"Credit unions prove in modest measure the practicality of the brotherhood of man." –Edward A. Filene

Although the NFL Football season has just recently come to an end, it seems appropriate to use one last football analogy to make a couple of points. I decided to use a sports analogy because it works so well when one is trying to illustrate the importance of teamwork in reaching important goals or when describing how the unsung and overlooked players often contribute mightily to the team's success. Those are the points I want to make relative to corporate credit unions and the credit union movement. Even if you are not a sports fan, please keep reading; I will try to make sure my points are not buried too deeply in the football references.

To me, corporate credit unions are a lot like NFL offensive lineman, big, powerful, and their job is to protect the stars on the team. For corporate credit unions, the stars on the team are the member credit unions. Together, credit unions and corporate credit unions make up two-thirds of the credit union movement. The other players are leagues and trade associations (front office personnel) and regulators (obviously the officials). All of these players make up the credit union movement team.