Brian Cushing, Rick Smith Talk Fathers, Life Lessons

Father's Day is Sunday. We'll have a separate post on Sunday to pay homage to the dads in and of the Battle Red Blog community, but before then, I highly recommend you read this piece by MMQB's Robert Klemko about "the best thing [12 NFL people] learned from their dad or an influential father figure." It includes the words of Brian Cushing and Rick Smith, the former of which talks about how his father used to throw at his head during batting practice:

Frank Cushing taught me to fear no one. He pitched in two College World Series and he made me a warrior through baseball. When we were taking batting practice and I was crowding the plate, he would throw at my head. He never hit me, but he came close enough to get the message across. All those parents who questioned his methods look at me now like, Wow, he knew what he was doing. Dad believed that there was nothing worse than wondering if you could’ve or should’ve tried harder. I’ve gotten hurt sometimes while doing it but there isn’t a day that goes by I regret because I know I’ve gone after everything 100 percent. That’s because of him.

The essence of Brian Cushing makes that much more sense now, doesn't it? Give the article a read, especially to take a gander at Rick Smith's words about his dad.