Football Hall of Fame and Greenbay Packer Coach Vince Lombardi is frequently quoted for his "Winning isn't everything. It's the only thing". Yessir, win or go home. It's the American way. Steroids are rampant through sports, even down to high school. Charges that the New England Patriots won their championships, at least in part, because they cheated by stealing the other teams' play-calling signals persist (if you want you can read the article below).
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080508/ap_on_sp_fo_ne/fbn_patriots_walsh_tapes
Lombardi's last championship was in the mid-1960's, so you got to figure that winning at all costs has been the American way for awhile now. 'Cept that's not how I remember it. I remember when parents (even my own sweet dad) used to say, "It's not whether you win or lose, it's how you played the game". I remember when East Germany (yeah, I know, not a separate country anymore) used to be a symbol for winning Olympic contests by cheating. Every East German woman who won an Olympic medal looked like a dude (and not a handsome one, either), and everybody knew they only won because they cheated. They used steroids. It used to be a bad thing. The Cubans may have beaten us in boxing, but they used pros. The Soviets (yeah, I know, not a country anymore) may have stolen our basketball gold medal, but that's because they obviously paid the refs to give them more time (and they used pros, and we sent in college kids). You won, but we couldn't live with ourselves if we had to do what you did to win.
Here's to Central Washington's college softball team, whose players carried a member of the other team around the basepaths after she'd knocked the ball over the fence, but blew out her knee and couldn't round the bases without help. I'd read the story a couple of days ago, and saw a video of it on Kate's blog, "Out in Left Field" yesterday. None of those gals would make it on East Germany's Olympic teams, and I couldn't be prouder of them (they're prettier, too).
6 comments:
Mission Accomplished!
(They're doin' a heckuva job ...)
Always love a Bush reference. Although, aren't you a little old for Brownies?
Last week at the state qualifier for track I watched a guy from the town next door collapse about five meters from the finish of the 3200. He'd given it his all and was on PR pace when his asthma took over. I watched as he awkwardly crawled to the line and then was unable to move. Sadly, some of his team mates were behind me laughing. Fortunately, the star on his team had already finished, saw his collapse and then carried him off the track to the scorer's tent. He was taken away by ambulance a good hour later because his heart rate never stabilized.
I blurted a word or two to his buddies poking fun at him. Can't wait for states this weekend so I can shake the hand of the guy who carried him off the field.
Sure hope my own kiddos will step up to the plate when opportunity presents itself.
I bet they will.
Yeah, dad might have said, "It's how you play the game." but he also could have said:
It's how you throw the racket.
It's how you cuss the ref.
He was a Lombardi man through and through, but he wasn't a Bellichicken man. He never advocated cheating, just poor sportsmanship. He called it, and we called it (because SuperD and I would throw a racket or two) intensity, but it was really poor sportsmanship.
That's about right. I'm still trying to develope sportsmanship, all these years later. I've solved the tennis problem, though; I just don't play anymore...
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