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Q. How do you build a championship team?

A. You find players who aren't jealous of the other guys, who don't have individual agendas. Their whole agenda is what needs to be done for the team. They're not concerned with who gets the credit because they know if the guy next to them has a great game, they're going to win. An individual player cannot be great 16 straight games. But the year we won the Super Bowl, we told each other, "Look, all of us have to have at least six great games if we're going to win this whole thing," and that's all we concentrated on. When Sean Jones and I didn't have a good day, LeRoy Butler and Eugene Robinson had a great day, and the other way around.

The Lord can do great things through those who don't care who gets the credit. Like the tiny amount of glue that can hold two large objects together, so too can a few people bond and create great strength. Call it creative cooperation, synergy or teamwork, there is strength in numbers. Reggie White can't do it himself. Neither can Brett Favre. Neither can [the head coach]—that's why he delegates among 15 assistant coaches.

How did teamwork propel you to the championship?

When I joined the Packers, I could have come in and said, "Look, man, I'm the greatest. I want all the publicity." But I realized I'd never won a championship, and I wanted one bad enough that I didn't care who got the publicity.

I told my new teammates, "Everybody's talking about me being the savior, but I'm only here to do one part. If we're going to win, Brett Favre needs to step up as a leader. This guy can take us to a championship."

And you know what? He did. Anybody could see his arm. Not everyone saw his attitude. Brett didn't think he was better than anybody else. He worked hard—and that filtered through the team. When you realize which players are going to carry you to the top, you become a supporting cast to them.

—Reggie White, former tackle for the Green Bay Packers, is known as the "minister of defense."

Credits: Adapted from—with Steve Hubbard, God's Playbook(Nelson, 1998)

Copyright © 2000 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity. For reprint information click here.

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