Five Lessons from College Football
1) Take nothing for granted. The game is over when it’s over.
2) Trust your opponent to be untrustworthy.
3) Be mindful of where you are. Proprioception in sports is key to victory.
4) Know and employ an optimal strategy.
1) Take Nothing for Granted
No victory is ensured until the clock reads zero. In the November 18 game between Florida and Missouri, the Gators scored the go-ahead point in the fourth quarter with under two minutes left in the game, elating the players and their fans. After the ensuing kickoff a Florida victory seemed assured because the Tigers had a long field to traverse with little time. But they did regain the lead. With five seconds left, Missouri kicked a field goal to win the game.
2) Trust Your Opponent to Be Untrustworthy
Where big money is coupled with unscrupulous pride, cheating is often assured. The University of Michigan with more football victories than any other university, got into sign-stealing during its current rush to the playoffs. Sending spies whose travel is supported by “supporters” to steal opponent’s signs is a practice forbidden by the NCAA and the Big Ten.
3) Be Mindful of Where You Are
In consecutive weeks, two football players, one for Washington and the other from Alabama, purposefully dropped the football in premature celebration just before they entered the end zone. The drops negated their assumed scores, raised the ire of coaches and fans, and put the mark of “idiot” on the back of their helmets. As the Alabama coach said, “Every coach says score the touchdown and hand the football to the ref.” The victory dance started long ago by Billy White-Shoes Johnson has become a practice that has led not just to failed attempts to score but also to after-score penalties for excessive celebrations and chest-thumping.
4) Know and Employ the Optimal Strategy to Ensure Victory
In a game awhile back, the University of Miami, ranked 17th at the time, lost to Georgia Tech when the Hurricanes chose to run the ball instead of taking a knee to run out the clock. Miami fumbled, and GT went on to win with only seconds left.
Is This about Football or Politics?
I remember hearing both my algebra teacher and my football coach say that what we were engaging in was a preparation for life. I know both cliches are common, and I can see that football is a good preparation for “life” because life’s tough and football requires toughness. I have my doubts about the relevance of algebra, but the persistence of the belief in its relevance doesn’t do any harm. Anyway, football is the topic here, so let’s see whether it applies to today’s politics.
1) Take Nothing for Granted
The Israelis have attempted to negotiate ceasefires with Hamas and Hezbollah over the past decades, each of which has been broken by rockets fired into Israel and by terror attacks. The recent attack and massacre by Hamas indicates that a lax Israel took its safety a bit too much for granted. The conflict between Israel and its sworn enemies won’t be over until it’s over. Hamas will endeavor to make a comeback.
My father, a Marine who fought on Okinawa, told me when I was a child that one should “never give a sucker an even break.” By that, he meant one should never turn his back on an opponent under the assumption that the opponent will not strike back. It’s a common lesson that every “professional” wrestler learns when he turns to the audience to celebrate a victory prematurely. The downed opponent always rises in the ring to attack the celebrant. We know it’s all fake, but it is also a life lesson.
The Biden Administration took for granted that the Afghanistan army would sustain the peace bought by American lives. It turned its back to the Taliban. It celebrated even as the Taliban rose to dominate the country once again, probably with the eventual re-emergence of Al Qaeda.
2) Trust Your Opponent to be Untrustworthy
Almost immediately after the Iranians signed “treaties” barring them from developing nuclear weapons, they stalled on allowing unfettered inspections of their nuclear facilities. They developed and deployed strategic missiles contrary to agreements and restrictions, and they exported weapons for terrorists to use against Israel and the West. In the interim, both the Obama and Biden Administrations fed the Iranian billions of dollars once retained as a punishment for their international bad behavior. The Iranians continue to prove themselves to be untrustworthy, and the Biden Administration continues to treat them as if they are trustworthy.
3) Be Mindful of Where You Are
Joe Biden never seems to know where he is. That applies on different scales, from his having no idea where to stand on a stage of foreign dignitaries to his having little idea about the nature of the energy-rich country he leads. America has inordinate energy wealth, but he has played a large role in making the country oil dependent—and oil dependent on nations that are neither democratic nor friendly. Coming off four years of burgeoning oil independence under the Trump Administration, Biden took office and immediately shut down a major pipeline and instituted other restrictions. America was just on the cusp of dominating world economies and oil production when he “dropped the ball.”
