The Importance of Leaders

 By Marcus Jensen

Ray Lewis was sorely missed this last week. Who will step up to rally the troops?

In our current society, we tend to downplay or even forget what our leaders do for us. We take them for granted. With all the flaws we see in our leaders, we are rare to see the good things that they do. But if we are ever without one, we see exactly what they do, and how much they are needed.

Recently in the NFL, we have seen teams lose their leader, or have a leader emerge. Whether it is a coach or a player, they can have immediate impacts, for good or bad.

Coaching, even in the pros, is important. We all saw what happened to the New Orleans Saints at the start of this season. They were absolutely lost. They had lost Sean Payton, and had a new defensive coordinator. All this with the fact that their leader on the field, Drew Brees, was sitting out in a contract dispute. If further evidence is needed, we can look at the 49ers under Jim Harbaugh. They went from the laughing stock of the NFC to a championship contender in just one year. A similar trend, though less dramatic, is the play of the St. Louis Rams under Coach Jeff Fisher. The Rams have already won more games than last year. And let’s not forget Wade Phillips as the defensive coordinator of the Texans. The Texans had one of the worst defenses in the league a few years ago. Now they are one of the top defenses. One leader can make a difference.

The last couple of weeks have shown us just how much certain players help a team. Last week we saw the Texans get hammered by the Green Bay Packers. They had just lost their defensive leader, Brian Cushing, the week earlier on a vicious hit. The Texans looked lost on defense. Then this week they came back with a vengeance, beating the Ravens by 30 points. J.J. Watt stepped up as the leader of that defense and they got back on track.

The Ravens had similar ills this week after losing their defensive leader Ray Lewis for the season. The Ravens got manhandled by the Texans, and they looked absolutely lost on both sides of the ball. We'll have to see how they respond after this week.

The Steelers had lost their defensive machine, Troy Polomalu, and had been struggling on defense, losing some games that they shouldn’t have. The defense played well this last week.

The Packers just lost their defensive leader, Charles Woodson, for six weeks to a broken collarbone. We will see how the Packers cope with this injury and what it does to that already shaky defense.

Then there are the teams with a need for a leader. The big one is the Carolina Panthers. Their quarterback just went and got his GM fired because he was whining about the organization and even asked for a suggestion box to help out the Panthers. More than anything, Cam Newton should keep his mouth shut, and stop moping on the sidelines. Get out there and do what you can. Use defeat to bring the team closer together, not tear it apart.

To end on a good note, we are seeing a rising star and leader take over games and electrify fans. RGIII has been impressive this year, including his late game heroics last week in NY. He has provided a spark to a team that was in need of one. Even though he was beaten in the end by the 4th quarter master, Eli Manning, we can see that RGIII will be one of the top QBs in the league for some time to come.

Whatever sport you play, you need a leader. Someone to take the lead and force others around them to play better. Someone who will take blame if things go wrong, even if it doesn’t fall on them. Someone to rally the downtrodden. And if your leader gets injured, someone else needs to step up. It is an interesting scenario this coming week as we see how teams handle these losses and who will come out unscathed.