Michael K. Thompson

Mike Tomlin says leadership is lonely because assistants make suggestions, but the final decision and the responsibility always belongs to you “I just think more than anything, and this was told to me early on, and it’s a real thing, assistants make suggestions and head coaches make decisions. And you have to be comfortable with that.” “Certainly, you’ve got to take in information, and when you have experienced assistants like I did, that information is oftentimes very good. But you’ve got to be really comfortable with the fact that the responsibility is yours. The decisions are yours.” “And there’s a certain loneliness to leadership, and that’s okay. I discovered that, and really I discovered that I was okay with that. There is a certain loneliness with leadership, but it comes with the territory.”

Mark Brunell says the older he gets the less the championships and records matter, and the more he asks himself one question: Was the world better because I was here? “The older you get in life, you’re able to accomplish a lot of things. I was able to accomplish a lot on the football field, and I’m very proud of that — the relationships that I have made through this sport, the places we’ve lived, a Super Bowl championship, a national championship, a Rose Bowl championship, all these things. They’re great and they’re wonderful.” “But really, when it’s all said and done, you want to know that your life made an impact, because all that other stuff fades. It does. It’s wonderful, and I’m not taking away from it because I’m grateful for all of it. Such blessings. But as you look back, you want your life to have meant something.” “You know it has with your children. You know it has with your wife and your close friends and your family, your brothers and your parents. But then out of the blue, you hear that your life, based on a 20-minute conversation, your testimony made an impact on somebody and you didn’t even know it. And it was lasting, and it was impactful, and it was life-changing.” “You get surprised because just because you said a couple sentences that changed somebody’s life — it’s of far greater worth than anything I’ve ever done on the field. It’s lasting. It’s eternal. It means a ton.” “That’s the cool stuff. That’s the stuff that has meaning. And really, honestly, the older you get, that’s like, man, you just want to know that when you leave this place, whenever that is, did I make an impact? Is this world a better place because I was here?”