INSIDE SPORTS ON SUPER SUNDAY

To get inside sports, put yourself in a pair of football cleats and stand behind the center.

Yell out a couple of “hut huts” and see what happens.

What happens?

Everyone on the other team chases after you.

What do you do? Run, Forrest, run.

And there you have it. This is how to get inside sports.

You either run away, or chase after.

Put Your Head In There

Football has taught lessons for all of us, without taking a fist in the face.

Safety, player safety, eventually stepped up.

Wear a mouth guard, put a cage on the helmet, and play by the rules.

At the end of the allotted time look at the scoreboard.

Either one team is ahead of the other, or it’s a tie game and headed for overtime.

Most of the time it ends up with a win for one side and a loss for the other.

Take Your Ball And Go Home

Not everyone is happy after a win or a loss.

Gamblers betting on a point spread can win money even if their team loses.

It’s not a ‘win – win’ for them.

Kids who idolize players get to see how to handle the wins and losses.

Most important, your average Joe can sit on their couch and tell anyone listening:

“I used to play football, you know. I’ve done that. Got a varsity letter. You know why they lost today? I’ll tell you why. Because they didn’t do what I’d do.”

You’ve heard this, maybe you’ve said it.

Depending on the group, it’s the best joke every told, or the tragedy of another sad man who hasn’t gotten over high school when their mom wouldn’t sign the permission slip to play football and they were secretly afraid to take a hit and didn’t know how to deliver one.

People get further inside sports, and sports gets further inside them, when they apply the Rule of Scoreboard to the rest of their life.

You get ready for a contest, show up on time, try your best, then when it’s over it’s done.

With either a win or a loss, you go home and get ready for the next contest without bitching and complaining about how unfair, how cheated, how badly you were treated.

At the same time, if you win it doesn’t make you the The Greatest.

We already know who that is.