The Example © 2005 by Bob Miller

People are a lot like public corporations. Some look a lot better on paper than they do in real life when you start digging. For instance, take Mike Singletary (of Baylor University and Chicago Bears fame) and me as examples. I was a disappointment as a son, student, husband, father, and soldier. It was only after my sixtieth birthday that I took a step in the right direction.

Then there’s Mike Singletary, who as a small boy had a lot of hurdles to overcome. He did and moved on.

As the story goes, Coach Taff, at Baylor always had a private meeting with his new players. In this meeting he’d ask the same question that he had been asking for years. “What do you want to accomplish by playing for Baylor?”

The answers from the young men would range from, “I want to be an all-American.” to “I want to score ten touchdowns against those Texas Longhorns.” There was one answer, however, that Coach Taff said he would never forget. “I want to make a positive contribution.”

That was Mr. Singletary’s answer.

To my knowledge, he has made a positive contribution everywhere he has gone since that day in the Coach’s office. He made 662 tackles in his Baylor career. In 1978, he made an incredible 232 stops, 127 of them solo. In 1979, there were 188; and in 1980, he was in on 145 tackles. In a game against Arkansas, Singletary made 33 stops; against Alabama, he made 30; and against Ohio State, 31. He was the SWC's Defensive Player of the Year for three straight years.

In his NFL career, Singletary was selected in the second round by the Chicago Bears in the 1981 draft. In his first season, he was NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year. In his 12 years with the Chicago Bears, he become one of the all-time greats, having a Hall of Fame career starting 172 straight games and leading one of the greatest defenses of all time in 1985.

I was a little slow on the uptake, Mike, but I saw the example. Thanks, Bob Miller

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