Ever since 2009, I have taken a huge interest in Alabama football because I had the privilege of editing Dr. Kevin Elko’s book Touchdown during my freshman year at the University of Rhode Island in 2008-09. I had this cool privilege because my dad published the book in 2010 and, with athletes and coaches being the target market, I was the perfect sounding board that Dr. Elko wanted to hear from. This was just prior to the first of four Alabama National Championships with Dr. Elko as their performance coach.
I carried that book in my backpack for the entirety of my college football career and it helped me as a sort of meditative exercises before I knew actually what meditation was. Like transcendental meditation, Elko gave me mantras like “NO JUDGEMENT” to repeat to myself during winter workouts and focus on a mantra rather than how terrible winter workouts were.