Today was an incredible day for Dallas sports. Yes, you read that correctly Dallas sports. In the Cotton Bowl Baylor gave Tech a run for their money. In the new Cowboys stadium Texas A&M faced off against Arkansas and just across the street in the ballpark the Rangers played with heart but failed. If you are a sports lover like I am, then perhaps you appreciated the traffic on 30 as I did. Perhaps you reveled in the fact that that in your hometown the seasons were crossing and fall was in full swing.
Me, I spent my day watching all of these things happen with the most amazing “almost 3 year olds” that I know. They were donned in their spirit wear, but didn’t fully understand its implications.
Today, sports fans, the nations #1 ranked team was felled by an unexpected opponent. If you are a Longhorn like me, you loved the fact the impenetrable defense of the Alabama Crimson Tide was indeed penetrated. You loved the unexpected upset that is the spirit of college football. You, like me, rooted for a team that was little known to you – the South Carolina Gamecock.
You, like me had trouble deciding which television set to watch… the baseball game or the football game. And for a little while, like me, your worldly troubles disappeared.
They disappeared into the abyss that is the competitive nature of athletics. Where it doesn’t matter if yesterday you couldn’t stop thinking about your broken heart. Where it doesn’t matter that you don’t know where you are headed. Where it doesn’t matter that you haven’t achieved everything you thought you should.
Because today, on those fields of green, hearts were broken, entire teams realized they didn’t know where they were headed and entire teams realized that they did not achieve everything that they should. Today, you were not alone. Entire teams were with you.
That’s the brilliance of a really great sports day… its not the technical aspects of the games or the coaching. It’s the fact that for a few shining moments there are teams of people trying to achieve just like you are in life. For those few moments, hopes and dreams hang in the balance just like they do for each of us. For those few moments, we can suspend ourselves in the hopes and dreams of others. We can find glory and we can find heartbreak. Just like in life.
So today, at the very least, for me… these great games, these great glories and loses mirrored my own life. And just like the Rangers and the Crimson Tide, I will awake tomorrow with the hope of future glory. Knowing that today I learned lessons that no teacher could have taught and I felt disappointment like no one could ever explain. But tomorrow, oh tomorrow, we’ll all look at what we did, we’ll learn from it and we’ll live on for another day and another game. Tomorrow is pure and ready for new start.
And on Saturday, we won’t be the same as we were today - we’ll be better, stronger, faster and smarter. At the end of today… at the end of defeat… we’ll hope again for victory and maybe, just maybe it will be ours again on Saturday.
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