Читать книгу A Legacy Unrivaled. The Story of John Gagliardi онлайн

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Part of having high expectations is communicating those expectations to others, sometimes quite directly. Rick Bell said that the Monday afternoon film sessions could be very difficult. “John was tough on mistakes made by the players,” Rick recalled, “as the team that made the fewest mistakes would often win the game. John’s tough attitude caused players to work hard to not make mistakes.”

Rick earned John’s trust early in his career and became an All-American running back in 1982, rushing for fourteen touchdowns and nearly 1,000 yards. After wrapping up his career at Saint John’s, Rick played for the Minnesota Vikings for a season, a rarity for a Division III football player.

Part of the reason for John’s success was that he had high expectations not just for his starters and star players, but for everyone who put on a Saint John’s jersey. As a result, the second teamers worked hard so that when they finally got an opportunity to become starters, they were prepared. John periodically would be criticized in the media for “running up the score” in a game, when in reality it was just the players executing his game plan. In the first game of my senior year, I was a second-string offensive guard. We were leading our opponent 47–0, and in an effort to not embarrass the other team, John told our quarterback that he could choose from four very simple running plays. We executed them perfectly and scored another touchdown anyway, winning the game 54–0. We did so because we were trained to perform at our best whenever we entered the game and because we knew that any mistakes would be pointed out on films and could cost us playing time in future games.