Jeremy Tollas

[Josh Chambers @JoshChambers]

I watched every SEC Football Media Day press conference so you don’t have to.

Here’s the best answer from every head coach:

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LSU Coach Lane Kiffin on why personal growth often comes from subtracting, not constantly adding:

“If you really want to keep growing, a lot of people add things as they go versus subtracting things that are issues.”

“Once you remove something from your life, you start to realize how many other people are addicted to it or need it.”

“To be free of that has been interesting because you don’t compare.”

“Social media… makes you compare your job, the city you live in, your vacation, your kids, your clothes, your car, your significant other.”

“When you don’t see that all day, you’re free of that comparison.”

“It’s been a way of being more present.”

—

Georgia Coach Kirby Smart explains how leaders should operate when their industry is changing rapidly:

“What wins football games has not changed. Each coach has to decide within their own program what they want to major in.”

You’ve got to be able to wear multiple hats. But you’ve got to choose which hats you want to wear the best.”

“I’m not afraid to change what we need to change to be successful. I don’t have an ego that says you have to do it my way. I want to hear how you want to do it, and let’s find the best way.”

—

Oklahoma Coach Brent Venables on the player who asked for more money before he had earned a role, and how he responded:

“Why don’t you worry about playing first before we worry about incentives?”

—

Kentucky Coach Will Stein on why he believes Kentucky can overcome its history and win at a championship level:

“I think because of me, to be honest.”

“I know what it takes. I’ve seen it at the highest levels. You’ve just got to believe. You’ve just got to put the ball down and play.”

“The best determination of whether what you’re doing is working is putting the ball down and playing football.”

“There are going to be bumps in the road. I’m prepared for tough moments and tough times. I already do self-talk with myself: ‘How can I stay neutral when stuff’s bad?’”

“You’ve got to go attack. You can’t sit back and wait.That’s one thing I refuse to do at Kentucky—wait.”

—

Missouri Coach Eli Drinkwitz explains what Ahmad Hardy’s recovery taught him about the real purpose of coaching:

“There was that moment where he realized he was mortal. I’ve been very proud of the way he’s approached his recovery and his rehab. His number one responsibility is to be a father, and then after that, to continue to be a great teammate.”

“That’s exactly what coaching is all about. It’s about taking young men on a journey from 18 to maturity—and it’s a lifelong process.”

“Regardless of how much the business changes or is disrupted, it’s still about helping players achieve their dreams.”

“When Ahmad scores his first touchdown this year, I’ll be thinking about that journey from hospital bed to end zone.”

—

South Carolina Coach Shane Beamer takes complete ownership of South Carolina’s disappointing season and explains how adversity revealed the strength of the program’s culture:

“There was no ceiling on the football program at South Carolina, and nothing has changed. We fell woefully short, and that’s on me. We don’t seek comfort from how close we were.”

—

Vanderbilt Coach Clark Lea on Vanderbilt’s disastrous 2023 season and explains how it became the turning point that eventually led to a 10-win season:

“That’s called getting your ass kicked.”

“It may have been the most important thing that’s ever happened to me as a head coach and to the program.”

“The vision never left us.”

“In 15 years, when I look back on this moment, what am I learning right now—not what am I feeling right now?”

—

Tennessee Coach Josh Heupel explains how to develop an inexperienced quarterback without coaching away what makes him special:

“The players have to go learn it, earn it, and compete for it every single day.”

“Each one of them is a little bit different. They’re the artist. You’ve got to hand them the paintbrush and let them go paint it.”

—

Florida Coach John Sumrall explains the attitude he wants to establish at Florida:

“I may have some bad moments. I don’t have bad days.”

“Attitude is demeanor, drive and desire. Demeanor is your body language. Your drive and desire is the mindset that you’ve never arrived, you can always get better.”

—

Texas A&M Coach Mike Elko on how he prevents complacency after a playoff appearance:

“I show them our trophy case, and it’s empty.”

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Ole Miss Coach Pete Golding explains how he defines an elite program beyond wins and football performance:

“Elite programs aren’t designed for when they’ve got cleats on. Elite programs are designed for when they take them cleats off.”

