westufit.com Blog

“The Best That Never Was”

In the early 1980’s in Philadelphia, Mississippi, there was an incredibly gifted High School running back named Marcus Dupree.  Many people had never heard of his story until ESPN’s series “30 on 30”.  It’s an incredibly sad and yet uplifting story of “The Best That Never Was”

Marcus was the top recruited HS football player in 1981. His high school coach, Joe Wood, answered more than 100 phone calls a day from colleges wanting Marcus play for them.  Even his family was heavily recruited, in order to help Marcus choose one school over another.  Many promises were being given along with a lot of cash and gifts.  After much contemplation Marcus choose Oklahoma University, much to the dismay of his family.

Upon his arrival at OU, Marcus soon realized that he was a small fish in a big pond.  He was going to have to earn the starting running back position.  Marcus frequently got into verbal confrontations with the coaching staff, especially head coach Barry Switzer.  He felt that coach Switzer was getting on his case too much. It wasn’t until later in life that he realized that the coach was only trying to get Marcus to become even better.  When he finally got his chance to play he was something special to watch.  Marcus played most of his freshman year.  His sophomore year started off rough.  After a loss to the University of Texas in which he was knocked out of the game, Marcus vanished.  Marcus left that game still feeling the effects of a concussion and not sure if he wanted to play football at OU.  There were many voices in his head including family and friends.  They convinced him not to return to OU.  That decision would haunt him the rest of his life.

Marcus eventually went on to play for the New Orleans Breakers, a team in the USFL.  A close family friend and a man he trusted helped him to negotiate the substantial contract he signed.  This close friend went on to rob Marcus blind.  Later on this lead to severe financial troubles for Marcus. Marcus troubles were just beginning.  Before a game, he had a premonition that something bad was going to happen and nearly decided to sit out.  The team needed him however and Marcus decided to play.  He broke loose a run in typical Marcus Dupree fashion and as he was just to go out of bounds he got hit and went down hard.  Marcus would not get up.  He tore his ACL.  At the time a career ending injury.  Marcus was devastated. Upon his return to the family home in Mississippi Marcus gained about 100 lbs of weight.

About five years later Marcus would finally get his chance to play in the NFL.  He worked hard to shed off the fat he gained during his time off and showed up to the LA Rams training camp in unbelievable shape.  He made the roster and played for two seasons before finally being cut from the team.  The greatest lesson from this story is that “The Best That Never Was”, never gave up!

Everywhere you turn there is an abundance of books and experts selling ‘what-to-do’ knowledge.  Intelligent and well informed people know exactly what to do.

The scarcity falls in your motivation to actually do it.  The world needs you to be willing to take a leap.  You need to walk out

onto a ledge and start.

Unfortunately, most of the time you have forgotten how to take action.

Action is easy once you have a plan.  Formulating a plan, however, is a rare and valuable skill.

WUF’s Client & “Pilot to the Stars” Tells of the FEARS & ANXIETY of a 2nd Spinal Surgery Comeback 

“This was my 2nd spinal surgery. There was so much more done in this 12 hour one versus the 9 hour one I had 10 years ago.  Two words that the little voice in my head kept screaming out to me were anxiety and fear.  Over coming these mental road blocks were my biggest challenges.”

“I was anxiousafter a 2 month fairly painful recovery that I would hurt something again, even though I was cleared to go by my trusted team of doctors.”
“I was fearful that I would never get back to where I was after 30 years of regular workouts.  A bit of self pity was involved and I ate way to much rich food to drown my sorrows.  This led me to put on a record amount of weight.”

“I packed on the pounds and topped out at 230 lbs.” 

“I set a goal to get to 205-208, which is a weight I feel my healthiest and strongest.  I was fearful I would never shed that much weight.  This would require an understanding of what I was eating and taking corrective actions with a sustainable and fun diet.“ 

“It was simply eating less.  Watching what I ate. I treated myself in small doses as well.”

“You will get there. It will not be as fast as you want, but nothing good in life comes easy.”