The symbiotic relationship that's given me so much.
I've said it many times before, whether in person or on my socials, that I would not be the person I am today or have achieved the things that I have without the presence of gaming in my life. What exactly does that mean though? To some, including my very own parents, that statement on its face that might seem absolutely ridiculous! If obsessively playing video games could lead all the way to a full collegiate and professional football career any Joe Schmoe NEET holed up in his mom's basement could do it right? While I'd be lying to you if there wasn't some obvious external circumstances to consider (Unfortunately playing Guilty Gear all night does not give you the ability to squat 700 pounds) and obviously all things good or otherwise need some moderation, in the realm of the mind I'd argue there was no clearer source for the development for my problem solving skills and competitive drive than video games. Games are only a mindless, empty exercise in killing time if you let it be, there is plenty of real world applicable lessons you can learn from them if you are willing to look beyond just the surface level of gameplay. Thankfully, I am definitely not alone in this line of thinking, as Packers QB Kurt Benkert would tell you. No joke, seeing this clip is what motivated me to pen this piece in the first place.
A small, entertaining bit on my personal gaming background growing up. The single earliest memory my mashed potato brain can recall is me climbing the stairs to play Mario Kart 64 at 3 years old. My older sister Nicolette would beat my ass at Super Street Fighter II so bad I'd end up crying in frustration. For my 4th birthday my parents got me a kiwi Game Boy Color with Pokemon Blue that may as well have been glued to my hands (As seen in my twitter banner at the time of the posting of this article!) that was stolen by a maid during a family vacation to Cancun and is the main reason I will never step foot again in Mexico to this day. I used to crawl through the doggie door of our neighbor's house just to play their Super Nintendo. Every time I'd get a new game I'd read every single word of the instruction manual before I played it. My mom got so tired of buying me games that I'd end up beating in the span of a weekend it made her get a membership at Blockbuster to just rent them out and save money. Me and my best friend once bought and sold the same game five times (Tales of Symphonia). My cousin Solomon introduced me to the wonders of PC gaming and Real-Time Strategy (RTS) with games like Commandos and Age of Mythology. I used to shit-post on gaming forums like GameFAQs and Smashboards (which evolved later to the *much* worse 4chan and Reddit) that I'd have to lie about my age in order to actually post there. Even for a kid, my involvement with games was certainly a bit more extensive and weird than most, although there was certainly a reason for that.
The reality for me was halfway into middle school I was basically the only one left in the house with both of my sisters off to college. I was still pretty raw as an athlete, so my skills in gaming were my one personal pride point compared to sports where I was still pretty raw , or at least I thought at the time. My parents were typically too busy with work to look after to me so I was typically left to my own devices! I was an introverted mess socially and had to have my friends drag me out (sometimes literally) in order to interact with other human beings outside of school and save me from my worst impulses. It wasn't entirely negative though of course, as I can trace back to three clear inflection points and the games that influenced them that clearly affected the trajectory my sports career looking back.
Grind it Out! (Halo/CoD)
I am going to be completely open and honest here, I am awful at first person shooters. Of all the physical gifts god blessed me with, twitch reflexes and general manual dexterity was not one of them. It was doubly embarrassing to be known as the gamer kid in your group of friends yet still blow hot ass. Whereas I could just lean on my natural talent in sports, there was no such crutch to hide behind here, and honestly that's one of the more beautiful things I find about gaming where the playing field feels considerably more even (albeit not perfectly so) than real life. The only way to get better was to just practice. Maybe I'd never reach Str8 Rippin MLG status, but enough to hold my own was enough for me. There's also the fact that there has never been and will likely never be a more savage place on planet earth than the infamous 2000s chat lobbies for these games. The thin-skinned will absolutely not survive and I can firmly place my complete desensitization of the N-word thanks to them. Nothing any joker has ever said to me on a football field can ever top degenerate gems such as"Do you suck your daddy's **** or your mom's?", or "You know you're only here because the condom broke right?". Nothing gets loud mouthed shit-dirigibles like that to shut up quicker than holding a fat L in the post game lobby, so even more motivation to improve inch by inch.
Attempt, Review, Perfect (World of Warcraft)
Even though I don't play it much anymore outside of when I get talked into buying the new expansion every couple of years only to drop it a couple weeks later, it would be pretty remiss to not put down the single game I've probably poured the most time into alongside League of Legends and Smash Bros. WoW is what actually helped me begin crack my social anxiety. Even though it was the source of one of my more embarrassing moments (One time I was so exhausted from a practice when one of our coaches from Iowa State came to visit, I just about blew him off to grind Nether Drake Rep) it was also what helped me resolve another point of weakness. Going into High School the idea of watching film in front of all my teammates seemed alien to me and deep down I'd have that bit of anxiety during practice I'd screw up and embarrass myself. This was doubly funny because I was already successfully doing this for WoW's sake when I would release new dungeon/raid content I'd habitually watch it so I fully understand what to expect and be able to beat it. It wasn't until one of my older buddies who I also played WoW with put it something like this. "The same way you'll probably wipe in a dungeon is the same way you'll probably flub a block, accept it'll happen and learn from it." Fearing something that was ultimately inevitable was just silly, so why not take what you can from it to be ready for next time? Taking that advice to heart, watching film became one of the more enjoyable parts of my practice routine, and not just for football either. I honestly might watch YouTube or Twitch clips just as much as I play the games themselves.
Playing to Win (Fighting Games) Top to Bottom: Super Street Fighter IV, Super Smash Bros Melee, BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger
It's somewhat ironic that the main genre of games that probably helped me the most as an athlete who played in a team sport is one that is typically one-on-one. Even in a team sport like football there will be moments where you will be isolated against a single opponent and expected to beat them straight up or risk failure for your entire team, and that itself is a high ask both physically and psychologically. The thing with fighting games is that there is nowhere to run or hide when it comes to accountability for your performance. Whereas in some games you can blame your faceless teammates to preserve your fragile ego, there is no such luxury in this arena and you've got to just take it on the chin. It is genuinely one of the most humbling experiences in gaming and one I wish everyone could be exposed to for the sake of self improvement.
The memories of getting my shit kicked by my sister's Chun-Li as a kid, climbing this mental mountain becoming a solid fighting game player was one of the most challenging, yet rewarding experiences I've had in gaming that took all of the things I had learned in the previous two sections and then some. The willingness to grind out the basics and muscle memory, the focus to review not only my own matches for the sake of fixing mistakes, but the matches of the best players from around the world, and last but most importantly, releasing myself from the constraints of what I perceived to be "fair" or "cheap" and using all tools at my disposal within the framework of the game to win. In other words, "Playing to Win". I had read the titular book of the same name by game designer and Fighting Game Community oldhead David Sirlin and it was absolutely transformative to my mindset as a competitor, gaming or sports otherwise. This was around the time I finally found my stride in football in 2009-2011, and I put a good amount of that on my coaches who had fair more faith in me than I did in myself as well as that book. That combination was a huge factor of drove me the most into the athlete I became and gamer I am today.
