Life, Sports Aren't Always Fair
September 5, 2018 at 4:45 p.m.
By Roger Grossman-
On Friday, we were reminded that sports are a microcosm of life.
Warsaw and Plymouth were embroiled in an epic overtime football battle that had more twists and turns than the best Law and Order episode. The game was tied at 29 and Warsaw had failed to score in its half of the first extra session. The Rockies got five yards by penalty, and then backed up on the next three plays to line them up for a 24-yard field goal to win the game.
Their kicker was hurt the week before, so their back-up ran onto the field try to become a high school football hero.
The ball was snapped, it was placed point-down on the black block in front of Dylan Gamble, and he put his foot to it.
What happened next is legend – legendarily joyous for Gamble and his side, legendarily wrong for the other.
The ball started left, stayed left and slipped wide of the left upright, meaning the game would go to a second overtime. Except, wait … what? The official under the goal post looked at his partner on the other side, raised his hand as if to say “I’m not sure what happened … what did you see?”
Then he did the unthinkable, he raised his arms, ruled the kick was good, and ran with his partners off the field. And with that the game was over.
A kicker, who had dropped his head in despair over not winning the game for his team, then threw his arms in jubilation.
Defenders who were running off the field with the satisfaction that they’d given their side another overtime were suddenly stopped in their tracks by the curiously strong roar rising up from the home stands.
It’s true, that the official underneath the goal post that night on that play really had one duty – to see if the ball went inside or outside of that post. In that, he whiffed.
But if sports are what they say they are (which is a great introduction to the realities of life), then there are two significant things we can all learn from what is a really dark moment in Tiger football history.
First, sometimes life and sports just aren’t fair.
Kids who think (with some prodding from their parents, of course) that they should have a bigger role on their sports team might also someday have to deal with their boss giving that promotion to someone seemingly less deserving.
Sometimes the star of the team tears up her knee during the summer before her senior year and she becomes less attractive to colleges as a scholarship candidate. That same girl could also give birth to a child with Down Syndrome, or that develops cancer.
Maybe the ref standing underneath the goalpost in overtime makes a terrible mistake and it costs your team a game. Maybe that sales account that so obviously should have been yours that even a blind man could see it is given to an understudy instead.
Life’s not fair, and neither are sports.
Like in life, there are no replay reviews in high school sports. You only get one chance to play that one play in that one game, and then it’s gone. You only get one chance to live this moment you are in right now, and then it’s behind you. All the money in the world can’t buy you another one. It’s in the past.
And that leads to the other lesson.
I like to listen to the Chuck Swindoll podcast called Insight for Living. Swindoll famously holds that “Life is 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent how you react to it.”
I believe that’s true with all my heart. I don’t always do it, but I know I should.
The question I would pose to the Tigers, or to anyone else going through any adversity in their life is “what are you going to do about it?”
Our community has learned a lot about playing the hand you are dealt from people like Drake Price, who has been battling tumors in his brain. That sixth grader from Lincoln Elementary has challenged all of us to take the path we have been directed to and hack our way through thicket and thistle. That kid has dreams and he plans to fulfill them. #drakestrong
While I would never equate losing a football game and having brain cancer or a sick child, developing a process for overcoming adversity is one of the pillars in the secret of life.
Warsaw’s football team lost a game they could have won if they had another chance that never came. They have a choice – pout or play. The decision on which they collectively chose has already been made. It could make them better or it could derail them.
And it’s a choice they, and all of us, will make every day for as long as we draw breath.
On Friday, we were reminded that sports are a microcosm of life.
Warsaw and Plymouth were embroiled in an epic overtime football battle that had more twists and turns than the best Law and Order episode. The game was tied at 29 and Warsaw had failed to score in its half of the first extra session. The Rockies got five yards by penalty, and then backed up on the next three plays to line them up for a 24-yard field goal to win the game.
Their kicker was hurt the week before, so their back-up ran onto the field try to become a high school football hero.
The ball was snapped, it was placed point-down on the black block in front of Dylan Gamble, and he put his foot to it.
What happened next is legend – legendarily joyous for Gamble and his side, legendarily wrong for the other.
The ball started left, stayed left and slipped wide of the left upright, meaning the game would go to a second overtime. Except, wait … what? The official under the goal post looked at his partner on the other side, raised his hand as if to say “I’m not sure what happened … what did you see?”
Then he did the unthinkable, he raised his arms, ruled the kick was good, and ran with his partners off the field. And with that the game was over.
A kicker, who had dropped his head in despair over not winning the game for his team, then threw his arms in jubilation.
Defenders who were running off the field with the satisfaction that they’d given their side another overtime were suddenly stopped in their tracks by the curiously strong roar rising up from the home stands.
It’s true, that the official underneath the goal post that night on that play really had one duty – to see if the ball went inside or outside of that post. In that, he whiffed.
But if sports are what they say they are (which is a great introduction to the realities of life), then there are two significant things we can all learn from what is a really dark moment in Tiger football history.
First, sometimes life and sports just aren’t fair.
Kids who think (with some prodding from their parents, of course) that they should have a bigger role on their sports team might also someday have to deal with their boss giving that promotion to someone seemingly less deserving.
Sometimes the star of the team tears up her knee during the summer before her senior year and she becomes less attractive to colleges as a scholarship candidate. That same girl could also give birth to a child with Down Syndrome, or that develops cancer.
Maybe the ref standing underneath the goalpost in overtime makes a terrible mistake and it costs your team a game. Maybe that sales account that so obviously should have been yours that even a blind man could see it is given to an understudy instead.
Life’s not fair, and neither are sports.
Like in life, there are no replay reviews in high school sports. You only get one chance to play that one play in that one game, and then it’s gone. You only get one chance to live this moment you are in right now, and then it’s behind you. All the money in the world can’t buy you another one. It’s in the past.
And that leads to the other lesson.
I like to listen to the Chuck Swindoll podcast called Insight for Living. Swindoll famously holds that “Life is 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent how you react to it.”
I believe that’s true with all my heart. I don’t always do it, but I know I should.
The question I would pose to the Tigers, or to anyone else going through any adversity in their life is “what are you going to do about it?”
Our community has learned a lot about playing the hand you are dealt from people like Drake Price, who has been battling tumors in his brain. That sixth grader from Lincoln Elementary has challenged all of us to take the path we have been directed to and hack our way through thicket and thistle. That kid has dreams and he plans to fulfill them. #drakestrong
While I would never equate losing a football game and having brain cancer or a sick child, developing a process for overcoming adversity is one of the pillars in the secret of life.
Warsaw’s football team lost a game they could have won if they had another chance that never came. They have a choice – pout or play. The decision on which they collectively chose has already been made. It could make them better or it could derail them.
And it’s a choice they, and all of us, will make every day for as long as we draw breath.
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