Football, the sport of kings
I had the opportunity to see Friday Night Lights last weekend. I was going to make this blog entry a movie review, but the more I thought about it, the more I need to make it more general. So this is now a sports review. A review of the great sport of football, and how many life lessons we can take away from it.
First of all, the movie itself was excellent. Completely emotionally draining, but excellent. I haven't felt that emotionally drained since Shindler's List or Saving Private Ryan. I got to see it with an old buddy that I actually played high-school football with (which enhanced the experience that much more). We didn't play in Texas of course (thank GOD), but we could certainly identify with MANY of the themes of the story. It was quite a sight to see me and my buddy (big buff football dudes, oh yeah) totally emotionally dried up and exhausted at a football movie. Ha!
The thing I loved most was that the movie just plain got it. Football mirrors real life in so many ways, and there's no better sport that I've ever played or seen that can better prepare a boy to be a man. The coach in the movie spelled it out at one point, explaining that sometimes in life you get the short stick. There's no 2 ways about it. And the only way you're ever going to change that is if you go out and do it yourself. I love that.
Every day on the football field you'll find someone bigger, faster, and stronger than you. You can sometimes equalize the odds through heart, courage, skill, practice, and superior technique. But sometimes even when you give it your best shot, you'll still get laid out. Welcome to life.
Even if you happen to be the biggest, fastest, and strongest player on the field, you can still find yourself taking a dirtnap if you make a simple mistake, and often times even if you do everything right. Football has this great kharma thing to it, and no matter how big and bad you THINK you are, you can be guaranteed that at some point you're gonna get smacked right in the mouth.
But what does it matter? If you get laid out or you get de-cleated or you get ear-holed or whatever. What does it really matter what the scoreboard says, as long as you gave it your all, and left it all out on the field, you know you can live with the knowledge that there was nothing more you could have done to contribute to your team.
Now let's get to the team aspect of the game. In what other sport is it more critical that you do your job? That you beat the person across from you. That everyone on your side of the ball executes their assignments, and has their mistakes glaringly highlighted when they fail? If you miss a block in football, someone on your team gets creamed! Perhaps even hurt or injured (and there IS a difference between hurt or injured). If you drop a pass, you're dead met and the QB won't throw to you again, you're now a skinny blocker.
If you fumble . . .. . God help you when you fumble. If you miss an open field tackle or blow a coverage assignment and they score off that play, or if you miss a game winning field goal, the PRESSURE! I love it. Football teaches boys how do deal with massive amounts of pressure. It teaches you how to deal with success AND with failure (you'll have both in the course of every season). And all of these lessons will repeat themselves in family life, in professional life, in recreational life, everywhere.
Ahhhh football. Sport of kings. Ok, so perhaps not kings, but by far the best sport to teach the lessons of life, of teamwork, of pressure, of practice, and of what is truly important in life. People spend so much time and effort focusing on each game, each weekend, each season. But the truth is it's just a GAME! It's such a small part of life, and such a brief flicker in life that you can actually PLAY the game. But the lessons and memories and victories and defeats stay with you forever. This is why the sport remains so popular despite being by far the most expensive sport to equip (Title IX schools not withstanding, but I'm not blogging on that tonight).
Football teaches individuals and communities that you can focus too much on something that really isn't all that important in the greater scheme of things. The stadiums we build tell us where we rank this method of entertainment in our towns or cities or little high-school regions. The ceremonies of half-time shows, homecomings, cheerleaders, and the traditional post-game fights (you don't see this one as often anymore) are some of the most sacred to us. Why is that?
Because football teaches us to get better. Better in body, better in mind, and better in spirit. When we do that individually, and then we do that as a team, we see what can happen, and we like it. We want to see it happen more and more, over and over again, and we're better off for it. We want to share that experience with our friends and children (and my wife), but sometimes people don't get it. All they see is this barbaric clash of wills and big grunts that strap on huge jock-straps like gladiators and entertain drunk, howling, blood-thirsty fans. They don't the beauty, the science, the strategy (of which there is plenty, which I love also).
But most importantly they miss the culture, the history, and the POINT of football. You learn to give it your all, and your team learns to give it their all. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, but you're always better and stronger no matter what the outcome. Stronger in mind, body, and spirit. And you've shared that experience with a bunch of guys who are also better off for it. Now you're ready to repeat that lesson in the rest of your life. Go get em. And when the forth quarter comes around, you suck it up, throw 4 fingers in the air, and give everything you've got till the final whistle.
