Penn State football coach James Franklin isn’t a fan of participation trophies, and his attitude has apparently rubbed off on his daughter.
The star coach recently gave a speech to PSU business students, and he couldn’t let them leave without first letting them know that participation trophies are a joke.
Franklin told the audience the following, according to Onward State:
Franklin later criticized the “participation trophy” mentality some Americans have developed in recent years during his discussion of his team’s third core value: competitiveness. He thinks some Americans have become “entitled and soft” due to the presence of participation medals, but says this hasn’t impacted his two young daughters.
He shared a story about his ten-year old daughter’s experience on a local soccer team. At the end of one of her games, she asked her coach who won the game, and the coach — armed with a box filled with trophies for every player on the team — told her that everybody was a winner.
“Bullshit,” she responded.
Franklin might coach for a rival school, and he might have beaten my beloved Wisconsin Badgers in the B1G title game two years ago, but I love this story from him. It’s straightforward, to the point and it’s the truth.
Participation trophies are for absolute clowns. Either win or go home. I believe the well-known saying is that if you’re not first then you’re last. You know how many trophies I have back at my parents place? A lot of them, and not a single one is a participation trophies. My sports teams cleaned up as a kid, and that’s not bragging. It’s simply stating a fact. We took home championships. We damn sure didn’t celebrate participation trophies. Those are for people who simply aren’t good enough to belong. Is that too tough? I have no idea and I don’t care.
The American youth are getting weak. They’re getting soft, and people seem to think that’s okay. We need more coaches like Herb Brooks in sports these days. They don’t want to try during the game? That’s fine. The whole team can just skate sprints afterwards. Sounds more than fair to me.
Good for Franklin and his daughter. We need a lot more of that attitude in America these days.