I ate from the sampler platter of sports last weekend.
I watched and listened to the Cubs, and I watched parts of most of the NBA and NHL Playoff games on the schedule.
I saw solid team play, and I watched a lot of guys making big shots and big plays in critical situations.
But I also saw a running theme throughout all the games in all the sports that I wanted to spend a few minutes talking about in this space today.
In every game I watched, I saw managers and head coaches formulate a plan in their minds, relate that plan to their players and then those players set out to execute that plan to the best of their abilities.
And in every game I watched, that plan did not always work.
For example, in the Lakers game Sunday, Coach JJ Reddick’s team was down but had the ball at midcourt in the game’s final seconds. Reddick had two minutes during a timeout to come with a plan to score to tie or win the game and tell his players what he wanted them to do.
The inbounds pass was stolen, and they never got to run the play he drew up.
In a baseball game, the manager called for a hit-and-run with his team trailing in a one-run game in the 8th inning.
The runner at first base took off on the first movement of the pitcher and got a good jump. The pitcher threw a curve ball that the right-handed batter looped into shallow right field.
The right fielder charged in, and the ball hung in the air just long enough for the right fielder to slide underneath it and make the catch.
When leather hit cowhide, the runner was already around second base, and he had no chance to get back to first base.
He was doubled-off first to end the threat and, essentially, the game.
We see it in football games all the time, too.
The offense calls for a screen pass on the same play that the defense sends an all-out blitz to the quarterback. The ball gets dumped over the heads of the oncoming defenders to a running back who has three offensive linemen stacked up to plow a path down the field. It’s the perfect play call!
Did the coaches blow it in these situations? No.
Because it’s 2025, we have to blame someone, right? Someone has to be held accountable for the failure, don’t they?
No.
Sometimes things just don’t work out.
Some of you just read that line and started screaming at the top of your lungs at me.
I am good with that, but please hear me out.
There is some irony in me saying this since I am the one who is always talking about the importance of accountability, I admit.
But there is also a level of disrespect given in these situations to the opposing team, isn’t there?
There is an assumption that these plays should work and are going to work and the only thing that can get in the way of them working is our own team’s incompetence.
That’s a very arrogant way to live your life!
The other team practices just like yours does.
The other team has a plan just like yours does.
The other team wants to win the game just like yours does.
As much as coaches and GMs try to manage the things they can control, they can’t control everything.
A great example of this is the Lady Tiger basketball team in the semi-state championship. It was definitely not part of Lenny Krebs’s plan to have Brooke Winchester and Joslyn Bricker on the bench with fouls for the last minute of the game against the top-ranked team in the state who hadn’t lost a game all season.
Yet, there they both were.
If Warsaw loses that game, who is to blame? No one! Hamilton Southeastern had 4 players on their roster that have either signed with or are being recruited by Division I schools. There were legit reasons why they were unbeaten before that night and why they were considered the favorite to win the state championship.
See my point?
Sometimes things just aren’t meant to be.
That concept, by the way, applies to real life as well.
When you can accept that as fact, you put yourself in a position to navigate life a lot better.