Now go out into the world my son, and MOVE YOUR FEET!
First of all, the movie itself was excellent. Completely emotionally draining, but excellent. I haven't felt that emotionally drained since Shindler's List or Saving Private Ryan. I got to see it with an old buddy that I actually played high-school football with (which enhanced the experience that much more). We didn't play in Texas of course (thank GOD), but we could certainly identify with MANY of the themes of the story. It was quite a sight to see me and my buddy (big buff football dudes, oh yeah) totally emotionally dried up and exhausted at a football movie. Ha!
The thing I loved most was that the movie just plain got it. Football mirrors real life in so many ways, and there's no better sport that I've ever played or seen that can better prepare a boy to be a man. The coach in the movie spelled it out at one point, explaining that sometimes in life you get the short stick. There's no 2 ways about it. And the only way you're ever going to change that is if you go out and do it yourself. I love that.
Every day on the football field you'll find someone bigger, faster, and stronger than you. You can sometimes equalize the odds through heart, courage, skill, practice, and superior technique. But sometimes even when you give it your best shot, you'll still get laid out. Welcome to life.
Even if you happen to be the biggest, fastest, and strongest player on the field, you can still find yourself taking a dirtnap if you make a simple mistake, and often times even if you do everything right. Football has this great kharma thing to it, and no matter how big and bad you THINK you are, you can be guaranteed that at some point you're gonna get smacked right in the mouth.
But what does it matter? If you get laid out or you get de-cleated or you get ear-holed or whatever. What does it really matter what the scoreboard says, as long as you gave it your all, and left it all out on the field, you know you can live with the knowledge that there was nothing more you could have done to contribute to your team.
Now let's get to the team aspect of the game. In what other sport is it more critical that you do your job? That you beat the person across from you. That everyone on your side of the ball executes their assignments, and has their mistakes glaringly highlighted when they fail? If you miss a block in football, someone on your team gets creamed! Perhaps even hurt or injured (and there IS a difference between hurt or injured). If you drop a pass, you're dead met and the QB won't throw to you again, you're now a skinny blocker.
If you fumble . . .. . God help you when you fumble. If you miss an open field tackle or blow a coverage assignment and they score off that play, or if you miss a game winning field goal, the PRESSURE! I love it. Football teaches boys how do deal with massive amounts of pressure. It teaches you how to deal with success AND with failure (you'll have both in the course of every season). And all of these lessons will repeat themselves in family life, in professional life, in recreational life, everywhere.
Ahhhh football. Sport of kings. Ok, so perhaps not kings, but by far the best sport to teach the lessons of life, of teamwork, of pressure, of practice, and of what is truly important in life. People spend so much time and effort focusing on each game, each weekend, each season. But the truth is it's just a GAME! It's such a small part of life, and such a brief flicker in life that you can actually PLAY the game. But the lessons and memories and victories and defeats stay with you forever. This is why the sport remains so popular despite being by far the most expensive sport to equip (Title IX schools not withstanding, but I'm not blogging on that tonight).
Football teaches individuals and communities that you can focus too much on something that really isn't all that important in the greater scheme of things. The stadiums we build tell us where we rank this method of entertainment in our towns or cities or little high-school regions. The ceremonies of half-time shows, homecomings, cheerleaders, and the traditional post-game fights (you don't see this one as often anymore) are some of the most sacred to us. Why is that?
Because football teaches us to get better. Better in body, better in mind, and better in spirit. When we do that individually, and then we do that as a team, we see what can happen, and we like it. We want to see it happen more and more, over and over again, and we're better off for it. We want to share that experience with our friends and children (and my wife), but sometimes people don't get it. All they see is this barbaric clash of wills and big grunts that strap on huge jock-straps like gladiators and entertain drunk, howling, blood-thirsty fans. They don't the beauty, the science, the strategy (of which there is plenty, which I love also).
But most importantly they miss the culture, the history, and the POINT of football. You learn to give it your all, and your team learns to give it their all. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, but you're always better and stronger no matter what the outcome. Stronger in mind, body, and spirit. And you've shared that experience with a bunch of guys who are also better off for it. Now you're ready to repeat that lesson in the rest of your life. Go get em. And when the forth quarter comes around, you suck it up, throw 4 fingers in the air, and give everything you've got till the final whistle.
Now go out into the world my son, and MOVE YOUR FEET!
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