It's Just a Game!

Today my Butler Bulldogs suffered their worst loss in Coach Brad Stevens, 6-year career as head ball coach.  VCU dominated Dawg Nation with a stifling and crippling defense.  Kudos to Shaka Smart and the VCU team!  VCU won 84-52.  Yes, you read the score correctly.  My Kentucky Wildcats didn't fare much better in a much needed road game at Arkansas.  The Hogs won 73-60.  It's been a year of struggle for the reigning NCAA champions and Big Blue Nation.   While reflecting on both games I was reminded that these are just kids and it's just a game.  Yes, it's just a game!  I really mean that too.  I'm not kicking the dog, pouting on the couch, or cussing a blue streak.  Ask my wife!

I live in the South and college football is king.  People live and die by what happens on Saturdays.  It's nuts and you can't fully appreciate it until you live here.  Like basketball is to Kentucky, Kansas and Indiana, so is football to South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Texas.  I have heard more grown men than I care to remember lament a weekend loss on sports talk radio well into the next week.  It amazes me how they carry these losses like something happened in their family.  They are down, grumpy and well dare I say, flat out immature.  Fans take these losses far more personal than the players and coaches.  Teams have to start watching video and prepare for the next opponent as soon as the game is over.  The loss stings, but they have the rest of the schedule to prepare to play.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a sports fanatic.  I love my teams, drivers and players.  But they are just another form of entertainment.  They allow me to take a break from the harsh realities of this often cruel and dark world.  But even a loss is a break from the pain and heartache much of the world is battling 24/7.  So why do grown, supposedly mature adults let a game affect their evening, day, or week?  Why would you let something beyond your control, control your life?  Could it be that our priorities are way out of balance?  Could it be that we have perpetuated the very thing we hate and attribute to the media when we complain that college sports is more about business and bucks than student athletes?

Men (it's by and large us), we need to get a grip and act our age!  We need to model to our children a healthy perspective of what's really important in life and our favorite NASCAR driver blowing an engine early in the race is not a life and death matter.  Life is important.  Marriage, children, faith, being productive citizens and giving back to the world is far more important than how my team does on any given Saturday.  How we lose says more about our character than how we win!  

Thank God, He is in control and the sun will rise, air will be readily available to breathe in and the weather will remind us that we have very little control in this world.  But we can control how we respond, or act in regard to a simple game.  If you are among these, "wear it on your sleeve," "take it to bed," types I beg you for the sake of your marriage, family and those around you to get professional help.  Trust me they are not amused by such immature responses to a simple game.

Bottomline: My Butler Bulldogs got their butt kicked.  My Kentucky Wildcats lost a much needed win.  Both teams will play next week and the sun will come up tomorrow.  And I promise you, I won't lose one wink over them and I will be there cheering both of them on next game.  Ah man, Duke escaped Miami, where's my remote?