Common sense ain’t common

My mentor John McClain handed me one of the truest things anyone ever told me. It took years to understand it.

My mentor John McClain used to tell me, “Common sense ain’t common.” I was a young player when I first heard it, and I thought it was just a clever line. It took me years — and a lot of mistakes — to understand he was handing me one of the truest things anyone ever told me.

Common sense isn’t a gift you’re born with. It’s not intelligence, and it’s not talent. It’s the accumulated wisdom of paying attention — to your coaches, your elders, your own consequences — and actually applying what you learn. That’s why it’s rare. Most people have access to the same lessons I did. Few actually live by them.

Today’s student athlete has more access to information than any generation before him. Film, data, NIL contracts, agents, advisors, a phone full of opinions. And still — common sense is as scarce as it’s ever been. Maybe more so, because there’s more noise drowning it out.

The seven lessons I wrote for my younger self were never really seven separate ideas. They were seven versions of the same warning: knowledge without application is worthless, and good judgment has to be practiced like a muscle, not assumed like a birthright.

John McClain ran circles around the smartest people I ever met, not because he was the smartest man in the room, but because he had something rarer — the sense to actually use what he knew. That’s the standard. Not being the most talented player on the field. Being the one with the sense to make the most of what you’ve got.

This is the first in a short series applying that lesson to where the game is right now.