Sports

Kris Jenkins wins it for Villanova at the buzzer.

Sunday marked one month since the Super Bowl, and Monday I finally emerged from under my sports rock.  Since late in the night on February 5, I gave myself a one month ban on sports talk radio and barely watched ESPN except to catch a UGA or UNC basketball game.  I needed to create some separation for myself.  I didn't want to hear about, read about or talk about the improbable comeback.  I'm happy to hear the conversation is now much more about pitchers and catchers.  It's March.  Hope springs eternal for my Braves.

I've had a rough year in sports.  It all started in Houston, but not in the Super Bowl.  It started in at the Final Four at NRG Stadium. My wife is a UNC fan, and we're pretty big Tar Heel Basketball fans.  The stars were aligning last march for the Heels' third National Championship under Roy Williams.  Preseason #1.  Regular season ACC Champs.  ACC Tournament Champs.  And they'd made it to the National Championship, and even hit an improbable 3-pointer to tie it up.  Then Kris Jenkins happened, and Villanova won the greatest NCAA tournament championship ever.

Surely it would get better in the Fall.  My Dawgs had a new coach, started the season with a resounding win in the Chick-fil-a Kickoff vs. UNC (can you say house divided?), featuring our star player's (Nick Chubb) improbable comeback from injury, and thrilling last minute win at Mizzou at the hand of our rising star, freshman QB Jacob Eason.  Against undefeated Tennessee at home, we'd played our best game of the season, trailed late and made a miracle play with 10 seconds left to seemingly secure the biggest home win in several years.  It would be a huge moment for our rookie coach and rookie QB, who had made the (almost) winning pass.  Then the unthinkable happened.

Jauan Jennings makes the game winning catch.

But the Falcons were rolling through the season.  Midway through the year I thought we looked like a Super Bowl contender.  Indeed, we were.  Matt Ryan was the best player in the league, except maybe for his teammate, Julio Jones.  The offense was unstoppable and the defense was maturing.  The playoffs became the ride of the lifetime, and at halftime of the Super Bowl, I couldn't hardly believe my eyes.  We were going to win the Super Bowl.  The loss to 'Nova stung.  The Hail Mary that derailed our season still hurt.  This would give me some momentary sports joy.  Would I get the red, black or gray Super Bowl Champion shirt?  Maybe one of each, or one short sleeve and one long sleeve.  And a hat.  And a pennant for the basement.  And you know what happened.

James White scores the game winning TD in Overtime

In the stadium where the season of my sports discontent started, it ended.  I'd seen my favorites lose the greatest NCAA championship game ever, one of the greatest SEC games ever (Two 40+ yd TD passes in 10 seconds), and the greatest Super Bowl ever (the only one to ever go to overtime.)  I needed a break.

But I can't just give up on sports.  Hope springs eternal, and there are too many lessons.  During my hiatus from sports talk, my boys' basketball seasons marched on.  My youngest was in an instructional league for Kindergarten and 1st graders.  They didn't keep score.  At that age, the kids there were super aggressive kind of took over.  Nothing wrong with that.  The kids were trying to make plays and really got after it on defense.  It was hard for some kids to even get a shot off all season.  In the last couple of games, the referee cleared a path for a few kids who hadn't been able to score all year to get some clear shots.  They were ecstatic when they'd finally made one.  They beamed the whole way back down the court.  That is what sports have really been about in my life.

Sports build confidence and character like few things I know of.  They teach us to keep fighting and working hard.  They teach discipline and effort.  They teach us to respect leaders.  They teach unselfishness.  They teach teamwork.  Few things have shaped my work life and adult life the way sports did.

They also teach dealing with disappointment.  In the movie Fever Pitch, Jimmy Fallon's character, Ben, describes his affection for his beloved Red Sox and their success this way:  "I like being part of something that's bigger than me...It's good for your soul to invest in something you can't control."  And guess what?  Much of our lives we can't control, and we have to learn to get back up and move on when we're disappointed.  Even being a real fan can be positive.  Can we learn to stick with a team or organization through highs and lows or will we be a front-runner fan?  That teaches us something about commitment and relationships.  People will disappoint us.  Will we stick with them?  And isn't success sweeter when we stuck with them for the long haul?

