As I wrote this column, Super Bowl XLV just concluded between the Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers. You can learn a great deal about business and life viewing sports, especially when you’re watching champions. In fact, this game and all its pageantry are ripe with examples of what to do (and what NOT to do) in your business “game.” Let’s scrutinize three that come to my mind…

In the end, it’s all about blocking and tackling. Football may seem like a highly complex game with players scrambling, audibles being called, and coaches whispering secretly into a gigantic play cards. However, when it’s all said and done, generally the team that does the best job blocking and tackling wins the game.

Breaking down a football game into its very fundamental basics is as old as sports itself. Think about your own sports or activity experiences. Whether it was football, baseball, basketball, the piano, the flute, or singing, each of these activities has basic tenets that all else is drawn from. In football, when you don’t do these basic fundamentals well, you lose and look bad doing it. When you play an instrument or sing and don’t do the basics well, you perform poorly and look bad doing it.

What’s this mean for you? There are basic tenets of business, too. Language, communication, organizational prowess, perspicacity, perseverance, and motivation to name some. If you go out into your field of play not being adequately prepared to “block and tackle,” you will not be successful and look bad doing it!

What did you say? If you were one of the millions who watched the national anthem preceding the Super Bowl, undoubtedly you said just what I did to my wife when listening to Christina Aguilera sing it — “What did she say?” By the time you read this, you’ll have heard numerous times of the flub made by the popular singing star to the words of our national anthem. Francis Scott Key is probably turning over in his grave! Yes, the music and melody of our national song is difficult to sing, but the lyrics are the lyrics. If you were going to be honored to sing the song in arguably the biggest stage on television, wouldn’t you think you would know the words?

For a singer, this is akin to blocking and tackling. Knowing the words to the song you’re singing in front of a gazillion people (give or take a few) is a basic tenet. This calls for preparation.

In business, are you adequately prepared for overcoming objections, terminating employees, enhancing your skills, resolving conflict, managing crises, leading teams, and getting referrals? If not, you’re probably as vulnerable to debacle as Ms. Aguilera was. It’s unprofessional for you to endeavor into your spotlight without being prepared.

Turnovers are deadly. The Steelers turned the ball over three times on two interceptions and a fumble. One of the interceptions was returned for a touchdown and they lost by 6 points. The Packers didn’t have a turnover. Do the math. The more times a football team turns the ball over to the opposition, the less opportunities they have to score and the more their opponent does. It’s a numbers and field position game.

You get so many “shots on goal” every day, week, month, and year. Each one is valuable because it represents an opportunity to add a client, gain a referral, and build a loyal clientele. How many potential clients and partners slip through your hands because of carelessness or inattention? How many “turnovers” do you have that are missed opportunities?

Be protective of your opportunities, even to the edge of being hawkish. Just like a touchdown is for a football team, these opportunities are like gold for you.

Sports is often used as a metaphor for business and for life and justifiably so as the components of games are synonymous with the game we play on the streets and in the boardrooms of the business world. Winning football games is a lot like winning in business. You must do the fundamentals well, you must be prepared, and you must hold on tight to your opportunities. If you do this, you can expect to be a champion!