Author: Don Yaeger

The Pro Football Hall of Fame is this weekend. There have been many inspiring speeches delivered at the HOF over the years, but the greatest of all time occurred in 1993 when 12-year-old Jarrett Payton quietly stepped to the podium and, in a high-pitched voice, introduced his heroic father Walter “Sweetness” Payton. Payton (in my opinion) is the greatest football player who ever lived, and the epitome of a service-directed...

As the U.S. Women’s National Team celebrated their World Cup victory a few weeks ago, many of the athletes talked about how connected they were, how much they enjoyed and appreciated each other—and that they felt those things long before the world saw them on display. It was, they said, the secret to the team’s success. Connection is one of the most essential elements in a truly great team, no matter what the field....

Many of us have been asked to take on a new role on our professional teams in the past. Change is the nature of today’s workforce but, if we are being honest, is usually met with resistance on our part—especially if the move could be perceived as a demotion. Former Atlanta Braves pitcher John Smoltz—part of arguably one of the most dominant starting rotations in Major League Baseball history—volunteered for the ultimate...

Everyone wants success rapidly. In our culture of instant gratification, waiting simply isn’t an option for many people. Dayton Moore, general manager of the red-hot Kansas City Royals, knew that he could not transform his once failing ball club overnight…but that the key to long-term success lay in clearly communicating his vision. Recently, I sat down with Moore to discuss the release of his new book More Than a...

Tonight is the 2015 NBA Draft. A handful of young men—and maybe a few basketball teams—will see their futures change dramatically over the course of a few hours. The players who will be selected have been prodded, measured, and analyzed. Sports pundits covering the draft will likely focus on the high-flying athleticism of the best draft potentials, but may overlook a key characteristic of in-game success: tenacity....

Becoming a champion is hard. Doing it twice in a row…there are reasons it happens so infrequently. To win continuously, one of the hardest things to overcome is a sense of entitlement; a belief that what’s been accomplished should naturally happen again. In the glow of victory, some teams forget how much work it took to get there. Last week, at the What Drives Winning conference, University of Florida Coach Tim Walton...

One of the most powerful backstories in sports comes from one of Southern California’s most challenged cities. The ultimate country club sport, tennis, has been dominated for the last decades by two African-American sisters who hail from a troubled town…and they credit that difficult upbringing with their drive, focus and success. How perfect, then, that while Venus and Serena Williams have set the world of tennis...

Tonight, the NBA Finals will begin. As I look forward to watching the thrilling first game between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors, I think back to some words of wisdom from Jeff Van Gundy—former NBA head coach and current ESPN commentator—on the value of adjusting your game plan. Several weeks back, Van Gundy was commentating during a late night basketball game that had turned into a one-sided...

One of my favorite sports books/movies of all time is Moneyball, the story of the 2002 Oakland Athletics and their revolutionary use of metrics in the scouting and analyzing of players. Today, it is a given that every team in Major League Baseball has adopted that philosophy, looking for ways of evaluating talent that were not previously valued; many great businesses have also adopted this trend in the pursuit of their...