I love art -- music, movies, artwork.  But someone decides what they look like and how they end up.  The artists controls what they create with the skills they spent a lifetime honing.  But sports are unpredictable.  We have no idea what will happen when the game begins, and how hard you worked doesn't always mean you get the results you want, and sometimes you get lucky, and sometimes the ball bounces the wrong way, and sometimes one decision changes the course of the game, and sometimes your preparation meets the perfect opportunity, and sometimes you have to play again after being incredibly disappointed, and sometimes you celebrate a win only to realize there's another game.  Ain't that life?

And the greatest thing about it?  There's always next year, and in your life, there's always tomorrow.  After all, the Heels are looking like they could make another run, the Dawgs are about to start spring practice, and the Braves look like a young, hungry team.  Don't talk to me about NFL free agency.  I'm not ready for the NFL yet.  

I'm still not over it.

At least I'm not a Warriors or Indians fan.  

Why it matters and why it doesn't

A few months ago, during the long dog days of summer in which college football fans like me wait for the season to begin while munching on every morsel of football news emanating from their beloved program, I caught a replay of the movie Fever Pitch on TV.  I'd seen it a couple of times.  I relate to it because my passion for college football mirrors the passion for the Red Sox portrayed in the movie.  In a pivotal scene, Ben is trying to explain why this is so important to him.  He has been attending Red Sox games since he first went with his uncle twenty-three years ago at the age of seven.  The crowd he sits around has become his family.  His friends jockey for the games they get to go to.  She's been to a few games, but she still doesn't get it.  He asks Lindsey a question:  "Do you still care about anything you cared about 23 years ago?"

One question explains the power of sports.  I suppose for others this could be movies or music (both of which I love as well), but for me, that passion has been college football.  I am enthralled by the atmosphere and nostalgia of it.  In high school you play for your school because you are zoned for it.  In the NFL you play for the team that picks you and chooses to employ you.  A college roster is filled with 100 guys who chose the school, and the stands are filled with alumni who also chose the school and local fans who grew up cheering for the hometown team.  They are still kids, but they are remarkably gifted athletically.

Each school has a fight and strange traditions.  In the SEC, most of the uniforms even still look the same as they did in the '60's and '70's.  This is why I love going to the games.  The bands, the colors, the pageantry, the tailgating...the electricity in the air.  And every time I walk into a stadium, I am flooded with memories of yesteryear.  I am reminded of the drive down Hwy. 106 from Carnesville to Athens coming from South Carolina.  I'm reminded of sitting with my parents and hugging strangers after a big win.  I'm reminded of my hand in my Daddy's back pocket walking through the crowd, so I wouldn't get lost.  I'm reminded of pre-game battles of touch football.  I'm reminded of eating BBQ chicken and 'talking football' with men 40 years older than me.  In the pregame, we were equal.  There is no age when you are worried about how healthy your tailback is or if the D can stop that passing offense they've got.  You are simply fans together.  And I hold these memories with my boys now.  I'm the dad, still caring about something I cared about 33 years ago when I saw Herschel Walker play live and in person.  My boys draw pictures of their favorite players like I drew mine.  And we celebrate with football friends that are like family and see the same faces around our seats, each of them amazed as they've watched my boys grow up with every passing September.  That's why it matters, because so few things in life matter beyond a few years.  We change jobs and houses.  We lose touch with friends and find new friends.  But we never change teams, and we share the same memories with our children that our parents shared with us.  It matters because it has always mattered, and besides our faith and our family, few things always matter in our lives.

But it doesn't matter THAT much.  I recently read an article about Greg McGarity's first five years as Athletics Director at the University of Georgia.  They asked him what was the most difficult moment in those five years.  I thought, "It had to be that Liberty Bowl loss to Central Florida, or the devastating loss to Alabama in the 2012 SEC Championship Game.  Or maybe it was when a string of players go arrested."  His answer was surprising, telling and humbling.  It was when Jonathan Taylor, an outfielder for the UGA baseball team, was paralyzed during a collision in which he and a teammate both dove for a ball.  Because that's the kind of stuff that matters.  These are just games.  They are supposed to be fun.  They should be fun.  They should be disappointing when you lose.  But they don't matter THAT much.  An athlete who can't walk ever again after giving his all while competing...THAT matters.

