Good article on USC coach Pete Carroll about his philosophy of "Winning Fovever":
On Sept. 4, 1994, the New York Jets traveled to Buffalo and beat the Bills 23-3.
Oddly enough, that game's significance lives on today and into eternity at USC- in a glistening Heritage Hall, in the founding philosophies of the USC football program and in the heart and mind of Coach Pete Carroll.
It was that game- that seemingly any-given-Sunday game- that eventually birthed Carroll's "Win Forever" mantra, which has now become the blood that pumps through the Trojans and has driven the program to unprecedented triumphs.
"After the game I went back into the stadium before we got on the buses and looked aruond," recalled Carroll, who was in his first year as Jets head coach that season. "On the wall, the Bills had documented their division championships year after year after year. Even though they didn't win the world championship, they won the division for years and years and just showed great consistency."
The Bills won five AFC East division titles in a six year span from 1988 to 1993, and with each division championship proudly displayed above that tunnel, Carroll saw the writing on the wall.
"I remembered thinking, that's what it means to really be successful, showing you can maintain success over a long period of time," Carroll said. "Looking back now, that's when I decided that I wanted the team I coached to Win Forever."
He says it with such gumption that you almost brush it off as another motivational tool. But it's much bigger that that. Try to rationalize it, and it's just not possible. Attempt to picture it, and nothing comes up. Sit and dwell on it, and the phrase gives you goose bumps. How can you possibly do something forever? Much less Win....Forever?
"It makes perfect sense to me," Carroll says with a shrug.
The consistency is exactly what Carroll means when he says Win Forever. "Trophies are nice, but we want to Win Forever."
Winning forever is much more than winning next Saturday's game. It's about maximizing the opportunities in front of you, Carroll says, so that each player can become the best he can be and each team can achieve it's fullest potential.
"Of course we want to win every game, but winning forever is simply realizing your potential and making yourself as good as you can be," Carroll said. "Realizing that is a tremendous accomplishment, whether it's football or in life."
"Win Forever" has already trickled down into the USC football program. Carroll mentions the phrase- with animated zeal, emphasizing "forever"- every once in a while during team meetings. The eternality part of the phrase plays out in the weight room and on the practice field every day, when players focus on the long-term benefits and consequences of each little action, habit and exercise.
That's the interesting thing about the philosophy- to accomplish the grand, you have to focus on the small. To exist in the eternal perspective, you have to live in the moment.
Each practice takes on utmost importance. Each strength and conditioning workout carries significant weight. They're all monumental, yet none more valuable than another.
And it goes to even more minute scales than that. Each repetition of each drill at practice means everything, because you can't get to forever without right now.
Win Forever has caught fire in Carroll's heart and mind so much that it's become a part of who he is. He mentions it at nearly all of this speaking engagements and drops the phrase to whoever will listen. Win Forever has become truth and reality in his life inside and outside of football.
"The best way to advance something is to live it out, in everything you do," Carroll said. "So that's what I've done.
