Too many of the stories we read about athletes today are negative. We want to hear the positive ones. We want to hear the stories of athletes who inspired you with their determination to succeed.
It’s been a tough year for sports. As JP Pelosi talked about in his recent post here at The Good Men Project, for athletes today no news would appear to be good news because all the news we seem to be hearing about these days when it comes to sports is bad. Liars, cheaters, racists, murderers. Meanwhile, the governing institutions of our most popular sports are more intent on protecting their liability than their players.
Yet, as important as these stories may be, they are not why we watch. They are not the inspiration of our interest in games that we should have left behind long ago. We are inspired by competition, by greatness, by the sight of men and women daring to be compared with the greats who came before them and who will most certainly follow.
We are equally inspired by stories of athletes overcoming obstacles to achieve success, often a success no one believed possible. This spring we excerpted the incredible story of Steven Holcomb, who overcame almost certain blindness to drive the American 4-man bobsled team to gold at the Vancouver Olympics.
From the iconic—Willis Reed playing through pain to inspire his teammates to win the 1970 NBA Championship—to the heartfelt—only last week, the University of Florida guaranteed a walk-on spot on its basketball team to a one-armed high school player from Georgia—we want to hear from you about stories of athletes overcoming obstacles, stories that reignited your passion for sports or inspired you to overcome challenges in your own life.
Stories can be about famous athletes you’ve never met and the impact their stories had on you, or about a friend or neighbor, someone whose name The Good Men Project’s readers have never heard, but whose stories are likely to inspire them as much as they inspired you.
Send your submissions to Liam Day at [email protected] by Saturday, September 21, 2013 for consideration. Submissions can be as short as 500 words, or as long as 2,000. If you want to go longer than that, we’ll read it. Please either put your submission in the body of an email or attach it as a Word or text document. New contributors should also include a brief bio.
Photo: AP