This series should have begun years ago.

Almost 20 years in the business — Horning’s rules of sports should already be a volume or two.

So many opinions through the years and you’d think I might have quantified just a few. You know, sports is about the moments, or sports is about the drama, or sports is about the money. Whatever.

But I haven’t.

Why not start today?

It’s been hinted at, ever since Adrian Peterson went down and the Sooners appeared to — strangely — get better.

Today, we etch it in stone.

Figuratively.

Because I’ve thought this for a long time.

I’ve had it reinforced for a long time, at every level.

From amateur golf to big time college football to the pros.

So, allow me to pen Horning’s first rule of sports.

Let me try that again.

So, allow me to pen Horning’s First Rule of Sports.

I may need to get this copyrighted.

Here it is:

Good kids make the best players.

Sounds simple. Maybe, but think about it.

Think of how many kids give up on school thinking athletics to be the way out.

Think of how many kids, challenged to overcome a crappy family life, turn to sports, but to the detriment of everything else.

Think of all the tall tales we’ve heard through the years, some of them surely true, about athletes who were pushed through school, passed along by coaches and teachers willing to participate in a conspiracy, sometimes of silence, just to keep them on the playing field or the arena floor, just to win games at any cost.

And still, give me the good kid who can play over the playground phenom who spent time at three different high schools in three different states, whose AAU coach was his legal guardian every single time.

Because that’s the guy I can count on.

And those are the guys, apparently, the Sooners can count on.

Here’s what Bob Stoops said about his team’s intangibles Tuesday. Basically, he was talking about class.

“The way they practice, the way they travel, the way they get ready for games,” Stoops said. “We don’t have those one, two or three individuals that seem to cause all the problems … You have character.”

It’s not coachspeak.

It’s not even cliché, because Stoops means it.

He says it every year he announces a new recruiting class, too, and I always wonder about it. How can he possibly know? How can he be sure? But ever since Rhett Bomar and J.D. Quinn were let go, Stoops has only been too pleased to praise his team’s resiliency.

And while resiliency will never equal consistency on the defensive side of the ball, it can make it possible. The same way, resiliency can’t make up for the loss of Adrian Peterson, but it can eliminate any and all mental hurdles his departure might have presented.

The rule even works for Peterson himself.

Taking Stoops at his word, we know this much about Peterson:

He’s a great teammate, he’s unselfish, he’s as strong a practice player as there is on the roster and you better believe he wants to come back and play. Also, the experience Peterson has endured, always receiving involuntary advice, everybody telling him he’s the greatest thing ever, so many placing him on a pedestal, has only served to accelerate his maturity, rather than stunt it.

For the record, that’s been my impression, too.

Well, the guy whose growth is stunted would never be in a position to set Oklahoma’s career rushing mark with one big bowl game. That guy never approaches reaching all the potential his physical talents might allow.

There are exceptions.

Lawrence Phillips excelled at Nebraska before self destructing. Barry Bonds lives in his own little world, but even before his big head became literal he was one of the game’s best players. Rasheed Wallace is a fantastic basketball player. But he was fantastic in Portland and his antics made the Trail Blazers a loser.

So, the lesson is clear.

Talent is nothing but a starting point. Even developing it is rarely enough. There has to be substance. There has to be more there.

Character counts. Even more than you might think.

I’m sure of it.



Clay Horning writes for The Norman (Okla.) Transcript. Contact him at cfhorning@normantranscript.com.