Former USA Defender Jay DeMerit Explains His Tunnel Mentality: 'I Had No Fear'

It all started in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Then it moved onto a muddy field in February against Sudbury Town in England – and eventually to facing Lionel Messi and playing every minute of a World Cup.

My mentality was always the same: the tunnel mentality.

When you get in the tunnel, you have a couple of minutes of calm before the storm. You have to go down deep inside and create an unshakable confidence. Someone chose you to be there, so while it’s easy to think "I’m going to get crushed," sometimes, you have to convince yourself that you belong.

At the 2010 World Cup, Bob Bradley was masterful at picking the right guys for the right situations. He knew that a good team does have all the same characters; it’s full of different ones. He knew which characters were needed at the right time.

Jay Demerit (right) played every minute of all four USA games at the 2010 World Cup. (Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

Anyone who knows me knows that I’m a character. I had no fear because I had gone through the hardest parts of my journey to get in the position where he could pick me.

When you enter a career from the back of the line like I did, from Wisconsin, I had to fight to belong on the field from the time I was 17 or 18 years old. And at that age, you’re also trying to prove to yourself that you are good enough.

What I learned through standing in those tunnels throughout my career is that while you line up opposite your adversaries and wait for the referee to come out, there’s a lull – a calm before the storm. That’s where the tunnel mentality comes into play.

This also applies to all walks of life. If you’re walking into an interview for a job you’ve dreamed of, you’ve worked your ass off to get to that moment.

For me, it was the tunnel.