As another college football season draws near, let us remember (especially here in the Deep South), that the reason this matters so much really isn't about wins and losses.  It's the traditions, camaraderie and glory of it all that makes it matter each and every year, whether our team is champions or chumps that season.  And winning is fun, but it won't last.  There will still be bills to pay and life to live the next Monday.  It's a burst of joy, a few months of relief, but it's not life and death.  We'd trade a thousand wins for a kid to walk again.  Football and sports are about people and relationships.  They are about learning to compete and overcome adversity.  For those that are people of faith, this ought to be crystal clear, but when we are looking glasses tinted with our teams favorite color, sometimes it's easy to forget.

Enjoy the season!

Gregg Popovich and the Spurs on Leadership

You probably don't remember it.  You were shopping for last minute Christmas gifts or going to an office Christmas Party.  Gregg Popovich, iconic coach of the NBA's San Antonio Spurs, had done it again.  A year after being fined $250,000 by the league for resting players, Pop did it again on December 19, 2013.  He sat 38 year-old Tim Duncan and 37 year-old Manu Ginobili down for a Thursday night game at Oakland.  I think he might have even put them on a plane and sent them back to San Antonio.  He received harsh criticism from the league office.  Sports talk radio personalities blasted him for hurting the integrity of the game.  Fans who bought tickets were outraged that they didn't get to see two of the Spurs' starts play.  Do you think that game was the only time the Pop made strategic decisions to take care of his aging stars?  Didn't Duncan and Ginobili look fresh against those young Heat stars (D-Wade notwithstanding)?

Here's the deal.  Gregg Popovich knows what his job is.  He is NOT paid to:

• Make the Commissioner happy.
• Keep competitive balance on track for a December 19 game in Oakland.
• Please fans who bought tickets hoping to see Duncan play.
• Do what sports talk radio personalities think is the proper thing to do.

Pop is paid to win games, namely a championship, within the rules of the league.  If a coach can rest a player because his knees are bothering him, can't he rest a players because his knees are 38 years old?  As the Spurs dismantled the Heat in five games, Pop was giving leaders a valuable lesson:  do what's the in the best interest of the organization.

Pop's December decision did not win him any fans in the league office, but it might have won him a fifth Larry O'Brian Trophy.  Doing what's in the best interest of the organization will not always be understood by others.  I'll be there are people even within the Spurs' organization that didn't like it.  Doing what's best for the organization will bring about criticism, and Pop got plenty.  In 2012, he did the same thing and it cost him financially.  Doing what's in the best interest of the organization might mean financial sacrifices by the leader.  Do you think Pop would trade that trophy for $250,000?  Not a chance.  He did it for the trophy.  He did it because he could see the future, and did what he knew was in the best interest of the organization to achieve the desired future.  When we see someone win and hold the trophy, we sometimes forget the sacrifices, criticism deflected and strategic decisions to get them there.  This will be true in families, church, business and non-profits.  Leadership requires strategic decisions that the leaders knows to be in the best interest of the organization, no matter the criticism.

A little mid-May College Football Talk

A couple of college football notes from the spring. Here's something I don't get. Major college programs are scrutinized like crazy (and they should be) for the behavior of their student-athletes. LSU recently kicked QB Ryan Perriloux off the team after multiple run-ins with the law and breaking team rules. The most alarming of these include connections to counterfieting money. Kudos to LSU. But...Perriloux did what so many major program stars who mess up do -- he's transferring to a smaller school (Jacksonville St.). And they will face almost no scrutiny for letting him on the team, despite his legal troubles. Forgiveness is important, but I just can't figure out why it's okay for him to play at Jacksonville St. and not LSU, and nobody seems to care.

Playoffs? Playoffs?

Yes, the BCS powers-that-be shot down a 4-team playoff last week and I thought I'd weigh in on the issue a little bit for anyone that cares to listen. First of all, it's way more complicated than people on all sides of the issue make it out to be. Let me admit that I'm really not a playoff guy. I don't know if I'm happy they way things are, but I'm not sure a playoff is good for college football. And I LOVE COLLEGE FOOTBALL. I do believe that many (not all) of the proponents of a playoff in college football are more sports fans than college football fans, because I'm not sure they understand the ramifications of what a playoff would do to the game I love. However, I understand that there are many who love college football and desperately want a playoff, and there are some good reasons for that, because the post-season isn't always what we want it to be.

