The Locker Room Playbook

2You're Better Than That

For Everyone

Core Lessons

• Friends don't let friends make mistakes without speaking up about it.
• Leaders have a responsibility to use their power and position to lift others up, not put them down.

Chapter Summary

Coach Washington is the team's Offensive Coordinator, but more important, he is Coach Smitty's friend. When Coach Washington sees his friend, a coach and leader, using his position and power to put down a player instead of lifting him up, he knows that he has to step in and say something. Because Coach Washington is Coach Smitty's friend, he can't just sit back and do nothing. He chooses the harder right over the easier wrong and pulls his friend aside for a private talk.

Deep Dive Teaching

Coach Smitty is Coach Washington's head coach, but he is also his friend. It takes a lot of courage for a friend to call out another friend the way that Coach Washington does, especially when that friend is a leader you respect.

How friends interact with each other depends on their unique relationship. But there are some common themes among friendships that stand the test of time:

• Friends SUPPORT EACH OTHER in good times and bad. Support doesn't require you to agree with their decisions or to help them commit self-harm. Support requires you to be there and to offer the most appropriate kind of help that you can.
• Friends TELL THE TRUTH, even if it hurts. Friends don't lie to each other just to keep the peace or to make each other feel better. A friend ...