By Staff
Nick Johnston, Hartselle Enquirer
Commentary
I like to think my son – in the very, very, very distant future when my wife and I decide to have a child – will be much like Brett Byford.
There's no better role model, in my opinion, than Byford. It's not because he's a superior athlete or just a great kid to be around.
It's his priorities.
It's his willingness to leave everything to the one true decision maker.
So many times in the world of sports, athlete's heads are bigger than their talents. Or they know just how much talent they have and want to show the world how much better they are than anybody else. They have the mentality of "No one is bigger than me."
It's a shame kids grow up idolizing the likes of Terrell Owens and Allen Iverson. It should be no surprise when that same kid grows up and is an athlete, he acts like those buffoons.
Byford has his life in order, though he will tell you he has no control over it. He will be attending the University of Nebraska in the fall to play football.
He will tell you the decision to go to Nebraska was not his to make.
His faith in God gives him peace and also steers his life and his decision making.
He's humble, a rare characteristic of highly-recruited athletes today. But, if you ask Byford, he has not accomplished anything.
"I'm just in high school," he said. "I haven't done anything."
His next sentence puts life in perspective.
"I know I'm not anything without God," he said.
That's a role model.
He claims he's done nothing, but perhaps he's accomplished the most important thing of all – humility.
That's a role model.
He holds a 3.6 grade point average, has time for football, basketball, school work and his church.
That's a role model.
These buffoons making millions of dollars, putting themselves on pedestals and acting like they own the world makes me sick.
It's not all of them, but a lot of them.
Why can't they be humble?
Did they somehow miss that somewhere during their "bad childhood, growing up on the streets?"
Brett Byford's a role model – they're not.