Joe Ehrmann played 13 years of professional football, the first eight with the Baltimore Colts and the final three in the United States Football League. He wrote one book about how sports can transform lives and was the subject of another. He coached and was active in the ministry and in numerous social and charitable…
Recent News
Fatherhood: Joe Ehrmann on Sports Culture and the Myths of Masculinity
One of the ways many fathers connect with their children is through sports. Looking ahead to Father’s Day, Joe Ehrmann spoke to WYPR Public Radio about what it means to be a dad and about combating society’s harmful messages about masculinity. Listen to the interview here >>
‘ManKINDness’ redefines masculinity
We start ‘em young, carpooling all over North Texas to play hours and hours of sports. Coach Joe Ehrmann, an NFL advisor and former player, says we aren’t winning. “The longer students play, the higher levels they achieve, the more morally and ethically callous they become. There is something leukemic in the system with moral…
Why Do We Coach The Way We Do?
Have you ever given any thought to where your coaching philosophy came from? Why do you coach the way you do? Joe Ehrmann, the author of InSideOut Coaching states, “When I started coaching I hadn’t thought through the need to clarify why I was coaching or how I was coaching. I just coached the way…
Sometimes We Win, Sometimes We Lose
At the beginning of each sports season, teams identify their goals for the upcoming year. These goals keep them focused, working hard and on a quest to win conference titles, and ultimately state championships. Goals help prepare our students to win games…but what happens when they don’t? With the score tied, the goalie readies himself…
The Wright Way to Play
You may not have heard the name Lefty Wright. Yes, you heard me right—Lefty Wright. I met Lefty in 1999 when I was the Assistant Athletic Administrator at Hopkins High School and was assigned to manage the Section 6AA Track and Field Meet—a daunting task for someone who had never previously organized a meet. Lefty…
Teaching Student Athletes: Why A Sport Is More Than A Sport
Student athletes in the Minnesota State High School League Valley Conference are taking part in a different kind of practice, learning how to apply the skills from their sports to school and beyond their athletic career. Often the focus in high school sports is the score at the end, but it can be about a…
Daring Greatly by Embracing Failure
“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs…
Spring Update from Joe Ehrmann
Spring has sprung. We hope you are enjoying the transition to the planting seasons. We have been incredibly busy this spring preparing the soil, nurturing new perennials and preparing for new InSideOut seeds yet to be planted. The InSideOut Initiative and the NFL Foundation are making plans with the Cleveland Browns and Cincinnati Bengals to return…
Q&A: Rhonda Blanford-Green talks becoming CHSAA commissioner, plans for the future
Rhonda Blanford-Green is ready for the challenges in front of her. But don’t expect, as she says, a “change agent.” On March 15, CHSAA’s Board of Directors hired Blanford-Green to be the Association’s next commissioner. She will succeed Paul Angelico, a mentor and close friend, to become the ninth CHSAA commissioner. Blanford-Green worked at CHSAA…