Mike Flynt - The Senior: My Amazing Year as a 59-Year-Old College Football Linebacker

PRAISE FOR
THE SENIOR

This is one of the best sports stories I have ever seen. An all-timer!

JIM ROME,
host of Jim Rome is Burning

Almost everyone has some regrets in life and almost everyone has experienced the death of a dream. Rare are the opportunities we get for a do over. The Senior is a great read about a man who was faced with an opportunity for a do over nearly 40 years later in life and had the courage to do it. Mike Flynts story is one of the most inspirational you will ever read. Everyone who picks up this book is going to be encouraged through the journey of one man who placed his faith in God and had the courage to face his past. It is a joy to be Mikes friend and pastor.

RICK WHITE,
Senior Pastor, The Peoples Church,
Franklin, TN

Mike worked in our strength training program many years ago and eventually fulfilled a lifelong dream to finish off his playing career on the right side of the ledger. To do so at a rather advanced age is remarkable. I think that readers will find the story to be fascinating.

TOM OSBORNE,
former Head Football Coach,
University of Nebraska,
Author of Faith in the Game

The Mike Flynt story is absolutely awesome! You will read this book in one sitting, just like I did. I loved it!

PAT WILLIAMS,
Senior Vice President,
Orlando Magic,
Author of The Pursuit

THE SENIOR

2008 by Mike Flynt

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or otherexcept for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is a registered trademark of Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Published in association with the literary agency of Mark Sweeney & Associates, Bonita Springs, Florida 34135

Thomas Nelson, Inc., titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fund-raising, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail SpecialMarkets@ThomasNelson.com.

Scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version. Public domain.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Flynt, Mike.
The senior : my amazing year as a 59-year-old college football linebacker / by Mike Flynt.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-8499-2063-9 (hardcover)
1. Flynt, Mike. 2. Football playersUnited StatesBiography. 3. Linebackers (Football)United StatesBiography. 4. Older menUnited StatesBiography. I. Title.
GV939.F59A3 2008
796.332092dc22
[B]

2008023044

Printed in the United States of America

08 09 10 11 12 QW 5 4 3 2 1

To Eileen:

My time in this world is measured before and after Eileen,
the love of my life who has always believed in me. Thank
you for encouraging me to dream and then helping to
make my dreams come true. I love you with all my heart.

To my Dad:

For all the things he taught me, right or wrong, no father
ever loved a son more than my dad loved me.

CONTENTS

When I grab a book or magazine in search of a little mental escape, I am always looking for a good story. I want to read about others who have overcome obstacles, about people who have shown that limits are something you place on yourself. I read to be inspired. Thats what drew me to the story of a fifty-nine-year- old man trying to make a college football team in South Texas. As soon as I read that story in a magazine, I wanted to know more about him and why he was taking the risk. The more I learned about Mike Flynt, the more I wanted to learn. The more of the story I knew, the more I wanted to help him tell it.

When I started my management company in 2005 with childhood friends Richard Paul, Maverick Carter, and Randy Mims, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I wanted our approach to be seen as visionary in the business world and totally different than any other management company out there. I had complete confidence in my plan, but I knew I needed to surround myself with people who shared my values, people of character who inspire and help others to be better. That is why Mike Flynts story is one that I chose to highlight as the first of many we hope to see associated with our company.

Mike never gave up his dream, even at age fifty-nine. He never allowed anyone to take away that dream, no matter how old he was or what he went through, and thats why I was so inspired by his determination. I first met Mike at one of my Cleveland Cavaliers home games in November 2007. Mike had been talking with Maverick Carter, CEO of our management company, LRMR Innovative Marketing & Branding, and had flown in to catch a game and continue those discussions in person.

I had a chance to talk to Mike after the game, and I told him I thought he had an incredible story. To return to college and finish his long-delayed senior season of football after nearly four decades was amazing to me. Here was a grandfather who was eight years older than his head coach and had two children older than any of his teammates!

Reading Mikes story reminded me a lot of my own story. I had many obstacles to overcome in my youth, and like Mike, I always believed that one day my dreams would come true. Still, there are so many people across the country who need what Mike has to offer in this book to help them win their own personal battles. I am about the same age as many of Mikes most recent college teammates, so I can relate to the impact he had in their lives. I know that in my busy life, someone might tell me something valuable and it may go in one ear and out the other. But when you tell me a great story, you have my attention. Thats what Mike does so well in his book. Hes a great story-teller, and thats how he gets his point across and makes it stick.

The Senior is not a book written for any specific age group. This is a book for everyone, both young and old. This is not a book just about football either. Football is the game that makes the story possible, but Mikes inspirational story is about so much more than football. The challenges Mike addresses in his book are helpful not only for teams but for people from all walks of life. Mikes message hits home. Its about believing in yourself and understanding how that confidence impacts everyone around you... overcoming regret and turning a negative experience into a positive... understanding that fitness and mental preparation are important for all ages, so when opportunity knocks you can open that door.

Even as a professional athlete I know that to stay at the top of my game I can never forget the fundamentals I learned along the way. Almost everyone has some degree of influence in other peoples lives. Mike tells you how to apply some basic fundamentals that allow you to maximize that influence so that you help not only others but yourself in the process.

This is not just a feel-good story. This is a story of redemption and giving back.

LEBRON JAMES

Have you ever done something you would give anything to be able to change, or at least forget? Something you rewind and replay a thousand times in your memory, and the awful ending is always the same?

It had been thirty-six years since I left Sul Ross University and my football team in Alpine, Texas. Actually, I didnt leave voluntarily; I was kicked out of school and off the team. The circumstances surrounding that August 1971 event were so personally painful that I had barely kept in touch with many of the team-mates who had, up until that moment, been as close as family.