The NFL is an interesting look at success.
No team with the MVP has won the Super Bowl since 1999.
No team has won back-to-back Super Bowls since 2004. And no team has ever won three Super Bowls in a row, although the Packers won the 1965 NFL Championship followed by the first two Super Bowls.
In many respects, football is the ultimate team game. Even the quarterback, arguably the most important player on the team, is usually on the field less than 50% of the time counting special teams.
It takes a balanced team to win consistently. And even a balanced team and a really good team will struggle to maintain success.
Something that stands out with the winning teams is that they’re almost always ascending. You’ll see signs of it for 1-2 years and then there is a huge breakout year. They might get close again for another year or two. Then there is a fall off and then the teams that remain consistently in the mix usually start to ascend again.
Ascending In The NFL
The NFL Draft is crucial to any team’s success. Look at a current team that is ascending to the top and you’ll almost always find a few home run draft picks from the last draft or from a draft just prior.
The same is true in reverse. Look at the teams at the bottom and you’ll see a recent draft that was a complete failure.
There is also another key level in the NFL and that is the players that are in the middle of their careers. They’ve been drafted. Now they’re reaching their second contract levels. They’re usually at about the ages of 24 to 27 at this stage. For many players, this is the peak.
NFL teams that draft well or that get lucky in the draft will almost always sign their best players to second contracts. They know that players in this level are almost always still ascending in their skills and abilities.
Beyond this point is when things get tricky. You can’t beat experience. Nearly every winning team in the NFL has a small collection of players over 27 years old that are on third or even fourth contracts. But it’s not common. These players can still be great, but they’re also usually expensive and they’re usually not ascending.
Ascending In Life
The NFL teams that succeed over the long-term seem to understand the concept of ascension. They’re looking for ways to trim the roster of players that are plateauing, in favor of players that are ascending. They know that they can go on 2-3 year runs with certain players. But after that it’s time to look for other players are have the potential to ascend.
The same is true in life.
We all go through stages of life. Rapid ascension followed by some plateauing. We learn a new skill or a new job. We find that we’re good at it and sometimes the growth can be extreme. Usually earning power will grow along with the skills.
But then it plateaus and we reach a point where we have to find ways to get better at the same skill or we have to figure out a new way to ascend. To push ourselves even further. To look at those that came before us and figure out our next moves.
What is your status in your professional life right now?
Are you ascending in something or are you hitting a plateau?
If you’re not ascending, you could be setting yourself up for a big surprise in the near future…