Mack Brown: Listen

Can I drop the writer façade and share a truth with you that I wholeheartedly believe?

Mack Brown is a good, decent, and caring man.

Is he a top-notch recruiter? Absolutely. One of the best in the business.
What about X’s and O’s? The on-field results are undeniable.
Does he win? The record speaks for itself.

Those things are great (and even necessary) for a college football coach, but at the end of the day, Mack Brown shows time and again that what actually matters most are the young men in his care.

The current landscape of racial injustice in America has been an opportunity for people to show their true colors; particularly those like Mack Brown who have a weighty and public voice.

But before Coach Brown ever uses that voice, do you know what he does first? He stops to listen.

Here are just a few quotes from his press conference on Monday where he spoke on the importance of listening:

“The voice was really not about anything other than being fair to people. This is about racial injustice to black people. And that’s why we need to make sure that we listen and learn. I’ve learned so much from these guys, these players, about what they’ve put up with in their lives.”

“And even some of the players said, ‘You know, you’re going to make some people mad.’ And I said, ‘You know what, we need to make people listen. All we need to do is learn and listen. If we’re treating people more fairly because we learn and listen from those that are being treated unfairly, life’s better.’”

“What I’ve tried to really do, and I’ve done a better job of it of late, is listen. I’ll just call players and I’ll ask them, ‘What do you think? What’s going on? Tell me. Tell me what you need. Tell me how you feel.’ And when a young guy says he’s afraid to get in the car. He’s afraid to walk. He’s afraid to jog. When a parent tells you they’re afraid to let them drive. We are better than that and we need to get that fixed.”

“That’s all I’m asking. I’m asking everybody that feels differently; stop, take a deep breath, and listen, and try to learn from it, and see if you would feel comfortable if that was your son.”

As a white man, I’ve personally been working to find people to take my cues from concerning how to listen and learn and grow in my own understanding. I keep coming back to Coach Brown and the example he is setting, not just for his players and coaches, but for America on what it means to humble yourself and learn through the act of listening.

His attitude and approach are all the more impressive because Mack Brown, of all people, has certainly earned the right to talk, rather than listen. But do you know why he chooses to listen?

“Some people think it’s political. I haven’t got a political bone in my body.”

No, it’s not politics.

Succinctly, but so perfectly, Coach summed up why he chooses to listen:

“It’s what’s right. We’ve built our program on being fair and being consistent and doing what’s right.”

We listen to one another because that’s the humane thing to do.
We listen to one another to become more unified.
We listen to one another because it’s what’s right.

So in a world where many seem content with shouting over each other and being divided, perhaps we could all take a cue from Mack Brown:

Close your mouth and listen.
Close your mouth and learn.
Close your mouth and take the time to hear somebody’s story.

And when we do that; when we really take the time to care about our brothers and sisters enough to actually listen, that’s when the healing starts and the world begins to change.

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