Perfect Employee

In this week's Sports Illustrated, there is an article on Jets Fullback Tony Richardson. Richardson is a 17 year veteran who people keep waiting to retire but he continues to out play the younger players (called Terminators) each season. Here is what SI says about him.

He's not especially big—barely 6'1" and a steady 238 pounds year after year—not especially fast, not especially elusive. What he offers, what he has always offered, are those things football coaches call "intangibles," though the truth is that the skills are really quite tangible. He runs all-out every time. He catches the ball well. He speaks up and says the right things at meetings, visits the teammate having a tough time, watches other players to see how he can help. Yes, help even those Terminators who come for his job. Also, perhaps more than anything else, Richardson accepts the violence of the position.


That describes the perfect employee to me. He works hard every day. He does the little things well. He speaks up at meetings, mentors a peer that is struggling and looks to see how he can help out a co-worker. The perfect employee even helps the younger staff that could possibly take their job! The perfect employee accepts the crap that goes with the job!
 
We have spent the last decade writing books and reading books about servant leadership and here we find the quality we hold such a high regard for playing fullback in the NFL. Not the CEO of HP, BP or BofA, but the Jets. J.E.T.S.Jets-Jets-Jets!
 
Can you believe this quote? Richardson says, "it just means more to me to help someone else achieve glory. There's something about it that feels right to me." That statement is almost too good to be true.
 
"I don't think I've ever been around a player," his old coach Dick Vermeil said, "who worked harder to be a better man."
 
I can't find myself pulling for the Jets, but I do have a new favorite player!