Les Steckel - One Yard Short: Turning Your Defeats Into Victories

Praise for ONE YARD SHORT

In life we would all prefer victories, but many times God uses setbacks and apparent defeats to build our character, strengthen our faith, and set us squarely on His path. In One Yard Short, 32-year coaching veteran Les Steckel takes his reader inside the world of competitive sports and shows how God used adversity to advance him into true victory.

Dr. Charles F. Stanley, Pastor of First Baptist Atlanta
and president of In Touch Ministries

Our victories and losses may not be as public as NFL and college coach Les Steckel has experienced, but what God taught him in some painful losses will encourage everyone who reads One Yard Short.

Joe Gibbs, NFL Hall of Fame,
head coach of the Washington Redskins

Football parallels a lot of what life offers us. Sometimes our forward progress is stopped short of our goals. From his many years of college and NFL coaching, Les describes sound principles to live by and confirms that lifes greatest victories often come after embarrassing defeats.

Raymond Berry, NFL Hall of Fame player and
former head coach of the New England Patriots

Upon further review, your losses may actually propel you toward your most gratifying victories. Read how game loss, job loss, and genuine brokenness for Coach Steckel ultimately enabled him to experience victory he could only have dreamed about.

Grant Teaff, Executive Director,
American Football Coaches Association

All of us have at one time or another come up One Yard Short on some project we attempted. Frustration, embarrassment, bitternessthese things are common responses to our losses. Learn from long-time NFL coach Les Steckel that your most satisfying victories in life may be an outcome of your worst and most painful defeats.

Bill McCartney, Former head football coach at the
University of Colorado, and founder of Promise Keepers

One Yard Short is a compelling, real-life story. Coach Steckels NFL experiences reflect lifes victories and defeats. In Les playbook each snap of the ball is designed for success. Each of us has much to learn from our own personal One Yard Short experiences. This book reminds us that life is a journey, and that God has a plan for our destination.

Ed T. Rush, Former director of officiating of the NBA

One Yard Short is much more than the story of one of pro footballs most memorable games. It is an amazing story of perseverance under adversity, and a testimony to how all of our defeats can be turned into true victories.

Kyle Rote, Jr., founder of
Athletic Resource Management, Inc.

Arguably the greatest play in Super Bowl history brought heart-wrenching defeat to the Tennessee Titans, and yet a new life mission for Coach Les Steckel. Man or woman, football fan or not, in One Yard Short, youll gain amazing insights into lessons learned from sports most competitive arena.

Joe White, president of Kanakuk Kamps
and founder of Kids Across America

We all prefer victories, but Coach Steckels life demonstrates that often we can learn more about ourselves and how God made us after devastating defeats. Reading One Yard Short will cause you to consider how you can turn your own disappointments into incredible opportunities.

Alicia Landry, wife of Hall of Fame coach Tom Landry,
head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, 1960-1988

In One Yard Short, my friend Les Steckel draws from his extensive background as an NFL coach to challenge and teach lessons on life and faith that will equip and encourage readers to turn their defeats into victories. This is a book of hope for those who feel they have fallen short of their goals.

Dr. Tony Evans, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship,
Dallas, Texas, and founder of The Urban Alternative

I have often said that competitive greatness is not about winning a game. Its about learning to give all we have to give. When we rise to every occasion, give our best effort and make those around us better, it ultimately does not matter if we are one basket (or one yard) short. As a player, and now as a mentor, Les Steckel truly embodies this principle. I have long supported the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and appreciated Les Steckel. Thank you, Les, for continuing to be a model for todays rising generation of young athletes.

John Wooden, Basketball Hall of Fame player and coach

On the football field you experience tremendous victories and great disappointments.

In One Yard Short, Les Steckel talks about how to handle bothby keeping your eyes on God and letting Him direct you. Whether you are an athlete or not, youll enjoy this book because it takes the lessons learned on the football field and applies them to the bigger game of life.

Tony Dungy, Head coach of the Indianapolis Colts

ONE YARD
SHORT

ONE YARD
SHORT

TURNING YOUR DEFEATS INTO VICTORIES

LES STECKEL
with ROB SUGGS

ONE YARD SHORT

2006 Les Steckel

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 trademark of Thomas Nelson, Inc.

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.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Other Scripture references are from the following sources:
The Living Bible (TLB), 1971. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illionis 60189. All rights reserved.

The Holy Bible, New International Version (NIV). 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Steckel, Les, 1946
One yard short : turning your defeats into victories / Les Steckel, with Rob Suggs.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-8499-0019-8 (Hard Cover)
1. Steckel, Les, 1946- 2. Football coaches--United States--Biography.
I. Suggs, Rob. II. Title.
GV939.S735S84 2006
796.332092--dc22
[B]

2006012960

Printed in the United States of America
07 08 09 10 11 QW 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3

To my greatest teammates
Chris, Christian, Lesley, and Luke.
I will always love you and respect you.
You have richly blessed my life.

CONTENTS

Miracle in Music City

I ts going to take a miracle for the Titans to pull this one out!

The TV color commentator had it right. This game seemed as if it was all over but the shoutingand the Buffalo Bills were doing plenty of that. They were dancing, hugging, and celebrating wildly, and why not? For them, the miracle had already come: a 41-yard field goal to give them a 1615 lead with only sixteen seconds left on the clock. All the Bills needed was one safe, well-placed kickoff, and theyd be on their way to the next round in the playoffs, perhaps ultimately the Super Bowl. We, the Tennessee Titans, would be on our way home. Done.