[MUSIC PLAYING]
[APPLAUSE]
SEAN ADAMS: I love sports.
I've loved them from the
time I was a young man.
I loved them even
though I didn't grow up
in a sports family.
I think I fell in
love with sports
because I saw it as honest.
If you can produce,
you get to play.
And it was that simple.
I come to you today
to talk to you
about maybe an
importance in sports
that we haven't
recognized before.
I've been able to do a ton
of things because of sports.
I was able to represent
my university.
I was able to become
an All-American.
I won watches.
I was in magazines.
And all of that
pales when we talk
about the importance of what
could be in sports right now.
Historically, there's
been four ways by which
we raise men in this country--
in the home, in the church, in
the military, and in sports.
Cultural changes
have changed the mix
on the importance of
how those things work.
In the home-- right now, one
third of American children,
about 15 million children, grow
up in a home with no father.
That's a lot of
young boys growing up
without a daily example
of manhood in their home.
In church-- census tells
us that less than 20%
of American citizens go
to church, attend a church
service, on a regular basis.
And if social trends
in America follow
Europe, like they
usually do, by 2025,
the number could be 12% or
13% of American citizens
attend a church service
on a regular basis.
Because of technology,
cyber advancements,
the current
administration's desire
to bring the number of
active military down
to its lowest point since
World War II, 80% of applicants
to the military get turned away.
We're not raising a lot of
men in the military either.
What we're left with is sports.
Could be the last
bastion by which we
give the characteristics
and the virtues
with which we raise men.
In sports-- where we learn the
virtue of the huddle, where you
take north and south, east and
west, conservative and liberal,
black and white, you put
them in the same huddle,
you give them the
same color Jersey,
you give them a common goal.
And you let them sweat, tear
up, and work hard together.
And special things
start to take place.
Where we learn teamwork,
community, fidelity.
We care about each other,
don't let each other down.
The old coach's term that says
teams that play for a great fan
base win a lot of games.
Teams that play for a great
coach win a lot of games.
Teams that play for each
other win championships.
It's a concept we could use
in our families right now.
What about pride, where I'm
constantly reminded that pride
is the worst of the seven sins?
And I constantly have to
remind people, unfortunately,
I got a lot of it.
But I don't think I'd get
anywhere in this world
without some pride,
without some passion,
without some accountability.
Where pride for me means
personal responsibility
in daily excellence.
That's my pride.
We talk about failure,
the virtue from failure,
sports, based in failure
sometimes, those under virtues
that allow us to succeed in
life because we've experienced
some failure in other places.
I wanted to be a
national champion.
I've been blessed enough
to be an All-American.
I've done a ton of stuff.
But I've never been an
individual national champion.
We get to my senior year.
We're at North Carolina state.
And I have a shot to
be a national champion
in a number of events.
I get second place.
I get third place.
So I'm All-American again, but
I'm not a national champion.
And that's what I wanted to be.
We get to the four
by four relay.
I'm the anchor, and
I want it on me.
I'm the kid.
I sat in front of my house
with my Walter Mitty stories
thinking I'm putting myself in
places where I can be the hero.
I counted down 3, 2,
1 and shot the basket.
I wanted to anchor that
four by four relay.
We get down to the anchor,
and I'm waiting like this.
And I'm waiting for my
guy to bring me the baton.
He gives me the baton,
I take off running.
I'm in third place by
about 12 or 13 meters.
Within the first 50 meters, I
go pass the guy in second place.
Somewhere along
the back straight,
I pull up next to the
guy in first place.
And for the life of me, I have
no idea why I don't go by him.
My coach had always told me,
if you get up next to him,
you have to go by him and
make him run your race.
If you sit next to him,
you'll end up running his.
I run tied with him
for about 200 meters
until we get to 50 meters to go.
I'm closing in.
About 40 meters to go, he
starts pulling in front of me,
and he's pulling a little
further away from me.
And finally, I'm
getting the notion
with about 10 or 15 meters to
go that I'm going to get my team
second place again.
I was miserable.
I was crushed.
At that moment, it was
one of the toughest things
I ever had to experience.
But you know what
I learned from it?
One, do what your coaches and
your teachers and your parents
tell you to do,
because they usually
know a lot more than you do.
If I'd done what I was
coached to do that day,
I win that race.
Two, failure is not permanent.
Failure is like a rain cloud,
and sometimes it rains on you.
And you got to ride it out.
And three, if you
don't internalize it
and you don't
personalize it, you'll
realize it's just
a part of life,
and you will grow and
become better for it.
All those lessons I learned
in sports to manage failure,
to be in community, to
understand the characteristics
of diversity, to understand
the interconnected relationship
between preparation and
success, all of these virtues
that we have learned in so
many other places in life
that seemingly we have to learn
in sports now, where are we
going to get them from?
How important does
sports become?
Four, Supreme Court justice
Oliver Wendell Holmes,
probably more
popularized for coining
the phrase "clear
and present danger,"
also said, "The
place for any man
completing all of his
powers is in the fight."
And I don't know if I'm
completing all of my powers.
But having the
opportunity through sports
to fight for the growth and
development of young people
when seemingly every historic
fixture around them is breaking
is a fight that I'm
honored to be in.
Thank you very much.
[APPLAUSE]
[MUSIC PLAYING]