I love watching sports and in my opinion, the best part is the end. At the end of games or tournaments you get to learn a lot about people and write the story.
With the new lucrative nature of professional sports I have said “it’s worth wasting a life for.”
I’m not necessarily interested in the brutality in which these men and women throw themselves around but rather the upsets, the raw emotion, and the sportsmanship. Those reasons make up why sport is truly magical and why it is important for kids to take part.
During my years I’ve noticed an appreciation for other people’s success and the joy it brings to me. This could be why I love teaching and coaching.
I spent a lot of time over the years watching sports and competitions and for me the stories start at the end of a game, end of a tournament or an end of a chapter.
Where Has the Emotion Gone
I think it’s important to let you know that I am a golf pro during the day to pay writing bills, so you may see references to golf in some of my articles. But one of my biggest concerns right now is this new emphasis on stoicism. I mean, I love it for my daily life that’s what gets me through most days, but for my pure viewing pleasure, where is the emotion?
We have gone from fist pumps that could have knocked out Tyson to something that looks more like they’re squeezing their golf ball (try it, you’ll see what I mean) or like they’re giving their nephew a little bop on the head in a backyard football game. There is seriously more aggression in a game of rock, paper, scissors.
But it’s not all a loss, there are plenty of good stories to be found still. New faces are always fun to see and it’s a reminder of what a life changing event winning on the PGA Tour can be, Scottie Scheffler finally winning, Sepp Straka getting his first win, and of course Sahith Theegala in the desert although he didn’t finish it off. I think the first time winners allow us as fans to see gratefulness, which appears in short supply in sports recently. It feels like some wins aren’t as important as others.
In fact, I’d argue in day-to-day life it appears gratefulness is trending down while entitlement is trending up.
Favored Failures
There is not enough paper in the world to write all of the stories that can be told from just one year of the NCAA basketball tournament. Great stories from individuals and their road to the “dance” to the incredible runs by schools who seemingly have no right being there – the Butlers, VCUs, and Wichita States of the world. But, we are not going to focus on those stories. Instead, we are going to go in the other direction, Virginia, Georgetown, and most recently Kentucky. Now we are going to narrow our focus to the players and the handshakes at the end of the game.
The handshakes at the end of the game are the best part of the game, it’s where you get the real stories. After every game there is a mixture of emotions separated by the line that goes down the center of the court. To make this easier to observe or relate here is the list of Robert Plutchick’s eight emotions: Fear, Anger, Sadness, Joy, Disgust, Surprise, Trust, and Anticipation.
Now that you’ve seen the eight emotions, think of the post game pictures you’ve seen over the years, where do they fall when do they appear. Some of them are easy to place – anger, sadness, joy – but my two favorites are trust and surprise. These two cross the center line, or rather sit right on it sharing a little on both sides, but for much different reasons. If they’re being honest the winners are typically as shocked as the losers, but trust is interesting. The trust among the winners grows stronger, propelling a team like VCU from a play-in game to one of the last two games of the tournament. But the trust among the losers can either grow or be fractured, if there ever was any to begin with.
The thoughts that go through the minds of the players who were never supposed to lose that game must be dizzying. Once the surprise or shock clears, I imagine there is a crushing of an ever present confidence they’ve had since elementary or middle school, regret that that same confidence interfered with preparation, and an urge to seek out trust to finish it off. If emotions like these are not felt it seems a new word is introduced, indifference.
Bearing the Weight
The NFL draft has recently turned into quite the production but there are some images that are burned in my brain. The first one that comes to minds is when Vernon Davis was selected sixth by the San Francisco 49ers in 2006. It’s not because I’m a huge Vernon Davis or 49ers fan but because he was the first individual I remember seeing at the NFL draft break down and weep upon hearing his name drawn. In an environment with so much testosterone and masculinity what could cause such a loss of emotional control, was he not told that men don’t cry?
When I watched that I had a hard time not crying myself, I think it is a relatable feeling each of us have about different things in our lives. Seeing the expression on his face I didn’t believe it was about the paycheck he was going to get and the stuff he was going to buy, I don’t even think it had anything to do with the fact that he had finally made the NFL. When I saw that I thought that was the look of relief, validation, confirmation of sacrifices. There are a lot of forks in the road of life and outcomes for each decision and with every decision comes internal questions. Sometimes those nagging questions get answered sometimes not – that day Vernon Davis’ internal questions were answered.
We Are All Qualified
You may ask “who are you to have all of these opinions?” Well, I’ve been through all of these same things, just like you. I never played in the NCAA tournament or college sports in general, and certainly was never drafted in the NFL but I have played sports through grade school and high school. And it’s more than sports, I’ve had work rejected that I worked tirelessly on, I’ve been turned down for jobs I thought I deserved. I’ve run through the same emotions during these occasions as well, and to answer the comments before they’re asked, importance is in the eye of the doer.
The hope is that these articles affect you in a way you need to be affected that day. If you felt a certain way, journal about it, it’s amazing how good that feels.
Thanks for reading and please leave a comment, I write these for me with you in mind.