Water is essential to the proper function of the human body. Well, you would be surprised just how easily water consumption can be neglected in the hectic routines of our daily lives, thus potentially depriving us of optimum health and performance.

Comprising up to 60 percent of our body, and 70 percent of our muscles, water prevents dehydration; it is essential for cellular homeostasis (keeping cells at a steady state); it regulates the body's temperature control, improves skin appearance, and influences cognitive performance, just to name a few.

Super Bowl 2013 – the NFL's annual extravaganza – has descended on New Orleans with all its pomp and fanfare. The projected economic impact of this one week event for the city is $434 million.

As with all such events, there are numerous story lines with some close to home.

First and foremost is the brotherly competition between the two opposing head coaches – the 49ers Jim Harbaugh vs. the Ravens John Harbaugh – to take back to one of their respective cities the coveted Vince Lombardy trophy, symbolic of the best NFL team.

Now that Super Bowl 2013 is set and the San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Ravens are preparing for the coming battle in New Orleans on Feb. 3, it is a fitting time during this transitional week to look back at some of the more interesting ways in which injuries in the NFL this season changed the dynamics of play for many teams. In certain cases, like what we witnessed with the botched handling of the Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III's series of knee injuries, it may have cost this young man dearly in terms of his career longevity.

Hopefully, Griffin has a disability policy in place just in case he needs to look at alternate career choices, pending his long road of rehabilitation on the same knee that he injured back in 2009, while he was at Baylor.

What is a coach? The Oxford American Dictionary defines the word "coach" relative to athletics as, "an instructor or trainer in a sport." I'm not sure that this simple definition truly defines what the word "coach" has come to mean to each and every one of us in our own lives.

Over my last 30-plus years in athletics, I have found some of my own coaches to take the form of a teacher, mentor, guide, psychologist, sideline doc, spiritualist, second parent, motivator, disciplinarian, and a game-changer.