This may be one of the earliest prominent uses of the phrase 'pay it forward,' years before Catherine Ryan Hyde's novel and the subsequent film popularized the concept. Hayes argued that the debts we owe to those who helped us — parents, teachers, mentors — can rarely be repaid directly, because by the time we are in a position to repay them, circumstances have changed. But Hayes insisted that this was not a reason for passivity. Instead, the obligation shifts forward: you repay your mentors by becoming a mentor yourself, you repay your teachers by teaching others, you repay the kindnesses you received by extending kindness to the next generation. The word 'must' was characteristic of Hayes — this was not a suggestion but a moral imperative, as binding as any rule on the football field.