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Parents Need To Stop Trophy-Chasing And Let Their Kids Learn

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Albert "AJ" Johnson (@AJinsuresME) played 8 years of professional football in the NFL, NFL Europe, and the CFL. AJ played for the Houston Texans, Miami Dolphins and New York Jets and was also a two-time CFL All-star. He is also the Chapter Executive Director for Positive Coaching Alliance in Houston. He has volunteered his time coaching little league baseball, youth football, and other sports at Houston St. Thomas High School. AJ Johnson is also a sports parent of twin boys, a daughter, and a younger son.

In this video, former NFL player AJ Johnson says that it's a problem that parents don't let their kids learn life lessons in their continual chase for the trophy for their kid. Parents are too often willing to have kids change teams for the sake of wins, rather than being loyal to a team in their community and going through struggle. Even if a team is struggling and losing, AJ believes that "we need to let our youth go through some things" in order to create productive citizens through sports. While trophies seem like the most important thing in the moment, trophies collect dust, while learning life lessons of sticking with a team through struggle may be more important.