Miles McPherson - The Third Option: Hope for a Racially Divided Nation

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This book is dedicated to my parents, Rudolf and Margaret McPherson, who taught me how to love unconditionally, in spite of the pain that racism inflicted on their lives and the lives of their parents.

Howard Books

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Copyright 2018 by Miles McPherson

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information, address Howard Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

First Howard Books hardcover edition September 2018

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Interior design by Davina Mock-Maniscalco

Jacket design by Gore Studio

Jacket photograph by Jeff Youngren

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN 978-1-5011-7219-9

ISBN 978-1-5011-7221-2 (ebook)

O ne of the unavoidable characteristics of the NFL is uncertainty. You never know who will be on your team from year to year. Even after the final roster is set, players get hurt, traded, or released, so you often end the season with many different players than you began with. Given that uncertainty, there are two keys to the success Ive experienced over the course of my career.

#1: I believe there is an element of greatness inside every person

Believe me when I tell you that Ive played with guys from every possible walk of life. Countless cultural and experiential differences exist between us, but there is one thing we all have in common: an invisible source of greatness buried deep inside. This endless well of untapped passion and drive to accomplish more than we ever thought possible, especially in the most difficult of times, is also the stuff that glues us together and makes us closer than brothers. As one of their leaders, my responsibility is to draw out that greatness by speaking life into it, and help my teammates realize there is more in them than they even realize, to do whatever I can to bring out the very best in my teammates.

#2: Trust the process

The better we prepare together, the more we win together.

The normal NFL practice on the field is about two hours long, but the time we spend in meetings preparing is many times that. We watch recorded film to study the tendencies and habits of our opponents and our teammates before and after practice each day. In addition, there are countless hours of extra off-the-field mental prep. When I first entered the league, I did much of my extra off-the-field prep alone. But I began to notice that the more extra off-the-field preparation I did with my teammates, the more unified we became. This prep time is as much to learn about ourselves as it is to learn about our opponents. It is arduous and tedious at times, but critical to our success as a team.

Healing the racial divide will not be easy, but what great accomplishment is?

If there is one thing our country needs right now, it is a message that instills a belief in every individual that there is an infinite amount of unseen and untapped greatness in every person we meet. The Third Option is that message.

We also need practical steps to follow in our efforts to grow in our understanding of one another. We must move past talking about our differences and begin living out our similarities The Third Option is the book that teaches us how to do that. This is not a book for those people but for we the people.

There are countless amazing athletes in the NFL, and Ive learned that the ones who win arent always the most talented. Rather, theyre the ones who, along with their teammates, never take their eyes off of their goals, and put in the extra hard work and commitment, no matter what they feel in the moment.

Uniting our country will require commitment, sacrifice, and humility, but so does anything great. Anything less is below the value and standard of greatness that deep down we all possess.

Dont just read this book, live this book .

Drew Brees

N* or White Boy?

D id they just call me the N-word? School was out, and I rode my bike as fast as I could through the white neighborhood that stood between me and the safety of home.

My heart pounded as I approached an intersection and faced a red light. Please turn green, please turn green, I repeated in my head. Just in the nick of time, it did. Thank you, God! I crossed the street that served as the gateway into my neighborhood, and zoomed down the hill. I was ten blocks from home.

But I couldnt slow down yet. In fact, entering my Black neighborhood only meant that Id exited one potential danger zone and entered another.

Hey, White boy! someone called. These words shot through my body like adrenaline, making me feel fearful and anxious all over again. I flew through the streets I knew so well, trying to outpace the name-calling, threats, and insults. I didnt slow down until I was two blocks from my house.

I grew up in a predominantly Black neighborhood called Lake-view, in Long Island, New York. But from first through eighth grade, I went to school in an all-White neighborhood called Malverne.

At the time, according to my uncle, the one and only black family who moved to Malverne was welcomed warmlywith a burning cross on their front lawn. So it is easy to understand why I never felt comfortable there.

Ocean Avenue ran between Lakeview and Malverne. Each time I pedaled across Ocean Avenue, I experienced anxiety. On this particular day, I had a legitimate reason to: some White kids from Malverne were chasing me out of their neighborhood. I was pedaling as fast as I could to outrun their threats of violence.

So imagine my devastation whenjust as I entered the apparent safe haven of my own neighborhoodI heard the words Hey, White boy! As a multiracial kid, I felt like a ping-pong ball bouncing between two worlds, never feeling like I completely belonged to either.