I have a hard time even rationally discussing anything more than a 4-team playoff. An 8-team playoff would change the landscape of college football so much that I really can't even consider it a possibility. That's where I'm not sure what most people understand. Any 8-team playoff would include 6 conference champions from the major conferences. That is a given, and probably 2 at-large teams. That would make so much of the regular season moot. This past year, on the last Saturday of the season, the nation was enthralled at watching LSU vs. Tennessee, Oklahoma vs. Missouri, and Pittsburgh vs. West Virginia. I sat stunned in my den as Pittsburgh did then unthinkable. West Virginia was out of the national championship race because of one game. In an 8-team playoff, that game means nothing because WVU had already wrapped up the Big East. In fact, they might have even rested their starters. Could you imagine a world in which UGA, Ga. Tech, FSU, or Florida rest their starters in an end of the year non-conference rivalry game because the conference championship is the next week and they really only care about that coveted playoff spot. If you think that wouldn't happen, take a good look at the end of the NFL season. It happens every year. The Patriots didn't do it and what did that get them? They were just the first loser to cross the finish line and a team with a combined 14-6 record was somehow crowned champion over a team with an 18-1 record. I wish someone could please explain to me why that system is superior to a system that routinely pairs teams with 0,1, or 2 losses against each other for the championship.

The other problem is that it's not all apples and apples. The talent level in the NFL is more even across the board, the NFL schedules are mandated by the league, so you can't schedule patsies. However, this year, Southern Cal will play 12 BCS conference teams, UGA will play 10. Many schools will play only 8 or 9. Therefore, the total schedule is the formula in the NFL. That's a lot trickier in college football because two 10-2 teams don't always equal each other because of conference strength and out-of-conference scheduling. The bottom line is that an 8-team or more playoff would eventually render the regular season "almost" meaningless. If you don't think that's the case, then tell me about TV ratings for college basketball before March. Nobody cares, because the games don't matter. Even the most bitter rivalries (i.e. UNC/Duke) don't mean much but bragging rights because they're both going to the dance.

So, what about a 4-team? Well, I think a 4-team playoff could work, and I think it will probably happen one day, but it's not the end-all, be-all. It still worries me. Let me say why I think that it might be needed first. Namely, just what I mentioned above - scheduling and strength of conference. The past couple years have taught us that records do not equate across conference lines. There are discrepencies in scheduling that have to be addressed that might not can be unless it's played out on the field. I also think that there are usually 2-4 teams that are worthy of national title consideration. Even in the years when there are only two undefeated teams, it's not always that simple. After the last two BCS games, the '02 top three of SEC champ 12-1 UGA, Big 10 champ 13-0 Ohio St., and Big East Champ 12-0 Miami doesn't look as clear cut as it did back then. Obviously, the last few years have been chaos when 3-4 teams have legimate claims to a shot at the title. I think college football has become so regional that a 4-team playoff could help alleviate that.

I do think they will make a grave mistake if they use neutral sites for semi-final games, giving almost no reward for going undefeated. Imagine telling the Patriots they had to play the Chargers in Kansas City for the AFC championship last fall. They'd laugh at you...and deservedly so. So, if they go forward with it, I hope they give home field advantage to the top 2 for the semis. Moreover, few college football fans would be able to afford traveling to Miami one weekend, only to have to go to New Orleans or Pasadena 2 weeks later, especially if they expect to be in the top 4 every year, which USC, Ohio St., and whoever is SEC champion looks to be in the foreseeable future. It might be fun one year, but fans would wait it out to see if they made the championship game. After a few years, semifinal games would be made for TV events played in front of a bunch of empty seats at neutral sites. Look in the stands in the NCAA basketball early rounds and regionals if you don't believe me.

But my greatest fear is still that sanctity of the college season. On Aug. 30, we're all going to watch Bama/Clemson. On Sept. 13, we're all going to watch USC/Ohio St. On Sept. 20, we're all going to watch Arizona St./UGA...because those games mean everything. In a 4-team playoff world, they don't mean much because you could lose a high profile out of conference game and still run the table in your own league and be fine. I'm not sure I want that. Without home-field advantage, those games would mean almost nothing at all, because being ranked #1 would be no different then being ranked #4. I want the best for college football. I'm just not sure that people who are clamoring for a playoff understand what could be lost in the process. And I love the craziest 13-weeks in sports, when anything can happen, and one-game can make all the difference.

Just my 2-cents on a sport I love. Maybe you disagree. I'd love to hear why.