Selena Robins, Author

Please welcome Chrissy Carew,  author of Insightful Player: NFL Pros Lead a Bold Movement of Hope, the founder of Insightful Player LLC and a Hall of Fame Master Certified Personal and Business Coach from Nashua, NH.

Young people today look up to professional athletes for their power, grace and ability on the field or court. Sometimes sports figures are also heralded by young people for their high-flying lifestyles, material assets and high-profile friends.

What they should not be admired for is social behavior that is unacceptable. Unfortunately the media has been inundated lately with stories of such transgressions such as the Penn State and Syracuse sex abuse scandals, arrest of Chris Cook of the Vikings for allegedly assaulting his girlfriend, Red Sox players drinking beer during games, etc.

Shouldn’t we be educating our youth on some of the positive, community-oriented and charitable things that athletes do on a regular basis?  Yes, those that do wrong should be held accountable for their horrible behavior. However, the constant bombardment of negative stories is hurting our kids.

It is important to add balance to these unfortunate stories and also report on the good deeds of players throughout the country.

I am a lifelong Boston sports fan. I love listening to Boston Sports radio and reading the sports pages but at the end of the recent baseball season I turned my off my radio and cut way back on reading sports stories on the web or in print because of the constant barrage of stories about Red Sox clubhouse indiscretions.

I believe that from the time we are very young children, everyone who holds influence over our lives, for better or worse, contributes to the core of who we are – that unique spirit within each of us made up of our ideas, perceptions, motivation and sense of faith.

This is why I feel it is imperative for the sports industry, starting with the media and including coaches, school administrators, scouts, agents, sports marketers, sponsors and most importantly, professional athletes, to recognize the impact they have on the impressionable youth in this country.

Not all of us have positive role models in our family. Many of the children today going into athletics come from broken homes.   The impressions made during this time can have positive and negative effects on that child’s future.  I realize we do not live in an idyllic world, and therefore, noting is perfect. However, our children require more positive reinforcement.

Too often, all kids see is the glorification of the materialistic and hedonistic lifestyles led by a minority of professional athletes. When an athlete’s actions lead to negative consequences, there is blanket, and often sordid, coverage of their misdeeds. What happened at Penn State was very unfortunate, but should it dominate everything that goes onto the airwaves?

Media is not alone in being guilty of this.

Major brands target the young demographic audience with edgy campaigns. Then we wonder why there is a disconnection regarding values.

We all must be cognizant of the message we’re delivering to youth.  That’s why I believe the entire sports industry has to be held accountable.

What I would recommend:

Offer young athletes personal and life coaching to better prepare them for the challenges they face off the field.

Present stories of professional or retired athletes whose actions away from the field are examples of the positive community impact that is possible with athletic success. Inspire youth with actions embodied in values and moral beliefs rather than a focus on missteps, expensive possessions and the celebrity life style.

When I hear people say these athletes are overpaid, I say, pay them as much as they want.  However, if players accept that monetary reward, they must also accept that they owe it to the kids who watch them to be a role model. Make them accountable, not only to their teammates and family, but to the children who watch them on TV, who buy their jerseys and who seek out their autographs. If they’re not ready to do that, they don’t deserve the rewards.

Contact:

Tom Cosentino, iMedia Public Relations, 609.514.2643, Email: tcosentino@innovativemediapr.com

Insightful Player™ Book is Released by Morgan James Publishing Featuring Inspirational Stories of 32 Active & Former NFL Players

Nashua, NH (October 30, 2011) – Whether you are a parent, coach or teacher looking for a tool that can inspire and motivate; a fan interested in learning how players overcame obstacles to reach the NFL; or just someone who enjoys reading poignant, inspiring stories, the new Insightful Player book, written by Chrissy Carew and published by Morgan James delivers.  The book is available at major retail outlets and on Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com.

The Insightful Player book features the motivating stories of 32 current and former NFL players, all chosen as Insightful Player™ team members because they are individuals that believed in themselves and relentlessly pursued their most far-reaching dreams, which resulted in a career in the National Football League.  Each Insightful Player team member is a person of integrity, sharing the common goal of spreading their personal message of hope for the sole purpose of lifting the spirits of all, particularly children.

The book’s author, Chrissy Carew, a Hall of Fame Master Certified personal and business coach based inNashua,NH, founded Insightful Player™ in April 2010 with a vision of providing an answer to a crucial worldwide calling for messages of hope for our children that provoke positive actions.

The Foreword is written by Emmy Award winning CBS Sports NFL studio host James Brown.

Insightful Player team members featured include: Rashied Davis (Lions), Jerricho Cotchery (Steelers), Devin McCourty (Patriots), Jason McCourty (Titans), Steve Grogan (Patriots), Roger Staubach (Cowboys), and Montell Owens (Jaguars), among others.

Each story provides a lesson in perseverance, values, courage and integrity.

A player‘s father was murdered when he was eight; he had to duck for cover in his home because bullets were flying on his street… Another player saw people shot as early as the age of five…A Hall of Fame player never had a winter coat or winter boots and didn’t always have food to eat…A former player was put in classes for the mentally disabled, his father “beat the tar” out of him, his coaches wouldn’t help him get into college because they said he had no talent….All of these players overcame these hardships to achieve a place in the NFL.

“I’m proud to bring these great stories of truly inspiring individuals to the forefront through my publishing deal with Morgan James. They were the right publisher to align with and I look forward to having these books in the hands of parents, teachers, coaches and students across the country,” said Carew.  “Each player’s story provides a lesson in perseverance, values, courage and integrity.  Insightful Player is a playbook for inspiring us all, especially our children.  Use it to teach, inspire and learn.”

The Insightful Player initiative helps to fill a huge void in the marketplace—that of spreading positive news and values to our youth. Each Insightful Player story shows solid evidence of the immense power of the human spirit. Insightful Player brings to life the ways in which players who reached the NFL did so not only on their talent, but often because of the heroic acts required of them to overcome life’s obstacles. They are the stories that our youth need to hear and learn from.

In addition to founding Insightful Player and authoring the book, Chrissy Carew was inducted on June 13, 2011, in the inaugural Hall of Fame by the International Coach Federation/ New England. The ICF is a nonprofit and is the leading global organization dedicated to advancing the coaching profession (personal and business coaching).  ICFNE is the largest ICF chapter in the world. The criteria for selection to the Hall of Fame were that the individual had to be a Master Certified Coach; contribute to the local and international ICF chapters (Carew was on the Boards of both); and make significant contributions and impact the community efforts to promote coaching to the business community.

In December of 2010, Insightful Player made available via a free e-book download, the Gift of Insights, which was the short versions of the Insightful Player stories on the website. Since December, the e-book has received over 90,000 downloads. Carew hosts a weekly Insightful Player TV show on MingleMediaTV.com every Tuesday at7 p.m. ET.

Morgan James Publishing provides entrepreneurs with the vital information, inspiration and guidance they need to be successful. A division of Morgan James, LLC, Morgan James Publishing, The Entrepreneurial Publisher, is reported as being the future of publishing.

Since its inception in 2003, Morgan James Publishing has grown from publishing six books per year to publish 163 front list titles each year in 2008. With a backlist of over 400 titles, Morgan James Publishing can support and advise entrepreneurs through any challenge their businesses face.

The Insightful Player book is part of the Sports Professor Series, the first-ever book collection devoted to the dollars-and-cents side of sports under the  direction of “The Sports Professor” Rick Horrow, CEO of Horrow Sports Ventures and host of “Sportfolio” on Bloomberg TV.

For more information on Coach Chrissy Carew and Insightful Player, please click her for more information or call 603-897-0610.