I’m a football girl. It is in my genes. That may surprise you given that I’m writing this from Canada.

What you should know is that I grew up in the U.S. My hometown won the Illinois high school state championships of football in two classes. Despite having no sons, my father almost never missed a high school football game. Defacto, that means I didn’t miss many games myself.

I lived in Chicagoland during the Walter Payton years. If you know anything about football you’ll understand exactly what that means.

I’m an Iowa Hawkeye and I sat in the end zone during the 1986 Rose Bowl.

And to add to my cred, I have relatives who live in Omaha!

So to state again, I know football.

Great football takes strategy, determination, strength, good chemistry, capability, leadership and teamwork. Oh and, apparently and sadly, a hard head.

Even though this is Super Bowl Sunday, this blog isn’t exactly about football. It’s about talent.

We’ve come to be able to recognize talent on the field. The team with the better strategy; the team who can break tackles; the team who can make the big play under pressure.

In what feels like a gazillion arenas, today is the day we humans get to see a lot of other types of talent, although we don’t normally think about those talents.

• It takes talent to run an event where everyone has a good time.
• It takes talent to make great commercials that sell products.
• It takes talent to rock the house at halftime.
• It takes talent to choreograph thousands of people in a performance, or to figure out flashcards.
• It takes talent to figure out lighting and sound.
• It takes talent to comment on sport in a meaningful way.
• It takes talent to plan security on that mega scale.
• It takes talent to develop the devices that we watch this spectacle on.
• It takes talent to be able to deliver on all the logistics needs of a large event.
• It takes talent to make really good chili.

Think about what comprises some of these talents. How does this improve your own selection plan?

Today, take a look around you and see if an exercise of recognizing talent will help you select talent in your own arena.