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2007

March 27

Ehrmann Delivers Powerful Message in Bristol

By Johnny J. Burnham, Bristol Press Staff

BRISTOL - Joe Ehrmann was once a force to be reckoned with on the professional football field as an All-Pro defensive lineman for Baltimore Colts.

A quarter of century later, Ehrmann's presence can still be felt. Only now it comes in a completely different manner. In 1985 he traded in his helmet, cleats, shoulder pads and playbook for the cloth, Bible and a podium where he can deliver a powerful message to all those who are willing to lend an open ear. He was set to tackle something much more significant than what takes place on the football field - helping others.

And that was the message the former NFL star delivered to those packed into the Bristol Eastern auditorium Monday night.

Ehrmann's inspirational speech - which left everyone glued to their seat, locked into every word that rolled off his tongue - was the culmination of the Bristol Sports Hall of Fame's inaugural Coaches Day.

Prior to the speech, all the city's coaches were honored with a special thank you, an exclusive meal and a proclamation from the city officially naming March 26 "Coaches Appreciation Day."

"We thought about it and came to the realization that there has never been a day just to say thank you to our coaches," Bristol Sports Hall of Fame President Dave Mills said. "In my opinion [coaches] are one of the most influential figures in the entire community."

In a nation, Ehrmann said, that is filled with countless lies and misconceptions when it comes to defining both masculinity and femininity to the youth of today, it's indeed coaches that hold the key that will open the doors to success, self-worth and, above all, happiness.

"There is not a more significant or more important group of people in a community than those of you who coach," he told the event's attendees. "[Everybody who has played a sport] can tell me word for word what some coach told them when they were kids. ... As coaches you have the power, the position, the platform in this community to make a difference."

But it's how one chooses to use that power that truly counts, as there is two directions any given coach could go in. The team leader can either head down a path that fills players with encouragement and potential or one solely full of diminishing words, discouragement and pure negativity. A path that embodies the theory, win at any cost.

If every coach takes strides on the journey of positivity they take with them not only the power to change the chemistry and make up of the team and the community but also, and maybe most importantly, change the life of a child.

Ehrmann knows first hand how difficult putting relationships and teamwork ahead of wins and losses can be for both players and coaches alike. For most of his life, winning both on and off the field was everything.

The former NFL Pro-Bowler admits that it took a life changing event - the unexpected death of his younger brother Billy - to realize that there is so much more to life than walking off of the football field victorious.

Life is simply much more than awards and achievements, fortune and fame.

"I was 28 years old, seven years into my NFL career, and I thought I had it all. I had achieved things beyond my wildest expectations. I had hit the long ball athletically, sexually and economically, but I had no concept about the purpose of life," he said. "You need to be able to look back on your life and because you've lived and because you've loved, be able to say that you left the world a little better place."

As the founder of a community center known as The Door - which attempts to help the youth of the tough East Baltimore neighborhoods - as well as founding the Building Men and Women for Others program with wife Paula, Ehrmann has already done his part to contribute to molding young boys and girls into loving, caring, smart and happy individuals.

Unfortunately, he can't do it all on his own.

Luckily, he said, he has coaches similar to the one's in Bristol to pick up the slack as it's through the power of teaching and coaching that will guide the nation's next generation in the right direction.

"You have to get [each player] to commit to each other and focus to achieve something that none of them could have achieved on their own. Think about it, sports are the perfect place to do that. It's the perfect place to teach masculinity. The perfect place to teach them femininity," he said. "It's all of us that wear a whistle around our necks that can use the game to develop healthy boys and girls" that will ultimately become healthy, responsible adults.

He delivers that message to the high school football team that he coaches in Baltimore on a daily basis. A message he believes every coach should live by. He said the coaches' sole job is to love the players. It's the players' job to love each other.

©The Bristol Press 2007