During the funeral, Martin opened and looked at his playbook. However, he didn't need to read it to know the final lesson. And he didn't need Coach Ken to teach it to him with his words. It was a lesson that Coach Ken had already taught him by the way he lived his life. Martin knew that The Best make everyone around them Better.
Martin realized that for all the lessons he learned from Coach Ken, the most powerful lesson was Coach himself. Martin looked at Coach Ken's casket as reality began to sink in.
No one is going to live forever, and the outcome for all of us eventually leads to a funeral. "So what's the point?" he asked himself. And a small voice spoke to his heart and told him that the point is to strive to be your best and inspire others to be their best, because it's in the striving where you find greatness, not in the outcome. After all, even if you become the best in the world at what you do, it's short lived. Eventually someone will come along who is better. Being the best doesn't last. But the person you become and the impact you have on others are timeless.
Martin reasoned that in the debate of whether or not God cared about who won and lost football games or whether God cared about sports at all, he determined that God didn't care who won or lost but rather was more interested in the stories and the lessons that we would learn from them. After all, why wouldn't God use one of the biggest stages in the world to teach us the ultimate life lessons? It was the ultimate reality show. But unlike reality shows, God was less interested in outcomes and more interested in the character we develop along the way.
Martin decided that if he didn't become the best running back to ever play the game, that would be okay. What mattered most was that he strived to be the best he could be every day of his life, regardless of the outcome—and that he inspired excellence in others. It was a different standard of greatness than what the world thought, and that was fine with him.
He smiled and looked up and knew Coach Ken was looking down on him. "You knew I would eventually get it, didn't you," he said, looking up to the heavens.
Yes, Coach Ken knew things. He knew that greatness was a life mission and that being the best really wasn't about being better than anyone else but about striving to be the best you could be and bringing out the best in others. Martin closed his eyes and said a prayer, and in that prayer the small voice spoke to him again and said, It was time for a fishing trip. He didn't know what it meant at the time, but months later, as he reflected on his time with Coach Ken, it would become very clear.