“Are they a better dude? Are they a better husband? Are they a better father?”

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Auburn Coach Alex Golesh explains where real confidence comes from:

“Real confidence, not fake confidence, but real, authentic, genuine confidence, comes from elite-level process day in and day out.”

—

Arkansas Coach Ryan Silverfield explains why rebuilding Arkansas required examining every detail:

“The night I got there… I said, ‘We need to fix the light bulbs.’ How you do anything is how you do everything.”

“People now are starting to catch on: this is how we need to do this. We need to be better here. We need to support this more.”

—

Mississippi State Coach Jeff Lebby explains why the next step for a talented young quarterback is not always making more plays—it is learning which plays not to make:

“I don’t necessarily put a ceiling on K1. The way he goes about his business on the day-to-day to prepare himself to have success between the white lines—it’s elite.”

—

Alabama Coach Kalen DeBoer explains why reputation, returning talent and last year’s progress mean nothing until the new team proves it again:

“That’s okay, because we’ve got to go prove it. It doesn’t matter how many guys you return.”

“Until we prove it, we understand there’s going to be doubt.”

—

Texas Coach Steve Sarkisian explains how Arch Manning handled being hyped by outsiders, blamed when their predictions failed, and refused to respond publicly:

“Arch Manning wasn’t on social media or television saying, ‘I’m going to be the first pick of the draft.’ All he did was work really hard.”

“Then those same people wanted to criticize and demean him almost for letting them down because he didn’t live up to what they thought he was going to be.”

“What he got put through probably would have melted or destroyed 99% of people in his shoes.”

“All he did was stay consistent and true to who he was. He didn’t go back on social media and say, ‘I told you so.’”

“I think right now he’s a very dangerous player because he learned a lot from last season.”

[Jaynit @jaynitx]

Michael Jordan reveals his definition of ultimate retirement:

"Part of the reasons why I've toned back is I want my life to be my life. I don't want to sit here and constantly reiterate things that I've said countless number of times, and at the end of the day my time in the spotlight is dwindling and I want to be able to control what I do and what I don't want to do."

"Someone else needs to step into the limelight and either enjoy it, prosper from it, or grow and have people understand who they are. Me, I need no more admiration. I've had enough and it's been great."

"I'm still going to be a very positive force within the community, with the kids of tomorrow. But I got my own kids, I got my own wife. I'm 54 years old. I want to be able to go through a day or go through a week not worrying about what I got to do Wednesday, what I got to do Thursday."

"Sometimes I surprise myself saying look, I got nothing to do today. I got nothing to do tomorrow. I got nothing to do on Wednesday. That's to me is ultimately retirement. That's where I want to be."

"The moment that I'm living right now, I'm worried about what I have to do tomorrow. That's where my life was getting."

[Sean Cranston @themoviedadsc]

Wives anytime they see their husband relaxing:

[scoob @MostCrucified]

yeah i'm going to bed man fuck this we traded giannis for the chick from stranger things

[Matt Smethurst @MattSmethurst]

40% of fatherhood is walking around the house, turning off lights.

[Darren Rovell @darrenrovell]

Complete and utter hysteria.

[Owen Oszust @Owen_Oszust]

"The reason we were so great was because guys wanted to stay."

Former Michigan State QB Connor Cook spoke about what made MSU teams so special under Mark Dantonio. He also believes 2013 MSU could've beaten Auburn and Florida State that season. @wilxTV

https://t.co/w06far8aSe

[chriss @killjoychriss]

Ight this my new favorite World Cup video, though the hood is crazy 😂

[Jack @Jackkk]

Will Smith explains why money can't make you happy

“The first half of my life was gather, gather, gather and the second half of my life is going to be give, give, give”

“Once you've bought everything you want and there's literally nothing on Earth else that you want to buy, I just wish that was a gift that everybody could have because there's nothing that material can do to satisfy you”

“It's like drinking salt water. You'll never get enough. You're just going to make yourself more and more thirsty. You realize that no relationship, no money, no kids, there's literally nothing that can make you happy”

“You got to make happy in here. You got to take happy to the people you love. You can't try to get it from them”

[Brad @BradleyKellard]

Mark Cuban revealed the secrets that turned him from bartender to billionaire:

1. Do not follow your passion. Follow your effort. Where you actually put your time and energy is where your real talent lives. Passion is a feeling. Effort is evidence. The business you are willing to grind for is the business you should be building.

