Sports serves many purposes in modern life, practical and moral instruction chief among them. Football “teaches you discipline and helps you develop a sense of leadership and courage and camaraderie with your friends and teammates,” the NFL cornerback Richard Sherman said when explaining why he would encourage his son to pursue the sport. “It shows you how to work with a group and how to depend on one another, how to trust someone to do their jobs and how to be dependable in your job. These are things you learn that are essential throughout your life.” Such lessons are usually directed at the young, but not always. Coaches and other prominent athletes are overrepresented in the ranks of motivational speakers, who extoll teamwork and sacrifice at trade association conferences and corporate retreats.
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