Chasing Greatness Blog

Ex-NFL Journeyman Dan Orlovsky Knows Exactly What The Combine Doesn’t Get

Don Yaeger March 4, 2024

This last week we watched the NFL Combine, the annual job fair that draws college football players to interviews wearing shorts and t-shirts and carrying gym bags rather than briefcases.…

The 49ers Showed The Power Of Championship Seasoning

Don Yaeger January 31, 2024

I watched the great NFC Championship game between the San Francisco 49ers and Detroit Lions, which San Francisco won 34-31, with complete fascination. By the end of the game, two…

Patrick Mahomes And Josh Allen Have A Rivalry To Savor

Don Yaeger January 26, 2024

Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs and Josh Allen of the Buffalo Bills are the new Tom Brady and Peyton Manning. They are two quarterbacks who are the unquestioned…

Just As College Sports Change, So Must We All Or Risk Irrelevance

Don Yaeger January 3, 2024

The beginning of a new year offers the opportunity to reflect on the topic of change and how it relates to leadership. Big-time college sports have never been more driven…

Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer: A Great Leader For Our Time And All Times

Don Yaeger December 20, 2023

More than a decade ago, I had a speaking engagement at Chevron that was part of a whole day devoted to leadership development, one in which I happily participated. One…

Even Simon Cowell Says College Football Playoffs Sends The Wrong Signal

Don Yaeger December 5, 2023

On January 1, we can all look forward to tuning in to the College Football Playoffs to watch Alabama, Michigan, Texas and Washington duke it out on the field. And…

The Vikings’ Josh Dobbs Proved To Be A Victor Of Circumstances

Don Yaeger November 6, 2023

In professional football, cadence refers to all of the verbal signals delivered by the quarterback before the start of the play. They include numbers, colors and other coded words quarterbacks…

Quarterbacks Matthew Stafford & Jared Goff Are Enjoying Greener Grass

Don Yaeger October 17, 2023

We’re taught at an early age to appreciate what we have and not waste our lives wishing for greener pastures. However, sometimes the grass – or Astroturf – really is…

The Cowboys And 49ers Show Why You Hire For Attitude And Train For Skills

Don Yaeger October 11, 2023

Sunday night’s NFL contest was billed (sorry Buffalo) as the biggest game of the weekend and one of, if not the, biggest games of the NFL season when the unbeaten…

Novak Djokovic Has Found A New Rival, Not Usurper Of His Crown

Don Yaeger August 23, 2023

The king is dead. Long live the king, right? Not so fast, tennis fans. After the brilliant and charismatic Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz defeated one of the three kings of tennis,…

Overachieving Tampa Bay Rays Show How Perfect Practice Makes Perfect

Don Yaeger August 16, 2023

Practice makes perfect, right? Not so fast. I think the more accurate version of that truism is that perfect practice makes perfect, and the Tampa Bay Rays offer living proof…

Super Bowl Champion Michael Oher Says, “The Answers Are There For You In The Mirror”

Don Yaeger August 8, 2023

It seems some stories will always maintain their place in the public consciousness; Michael Oher’s is one of them. Even though his NFL career is over and the film version…

Even-Keeled Brian Harman Won The Open Championship By Focusing On That Hole, That Shot, That Putt

Don Yaeger July 26, 2023

The chances are pretty good that unless you’re a golf fanatic you’ve never heard of the guy who just won the world’s oldest and one of its most prestigious tournaments,…

Frazzling Then Dazzling, Carlos Alcaraz Came Back Swinging At Wimbledon

Don Yaeger July 18, 2023

The great stoic philosopher and former professional pugilist Mike Tyson once observed that “everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” By the time he retired, some…

Ted Lasso Shows That Great Leadership Travels

Don Yaeger July 12, 2023

I watch more sports than the average person but I don’t tend to watch sitcoms or dramas about sports; still, when everyone began talking about Ted Lasso, I found myself…

The LSU Tigers Championship Teaches Us About The Beauty Of Baseball

Don Yaeger June 27, 2023

The LSU Tigers won a national baseball championship this weekend by beating the Florida Gators 18-4 on Monday in game three of the College World Series. And while that’s not…

