What Special Teams Taught Me About the Players Nobody Notices

We were in a tight game, and I called up the Green Berets, our punt return unit. I told them we were calling one of our punt blocks to get a momentum swing.

Then I looked directly at one player and asked, “Can you block a punt for us?”

He never started for us on offense or defense. But he was on four of our six special teams units, and he was a player we could count on to show up when we needed him. Without missing a beat, he said, “I got you. This punt ain’t getting off his foot!”

As fate would have it, he blocked the punt. We got the ball back inside our opponent’s 20-yard line, scored the go-ahead touchdown, and won the game.

Most people in the stands probably never learned his name. Everyone on our sideline knew exactly who won us that game.

Key Takeaways

• Every team has people doing the unglamorous work that wins the game. Most of them never get noticed.

• Gallup found that only 22% of employees say they get adequate recognition for their work, and employees who get high-quality recognition are 45% less likely to leave within two years.

• Recognition is more than saying thank you. It means giving people a role that matters, a standard to live up to, and your trust when it counts.

• As a special teams coordinator, I gave every unit a name and a standard, and I handpicked the players who earned a spot. That turned the most overlooked part of the game into the one players wanted to be part of.

Why do the people nobody notices matter so much?

A lot of people treat special teams as the part of the game to ignore. It is the time to grab a snack or check your phone. But every coach knows special teams can swing a game in a single play. A blocked punt, a missed tackle on a kickoff, or a bad snap can decide the outcome as much as any touchdown pass.

Your organization has the same thing going on. There are people making sure orders go out right, customers get called back, and problems get fixed before anyone else sees them. When they do their job well, nobody notices. When they stop, everybody does.

Those people are your special teams. The question is whether you treat them that way.

What is employee recognition, really?

Most leaders think of recognition as a shout-out in a meeting or a gift card at the end of the year. Those things are fine, but they are not what people are hungry for. People want to know that you see what they do, that it matters, and that you trust them with it.

The numbers say most leaders are missing it. Gallup found that only 22% of employees report getting adequate recognition for their work, and that number has not moved since 2022. Gallup also found that employees who receive high-quality recognition were 45% less likely to have left their company two years later.

If you want to understand what it costs when people feel overlooked, I wrote about that in my post on why employees quit.

How did I make special teams special?

When I was a special teams coordinator, I decided that special teams would not be an afterthought. I wanted to make special teams special.

First, I gave every unit an identity. Each one was named after a special operations unit in the military. Our punt team was the SEALs, our kickoff team was Task Force Delta, and our punt return team was the Green Berets. Those names told players this was not a place where we stuck whoever was left over.

Second, I set a standard to get in. You had to be at every summer workout, and you had to give 110% all the time. I was looking for the best of the best, not the best of the rest.

Third, I handpicked and invited players to join. Nobody got assigned to special teams because there was nowhere else to put them. They earned it, and they knew it.

That is how a player who never started on offense or defense became the one I looked at when the game was on the line. His role had a name, it had a standard, and he had earned my trust by living up to it every single day.

How do you recognize employees who work behind the scenes?

Here is how I would take what worked on the field and use it with any team.

1. Give the role an identity. If a role matters, say so out loud. Name it, explain why it matters, and connect it to the results your team cares about.

2. Set a standard worth earning. People take pride in roles that are hard to get. Be clear about what it takes to be trusted with important work, and hold everyone to it.

3. Recognize consistency, not only highlights. My punt blocker earned that moment by showing up to every summer workout. Notice the people who do the right thing every day, not only the ones who make the big play.

4. Be specific. “Great job” is easy to forget. “The way you handled that client call kept us from losing the account” is something a person will remember for years.

5. Trust them with the big moment. The strongest recognition I ever gave that player was not a speech. It was looking him in the eye and asking him to win the game for us. When you hand someone the important assignment, you are telling them exactly what you think of them.

What happens when you trust the people nobody notices?

They show up. When I asked that player if he could block a punt, he did not hesitate, and he did not ask what would happen if he missed. He said, “I got you,” because he already knew I believed in him.

That is what recognition really builds. It is not just a good feeling. It is a team full of people who are ready when you call their name, because they know you see them.

Where do I start?

This week, write down three people on your team who do important work that rarely gets noticed. For each one, find one specific thing they did recently and tell them, in person, why it mattered.

I love telling this special teams story to groups because every organization has players like him. If you want to bring that message to your team or your next event, take a look at my Keynote Speaking page. And if you would like to talk about building a culture where everybody feels like they matter, you can reach me through my contact page. I would enjoy the conversation.

Truly Caring for YOUR Success,

Coach Clark