Twenty years ago, one small decision changed the course of my life. A buddy asked if I’d do some volunteer coaching for the Manassas Tigers, a high school football team here in Memphis. “Two weeks for spring training,” he said.
I’d played football in high school and coached the sport for a living during my first two years out of college. I ran a lumber company and had four kids, but I figured I could spare two weeks for a good cause. The school was in a lower-income part of the city, and the football team was at the bottom of its league.
Two weeks turned into six and a half years. I got so inspired by those hardscrabble boys, I became head coach and helped them reach the playoffs for the first time in school history. A documentary film crew heard about the Tigers’ comeback story. The resulting movie, Undefeated, won an Academy Award for best documentary feature.
I became a celebrity overnight. I was interviewed on TV and profiled in magazines. I evenPOSTS story about how my players’ grit inspired me to do something I once thought impossible: forgive my father, who had walked out on my family when I was four years old.