2. Read the manual. In any new industry or technology, most people are too lazy to learn the basics. The person who simply takes the time to understand how something works will always be ahead of the person who does not. That gap is your opportunity.

3. Sweat equity is the best equity. Raising money is not an achievement. It is a liability. The moment someone gives you money they own a piece of your destiny. Build with effort first and capital second.

4. Be profitable from day one. Cuban never had a losing month at Micro Solutions. Not one. Profit is not something you figure out later. It is the discipline you build from the very first transaction. Growth without profit is just a slow death.

5. Sales cures all. Every single problem in a business can be solved with more revenue. If you are struggling, you are not selling enough. Stop fixing internal problems and go get more customers.

6. Differentiation is everything. If you are describing your company using words like faster, better, or cheaper you have already lost. Those words mean nothing because your competitor is saying the exact same thing. Find the thing only you can do and make that the whole story.

7. Always ask is this the best possible way. Cuban does not just look at businesses and think about improvements. He looks at them and asks whether they can be completely dismantled and rebuilt from scratch. That question is what turned a desire to hear basketball games into a company he sold for billions.

8. Control your own destiny. The minute you become dependent on a partner, an investor, or a single customer for survival, you have handed your future to someone else. Every decision you make should protect your ability to operate independently.

9. Entrepreneurship is not about the idea. It is about doing the work everyone else refuses to do. Most people get excited about an idea, talk about it, and stop there. The ones who win are the ones who wake up the next day and actually do something about it.

10. Lie to yourself and you will fail. Cuban says entrepreneurs deceive themselves more than anyone. About whether their idea is truly different. About how hard their competition will fight back. About how much time they actually have. Brutal honesty with yourself is not optional. It is survival.

11. Time is worth more than money. Cuban turns down investments not because of the financials but because of the time they will cost him. Money can be made again. Time cannot be recovered. Every opportunity should be measured against what it costs you in hours not just dollars.

12. Success is waking up excited about the day. Not the net worth. Not the title. Not the house. Cuban defines success as opening your eyes in the morning and feeling genuinely excited about what is ahead. Everything else, the money, the fame, the Mavericks, is just a byproduct of that feeling.

[Washingtons ghost @washghost1]

Can we make Europeans coming here a yearly thing? Like for a month out of the summer they just come here and go on adventures

[Justin Turpin @JustinmTurpin]

The Scots are creating one hell of an environment

[Noa Dalzell 🏀 @NoaDalzell]

I had no idea the World Cup would be this cool culturally

[USMNT Only @usmntonly]

Scotland fans singing their national anthem in Foxborough before their first World Cup match in 28 years against Haiti will give you chills.

Beautiful to see.

[Dudes Posting Their W’s @DudespostingWs]

The Scots took over Boston bars and sang "Take Me Home, Country Roads"

[mark normand @marknorm]

Iran must be so confused by us

[Tyler Todt @tyromper]

The OLD American dream:

•Stressed out “important” office job.
•Climbing the endless corporate ladder.
•Luxury cars (only 67 more payments & you’ll own it!)
•Huge house filled with stuff. (Only 267 more payments & you'll own it!
•Always busy, stressed out, & anxious.

The NEW American dream:

•Fit & healthy.
•Content & grateful.
•Calm nervous system.
•Home full of laughter, love & peace.
•Lives below means & passive income.
•Money buys freedom of time & location.

By the time you’re 18 you’ll have seen 100,000 commercials PROGRAMMING you what happiness looks like.

Unlearn it.

Discover what it means for you & run full speed towards it & apologize to no one for it!

[Adam Ryan 🤝 @AdamRy_n]

Aldon Smith passed away this weekend. Most people are talking about his incredible ability, potential, and performance as a football player.

