With football two -a- days approaching and the fall football season about to start, football players everywhere need to focus on football.    When you have reporters asking you questions about your current coach and NCAA possible sanctions, it can make that focus even harder.   If you have a solid corporate voice and you are aware of how it can help you in a situation such as this, you can have an easier time focusing.    This is exactly what Michigan Wolverine senior cornerback Troy Woolfolk did last week at the Big Ten meetings in Chicago.   He was quoted in The Detroit Free Press (08/08/10) as saying “I just love camp because it’s all football and there’s not outside distractions”.   

But as Woolfolk found out, there are outside distractions.  He was asked about the upcoming NCAA infractions hearing on the U of M football team taking place on Saturday where his football coach (Rodriguez) will be.  He answered, “We don’t really concern oursleves with that.  We focus on football.  We let the coaches handle that.  What can we do?…We prepare for the things we can expect.  So we study plays and don’t worry about violations”.    Woolfolk’s quote supports his corporate voice–that what is important right now is football and preparing for the season and the violations are the coaches’ issue.

Whether or not Woolfolk believes this or not doesn’t matter.  He’s a seasoned senior player for the Wolverines and he took the lead here with his corporate voice and received some positive mediatude for himself and his team–exactly what a team player is supposed to do with a corporate voice while trying to manage the media.  

So while playbooks are being read, skills are being learned and two practices a day are taking place,  it might not be a bad idea to take a short amount of time and insert some corporate voice practice as well.  In the end, that practice could prove more important than any play made on the field.