The Captain Class: A New Theory of Leadership

by Sam Walker

CHAPTER SIX TAKEAWAYS • The most universal tradition in sports is the code of sportsmanship. In every country and culture, there is a form of judgment that supersedes the one displayed on the scoreboard. We believe that there is a right way to win and a wrong way, and that a person’s character is revealed in moments when their morals are tested. On sports teams, the one player who is held to this standard more than any other is the captain. On the sixteen greatest teams in history, however, the captains were not immune to pushing the rules to the breaking point. In fact, they often did so intentionally. • When it comes to behaving aggressively, there is a persistent view that a person who does so must be suffering from some kind of psychological or spiritual deficiency. What people fail to understand is that all aggression is not the same. There is a “hostile” variety that is intended to do harm and an “instrumental” form that is employed in pursuit of a worthwhile goal. While the captains in Tier One often did ugly things, they did so while operating within the fuzzy confines of the rules of sports. The difference between a captain who upholds the principles of sportsmanship at all times and a captain who bends it to its edges is that the latter captain is more concerned with winning than with how the public perceives them.