Even though that is all true. He was so much more than that. He was a great friend and his kindness changed my life forever.

I met Aldon our freshman year at Mizzou. He was redshirted and relatively unknown as an athlete. His giveaway was the biggest hands you'll ever see and his ability to dunk at 250lbs, but his size in many ways didn't match his personality. He was relatively quiet and in most scenarios would try to shrink into the room vs stand out in it.

Over the course of the next year, we became close. We were very different people, from different places, but we both connected on the feeling of being a bit lost in the beginnings of adulthood. That year, I never really thought about him as a football player. He was just this gentle giant who loved to play video games and talk about life.

His sophmore year he broke the single season sack record at Mizzou, became an All American, and his life changed forever.

He became a celebrity on campus. He became a household name in Missouri. He became a top NFL draft prospect.

I remember how crazy his life became, and how quickly. ESPN doing interviews. Fancy cars being "loaned" to him. And people everywhere inserting themselves into his life.

Despite the craziness, my friend was always a text away.

My junior of college, I decided to take my first stab at entrepreneurship. I wanted to launch a chapter of Camp Kesem.

Kesem is a summer camp for children whose parents have been affected by cancer. The camp would be totally free and be a chance for a kid to experience the magic of being a kid again. As a son of a breast cancer survivor the idea of being able to create this camp in Missouri meant the world to me.

The Livestrong Foundation was hosting a nation wide contest to win $10,000 as seed capital to get started. To win, you had to have the most votes.

I tried really freaking hard to win that competition. I was going up against some really influential people at huge schools. As a somewhat awkward kid in Columbia, MO I had no chance.

So I asked my friend Aldon for a favor. I asked him if he would help me out and promote the link to vote.

He did more than just posting about Kesem on Facebook, skyrocketing us into the top place in the country. He kept supporting me the next 3 years while I was working on building Kesem.

He showed up to have fun with the kids. He helped me fundraise. He helped me get Kesem to become an official organization sponsored by the NFLPA so he could publicly endorse us as as a player.

Since then Torry Holt, Larry Fitzegerald, and many others have supported Kesem. But Aldon was the first.

Kesem led me to move to Austin to work for the Livestrong Foundation. Kesem is how I met my wife. Kesem gave me the confidence to start Workweek and continue the path of building something from scratch.

But in reality, Aldon enabled all those things.

Throughout the years we had many amazing memories together. Having my wife and I vacation to his house in San Jose. Going to New Orleans for the Super Bowl and seeing his entire family make the trip. Meeting his son and watching him be a dad. The hilarious night we met Derek Jeter. Having the most intellectual conversations about life while playing Call of Duty.

I also saw him struggle. There's no doubt he was a complicated person. Truthfully, I don't know if he ever really figured out who he wanted to be. I know just because your'e 6'4, 250lbs, and get 5.5 sacks in a single NFL game doesn't necessarily mean you want to be a football player. No matter the reasons, he made many bad decisions in his life. Some of those mistakes made it hard for me to stay as close as we'd once been.

One day, not too long ago, I just decided to text him. It had been years since we really chatted. I just wanted to say thank you for all that he had done for me and that I was sorry I wasn't there for him more through his struggles. We FaceTimed after that, and it was like the old days all over again.

Aldon was more than the headlines, the mistakes. He was a generous, gentle soul, a kid at heart, someone who was endlessly curious about life... all in the body of a world class NFL player, bearing the weight of professional pressure and personal circumstances that most of us can't even imagine.

People are complex. People who make bad decisions can also do great things. A person can be hated by almost everyone and, yet, there are people in that person's life who still love them deeply.

I learned many of these lesson due to Aldon, and I'll carry them with me forever.

Rest in peace, Aldon. You won't be forgotten.

[Reads with Ravi @readswithravi]

Marcus Aurelius wrote this over 1800 years ago:

“Do not disturb yourself by imagining your whole life at once.”

[Suhail @Suhail]

My favorite @elonmusk quote that I often send friends:

Do not fear losing. “You will lose,” Musk says. “It will hurt the first fifty times. When you get used to losing, you will play each game with less emotion.” You will be more fearless, take more risks.