“I am because of us.”
Toughness · Teamwork · Unselfishness
The credo, in full.
Teamwork. It’s what defines football as a sport and it is displayed in its greatest glory, in its most profound necessity, in the play of the offensive line. For it is there that individual achievement only matters if the entire unit is performing. When we execute together, great things happen. But if one player missteps, the rest of the team pays the price. That idea, along with hard work and the willingness to strive to be your best, embodies what coach Joe Moore instilled in his players.
But it’s about more than football. It’s about how we live our life, how we contribute to society, how we participate in the realization of great things. Teamwork is a bond. It’s a promise. And it’s a commitment to put the greater good above ourselves. It’s the greatest form of individual achievement because it requires total sacrifice, of focus, of effort, of ego. The road to success requires an intimate synchronization of purpose that creates an unbreakable bond between each of us. And it makes that success one of the greatest achievements on the planet.
I am because of Us.
Where it came from.
Co-written by Jack Sichterman and Aaron Taylor when the award was founded in 2015, the credo captures everything the Joe Moore Award stands for: the offensive line is the ultimate team within a team, and no man on it succeeds alone. It is the opposite of the highlight reel, the celebration of the collective over the individual.
It’s the same idea that drove Joe Moore for a lifetime of coaching, and the standard every unit on the Honor Roll is measured against.
Lived in the trenches.
The line is where games are won or lost. It takes a toughness, physical and mental, that never shows up in a box score.
No lineman wins alone. Five move as one, or they don’t move at all. The unit is the only statistic that matters.
The most thankless job on the field, done for the player who gets the glory. The line gives so the team can take.
Five words became twelve principles.
The credo is the root. The Award’s D.N.A., twelve principles covering what we honor, how we speak, and who we serve, is what it grew into.
