Life lessons from college football
Acrimony. Divisiveness. Despair.
That’s all we seem to see, to the point where many have started to lose hope. But not so fast. The American Dream is alive and well, and nowhere was it more on display than at Monday night’s college football championship.
After committing a costly error, Georgia Bulldogs’ quarterback Stetson Bennett led an incredible fourth-quarter drive that culminated in the game-winning touchdown, defeating perennial juggernaut Alabama in a true clash of the titans.
It was a fairytale ending — the stuff of legend about which every young player dreams. But aren’t great players expected to make great plays? Yes — except that in Mr. Bennett’s case, he wasn’t considered “great” when he started his collegiate career, given that almost no big-time schools offered him a scholarship as a freshman. Many in his place would have accepted a position with a lesser team, or packed it in altogether.
Through a set of fortuitous circumstances, Bennett was thrust into the starting lineup near the beginning of this season, with the crushing weight of not just the team, but the entire state of Georgia on his shoulders. After all, this was supposed to be the Bulldogs’ year — or at least it was until original starter J.T. Daniels went down with an injury.
And make no mistake: Bulldog nation was hungry for a championship, since they hadn’t won it all since Jimmy Carter was exiting the White House. They had come close, including a heartbreaking overtime loss to Alabama in 2017’s championship thriller, but the Crimson Tide always came up better. In fact, Georgia’s only loss this season — and Mr. Bennett’s only defeat as a starter, which had dethroned the Dawgs as the nation’s best team — came against (you guessed it) Alabama.
Under the big lights, Mr. Bennett got off to an underwhelming start. His defense bailed him out by keeping the Tide in check, but everyone knew that wasn’t going to last. If he didn’t step up, the Crimson Tide would once again drown the Dogs and it would be Groundhog Day all over again. Predictably, social media was lighting up with fans demanding that he be replaced by Daniels. Yet Bennett remained undeterred.
Which lead us to his decisive drive that is now Peach State lure. After putting his team ahead, and then watching the defense intercept Alabama to seal the victory, Stetson Bennett did what every grown man should do now and then (but often don’t, for fear that it detracts from masculinity): burst into tears, causing millions at home to cry right along with him.
Stetson Bennett was a throwback, evoking, and indeed reawakening, the excellence that was commonplace in an earlier America, when people wore their work ethic as a badge of honor. People were proud of their accomplishments because they earned them — the hard way. They pulled themselves up by their own bootstraps, instead of living in today’s world of victimhood, where excuses such as “unfairness” and “it was too hard” are commonplace.
Sports can teach us a lot about life, and even more about ourselves. We learn from a young age (political correctness notwithstanding) the value of winning graciously and losing honorably. We learn that a team working together unselfishly trumps the all-about-me individual more concerned with personal glory than achieving success.
We learn that losing doesn’t have to mean failing, and that coming up short is the best motivation to picking ourselves up, dusting ourselves off, and getting back out there, smarter, wiser, and humbler. We learn that from the ashes of our mistakes comes the opportunity for rebirth — the unique human ability to change, adapt, and overcome so that we can better ourselves, and those around us. We learn that through grit and determination, no obstacle is insurmountable, and that underdogs can rule the day.
Sure, playing in front of millions is reserved for the very best. But the values that make teams great don’t change depending on the level of play; they are the same for pros and youths alike. And they also hold true for our families, communities and workplaces.
In the meantime, the words of Jack Nicholson in “A Few Good Men” come to mind in describing the 2021 Georgia Bulldogs: “We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something.”
Because of their work ethic, Georgia now has something very special worth defending: a national championship.