Kevin Love Turned Up The Heat (Culture) With A Hug Of Gabe Vincent

Don Yaeger June 5, 2023

It was a moment most people wouldn’t have caught, but it positively screamed the two words that have come to define this year’s NBA Finals between the Miami Heat and…

Caleb Martin? Nikola Jokic? This NBA Finals Is Dedicated To The Grinders

Don Yaeger May 31, 2023

It’s NBA Finals time. The time of the year when everyone tunes in to watch their favorite stars go head-to-head in the series that matters most. The star power can…

Michael Block Won The Weekend By Asking The One Question That Mattered

Don Yaeger May 22, 2023

The deserving Brooks Koepka won the 2023 PGA Championship in Rochester, NY, but the weekend belonged to a far lesser-known competitor named Michael Block, who finished the tournament in fifteenth…

The Savannah Bananas and Owner Jesse Cole Never Cease to Amaze Me

Don Yaeger May 19, 2023

There are some people you meet and every time you are in their presence you learn something new. I was in Grayson Stadium in Savannah (GA) on Monday night for…

Discipline May Be All That’s Standing In The Way Of LA And The Title And There’s Much We Can Learn

Don Yaeger May 9, 2023

Every team and every member of a team has their ups and downs, but a leader’s responsibility is to keep his or her downs to a minimum and, more often…

As He Watched The NFL Draft Warren Moon’s Chest Swelled With Pride

Don Yaeger May 2, 2023

History was made last weekend, and one person watched it with a different perspective than most of the millions worldwide who followed the NFL Draft. That person was Warren Moon,…

Dillon Brooks Got In The Wrong Head When He Taunted LeBron James

Don Yaeger April 25, 2023

Memphis Grizzlies player Dillon Brooks wants badly to be a bad man but doesn’t realize that before you can be bad, you have to be very, very good—otherwise, you risk…

How Russell Westbrook And Chris Paul Put Points On The Board Without Scoring

Don Yaeger April 18, 2023

The Los Angeles Clippers’ Russell Westbrook and Phoenix Suns’ Chris Paul played against one another in the opening game of the NBA playoffs Sunday night. Both of these veteran point…

Chasing Greatness Blog

Weekly leadership lessons learned from the world of sports.

Ex-NFL Journeyman Dan Orlovsky Knows Exactly What The Combine Doesn’t Get

The 49ers Showed The Power Of Championship Seasoning

Patrick Mahomes And Josh Allen Have A Rivalry To Savor

Just As College Sports Change, So Must We All Or Risk Irrelevance

Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer: A Great Leader For Our Time And All Times

Even Simon Cowell Says College Football Playoffs Sends The Wrong Signal

The Vikings’ Josh Dobbs Proved To Be A Victor Of Circumstances

Quarterbacks Matthew Stafford & Jared Goff Are Enjoying Greener Grass

The Cowboys And 49ers Show Why You Hire For Attitude And Train For Skills

Novak Djokovic Has Found A New Rival, Not Usurper Of His Crown

Overachieving Tampa Bay Rays Show How Perfect Practice Makes Perfect

Super Bowl Champion Michael Oher Says, “The Answers Are There For You In The Mirror”

Even-Keeled Brian Harman Won The Open Championship By Focusing On That Hole, That Shot, That Putt

Frazzling Then Dazzling, Carlos Alcaraz Came Back Swinging At Wimbledon

Ted Lasso Shows That Great Leadership Travels

The LSU Tigers Championship Teaches Us About The Beauty Of Baseball

Kevin Love Turned Up The Heat (Culture) With A Hug Of Gabe Vincent

Caleb Martin? Nikola Jokic? This NBA Finals Is Dedicated To The Grinders

Michael Block Won The Weekend By Asking The One Question That Mattered

The Savannah Bananas and Owner Jesse Cole Never Cease to Amaze Me

Discipline May Be All That’s Standing In The Way Of LA And The Title And There’s Much We Can Learn

As He Watched The NFL Draft Warren Moon’s Chest Swelled With Pride

Dillon Brooks Got In The Wrong Head When He Taunted LeBron James

How Russell Westbrook And Chris Paul Put Points On The Board Without Scoring

Contact Don Yaeger