NAIA President and CEO Jim Carr was interviewed by NBC Action News this past Monday in response to Kansas City Chiefs head coach Todd Haley not shaking hands with the Denver Broncos head coach Josh McDaniels at the end of the game last Sunday.

So let’s talk about it.  We all know people who can talk a good game of living with integrity, having sportsmanship, being responsible, giving respect and providing good servant leadership.  But in actuality, isn’t it true that the real character of an individual is defined at their weakest moment, when things aren’t going well?  I am actually guilty of this as I am sure we all are.  As tempers begin to rise, or some would call it “passion”, and you begin to feel that you might be losing control, how will you react in that defining moment?  That is when it counts!  That is the moment that people will draw a conclusion or a different perception of who you are as a person. 

That very moment of weakness is also the same moment where young people see and model actions of others. Our character is tested every day whether it is in sports, work or family. The NAIA’s flagship program Champions of Character is not looking for perfection in sports. What we try to do is teach and prepare our future leaders how to deal with adversity or prepare for that one moment that is not going well.  

We will never reach consensus on the act of Coach Haley nor do we need to continue to talk about it.  He now has to walk through this on his own and ultimately be tested again as to how he will handle a moment of weakness in the future.

Conceived in 2000 by the NAIA, Champions of Character is designed to instill an understanding of character values in sport and provide practical tools for student-athletes, coaches and parents to use in modeling exemplary character traits. Champions of Character is a nonprofit organization with the mission to change to culture of sports and seeks to replace the current cycle of cheating, trash talking, taunting and out of control behaviors found in today’s sports culture with integrity, respect, responsibility, sportsmanship and servant leadership.

Lori Thomas, Senior Vice President for Membership and Character Initiatives
Special contributor for PlayNAIA blog