Nice guys finish first

I believe I have spent far too much time in my life fixated on sports. I have made sports a priority that it didn't deserve. I have looked to sports for inspiration and motivation. As I reflect back, I have been disappointed in what I have found.
I recently saw a retrospective on one of the great teams that I thought so much of. As much as I tried to elevate them, I found them uninspiring.
As we get ready for the Super Bowl, let me put a big asterisk on all of that. With all of the hype and glorification, there are a couple of guys who are very worthy of praise: Tony Dungy and Lovey Smith, the coaches of the Indianapolis Colts and Chicago Bears who will be playing.
You won't hear any trash talk before this Super Bowl, certainly not from these coaches, and I doubt the media will get any from the players. Probably from the fans, but not from the two teams.
It's a different environment on the sidelines. Most kids are raised in sports in an environment where the coach yells and screams at his players to motivate them to do more. If you watch them, they do it a different way.
You don't get to the top of the sport without being an intense competitor. These are great strategists and coaches who are able to get the most out of their teams. They don't do it with yelling, screaming, and profanity. They are breaking the mold.
Probably most of you, like me, had never heard of Lovey Smith until recently. Tony Dungy has been a head coach for a number of years.
I'm affiliated with a Christian group, Methodist Men, and I remember that for a national gathering of our group that was being planned. Some knew of Coach Dungy, his different style, and his strong relationship with Jesus Christ, and wanted him to come to speak. We weren't able to make the necessary arrangements, but we knew he would have made a great speaker.
Coach Smith coached with Coach Dungy, I believe in Tampa Bay, and they are good friends. They share a lot of common coaching philosophy.
It's been stated over and over again, but I'll affirm that it is significant that two black coaches will lead the two teams into the Super Bowl. It is important that we lift up black men who are positive role models. It is important that we lift up blacks who are being successful in positive ways.
The tragedy of sports is as much as we focus on it as a society, there are so few who can earn a significant living at it, and then, often for just a handful of years. It is so highly competitive, kids with a certain level of talent and great determination and drive can only go so far. Hopefully, we can pick up some positive lessons along the way, and I think coaches like Coach Dungy and Coach Smith are the kind of men who will pass those along.

Speaking of black coaches, most people had very low expectations for the North Carolina State men's basketball team this year, with Sidney Lowe, the former Wolfpack great at the reins. I don't think that was particularly a reflection on the coach, who is somewhat of an unknown for most of us, but an assessment of the players he had to work with.
Coach Lowe seems to have gotten the most of what he had to work with. NC State probably won't win the ACC this year. It seems these upstarts in the league, Boston College and Virginia Tech among others, are winning more games than they are suppose to. They should be grateful to just be in the league, and allow the old league teams to pummel them. Ungrateful upstarts. It seems that basketball is getting like football this school year.
Still, Coach Lowe's team is impressing some national observers. Most recently, I watched the Duke-Wake Forest game and heard Bucky Waters, the old Duke coach, talk about how impressed he was with State.
Like with most teams, injuries have already had a hand in the team's fortunes. Point guard Engin Atsur went down early in the season, and if he can return and play near his level of last year, State may finish the year strong.

Speaking of college basketball, we have taken a lot of interest in both NC State and East Carolina this season as we have been giving away tickets to the two programs. While I thought many would be interested in NC State tickets, and we get a limited number from them, we get many more from ECU. I have been pleased with the level of interest in the Pirates.
We got a call recently from a winner of a couple of tickets. The older man who won had never been to a college basketball game before. He took a youngster with him. Had a great time.

Why get psyched up?

Like a lot of others, Monday night I turned on the Ohio State-Florida game. As I watched the pre-game, they showed the Buckeye Band do their traditional halftime show, spelling the script Ohio.
When the drum major leads the tuba player out to dot the "i", the Buckeye fans erupt in cheers. Why?
I can't give you a good answer, any more than I can explain why I get excited when it happens.
I remember in my freshman year in college going to a pep rally. The cheerleaders taught us cheers and told us when the band broke into the fight song, we were to go crazy. And I did.
I guess it's learned behavior. We look around and see the people around us do something, and we do it.
Maybe it works that way early on, but why do we keep doing it, or why do we stop? There has to be some kind of reinforcement.
Over thirty years ago, I remember going to a Virginia-Clemson game. This was a time when neither program was particularly good, but Virginia was particularly sorry and seemingly had been for years. At some point during the game, the band played the fight song or the alma mater and the Virginia alumni in attendance at Clemson rose to sing and do whatever they do traditionally. They were faithful, but without a winning team on the field, their song lacked fire.
Obviously the Buckeyes, until Monday night, had a lot to cheer about this year. They've had a lot to cheer about most years.
I think one of the reasons we cheer for the home team, or even get goose bumps when we hear the fight song, is because we believe it makes a difference. We believe as fans our cheering helps our team win.
There are a lot of reasons why a team wins or doesn't, and it may be interesting to hear all of the experts who believed so strongly that Ohio State would win drum up reasons why Florida won so convincingly.
Emotions play a part. If you don't believe that, ask Coach K about the Cameron Crazies.

Speaking of emotions, there was quite an emotional roller coaster in Seattle Saturday night when the Cowboys played.
I have read a couple of so-called experts go on about how Tony Romo's bobble of the hold on a field goal will go down in history as one of the classic bobbles of all time.
As a Cowboy fan, I was hugely disappointed in how the game played out. Still, as I have watched what seem like endless replays, I am amazed at how Romo had the coolness to pick the ball up and sprint for the goal line. I heard one pundit argue if he had not been tackled from behind on the play he would have scored and no doubt won the game for the Cowboys. I'm not sure that he would have, but I think there was a good chance he would have gotten a first down. He was just a matter of inches short of that. If the tackler had been just a little slower. You can argue that the tackler summoned a super-human effort to bring him down like he did, and I would agree.
Not only is it a game of emotions, but it is a game of inches.
I'm not sure that play will go down as an endless replay, but had he been able to save the play, that might have been the stuff of legends like Montana and Elway.