Airport Beer In The Midst Of Disappointment
NFL journeyman QB Ben DiNucci went viral this weekend after being released by the Atlanta Falcons and posting his post-cut beer at the airport (see image above).
Why share that here? Because it contains vital lessons for YOUR athletes that go beyond the cliché takes.
To be clear, I don’t claim to know exactly what Ben was thinking when he hit “post.” That’s a futile exercise. What I do think is fair: this was an attempt at vulnerability, but a guarded one. Why? Because in the manbox, it’s acceptable to drink heavily when you’re sad. It’s not acceptable to post a picture of your own grief-stricken face, or to share a caption about fear, loss, or hurt. So he posted the beer.
Just as telling are the replies under his post. Scroll through them and you’ll see men trying to soothe, but only fluent in doing so through sarcasm, banter, and side jokes. That’s the currency we’ve been taught to trade in.
Why does this matter for your team? Because disappointment is guaranteed this season. Your players cannot escape it. Someone won’t get the snaps, won’t make the cut, won’t live up to their own expectation. The question is: what’s their outlet? Do they internalize it, numb it, or joke it away—or do they have people to reach out to and the language to do it?
That’s the coaching opportunity here. Use this post as an example. Then ask your players: Instead of the beer alone, who would you want to tell you got cut? What would you hope they’d say? What would you want to hear?
DiNucci’s post might look like just another beer pic, but it’s also a mirror. Are we helping our players build the capacity to process failure out loud? Or just training them to drink, laugh, and move on in silence?
Coach Prompt:
When your players face disappointment, what outlets have you prepared them for besides alcohol, silence, or sarcasm?
Player Prompt:
If you failed today—got cut, lost a role, missed a penalty kick, dropped a pass—who’s the first person you’d want to tell, and what would you hope they’d say back?
