same can often be said with our teams and our final processes. Our teams carefully consider a variety of factors, instead of speed, agility or perseverance we gauge fit, contribution and values. Football teams know that they operate within a business and a system of numbers - so too, do our chapters.
While Sports Illustrated will cover the next 20 weeks with a magnifying glass for each team in the NFL our campus editions of SI take the form of PR and image. What will our next 53 say about us? Will we have put the work in to make sure they understand our philosophies? Will that 53 know who we are and what we value? And will we have put enough work in during training camp to know we are learning as much as we can about them? Are we doing all we can to put the best 53 out there for the season and for the press release? That next 53 will be the face of our franchise, on and off the field. While the process pulls at our heart-strings we know that at one time we, ourselves, were undergoing the process of becoming the next 53. We made the cut. Our responsibility to our organization calls for us to consider all the game tape, the intangibles and put forth the best possible version of our next 53.