4) Know and Employ the Optimal Strategy for Victory
Running with green energy in spite of its limitations has led to numerous fumbles: Windmills that don’t operate in cold weather, inadequate power to power both electric transportation and homes, inadequate mileage from electric vehicles to facilitate the flow of commerce, and the biggest fumble, a minuscule return on “controlling” world temperatures. Yet, Biden and company keep pushing a strategy that will likely not result in any victory over world temperatures when countries like China and India continue to burn fossil fuels. In addition, the strategy of green energy can easily be overwhelmed by natural swings in climatic conditions, as evidenced by the Little Ice Age, the Medieval Warm Period, the Roman Warming, and the Younger Dryas, all of which occurred in the absence of (or before) humans began using fossil fuels. In addition, the green wave requires not only a restructuring of American energy, but also an enormous expenditure of tax dollars, diverting them from needed expenditures like defense and decreasing the national debt.
OH! And One More Lesson: Recruit Players with the Skills to Win
In football, coaches place players suited to positions in those positions. A lightning-fast wide receiver can’t play defensive center or tackle. A 350-pound lineman can’t go deep for a long pass. Players play where their skill sets and physical attributes coincide with the demands of the position and only with proof of success at that position. Coaches can’t play favorites in this; and the moment a player can’t perform to the standard, coaches bench, dismiss, or trade the player. Choosing a player because of political leaning, race, religion, or gender isn’t wise. The best-at-what-they-do is the ideal. But look at the Biden Administration: A Secretary of Transportation chosen because of sexual orientation, not because of expertise in transportation; a Press Secretary who stumbles over reading notes, chosen for who knows what reason—sexual orientation, race, quota demands?— and a Secretary of Homeland Security who thinks an open border is a closed border and whose policies have facilitated, not limited, the illegal drugs flowing into the country, the number of cases of child abuse and enslavement, the rapes, and murders all attributed to his enabling cartels to exploit an open border.
What kind of a team does Biden coach? One with players ill-suited to their positions. One that employs feckless strategies. One that drops the ball before scoring the touchdown.
Bet you won’t watch football the same way this coming weekend.
1) Take nothing for granted. The game is over when it’s over.
2) Trust your opponent to be untrustworthy.
3) Be mindful of where you are. Proprioception in sports is key to victory.
4) Know and employ an optimal strategy.
1) Take Nothing for Granted
No victory is ensured until the clock reads zero. In the November 18 game between Florida and Missouri, the Gators scored the go-ahead point in the fourth quarter with under two minutes left in the game, elating the players and their fans. After the ensuing kickoff a Florida victory seemed assured because the Tigers had a long field to traverse with little time. But they did regain the lead. With five seconds left, Missouri kicked a field goal to win the game.
2) Trust Your Opponent to Be Untrustworthy
Where big money is coupled with unscrupulous pride, cheating is often assured. The University of Michigan with more football victories than any other university, got into sign-stealing during its current rush to the playoffs. Sending spies whose travel is supported by “supporters” to steal opponent’s signs is a practice forbidden by the NCAA and the Big Ten.
3) Be Mindful of Where You Are
In consecutive weeks, two football players, one for Washington and the other from Alabama, purposefully dropped the football in premature celebration just before they entered the end zone. The drops negated their assumed scores, raised the ire of coaches and fans, and put the mark of “idiot” on the back of their helmets. As the Alabama coach said, “Every coach says score the touchdown and hand the football to the ref.” The victory dance started long ago by Billy White-Shoes Johnson has become a practice that has led not just to failed attempts to score but also to after-score penalties for excessive celebrations and chest-thumping.
4) Know and Employ the Optimal Strategy to Ensure Victory
In a game awhile back, the University of Miami, ranked 17th at the time, lost to Georgia Tech when the Hurricanes chose to run the ball instead of taking a knee to run out the clock. Miami fumbled, and GT went on to win with only seconds left.
Is This about Football or Politics?
I remember hearing both my algebra teacher and my football coach say that what we were engaging in was a preparation for life. I know both cliches are common, and I can see that football is a good preparation for “life” because life’s tough and football requires toughness. I have my doubts about the relevance of algebra, but the persistence of the belief in its relevance doesn’t do any harm. Anyway, football is the topic here, so let’s see whether it applies to today’s politics.
1) Take Nothing for Granted
The Israelis have attempted to negotiate ceasefires with Hamas and Hezbollah over the past decades, each of which has been broken by rockets fired into Israel and by terror attacks. The recent attack and massacre by Hamas indicates that a lax Israel took its safety a bit too much for granted. The conflict between Israel and its sworn enemies won’t be over until it’s over. Hamas will endeavor to make a comeback.
My father, a Marine who fought on Okinawa, told me when I was a child that one should “never give a sucker an even break.” By that, he meant one should never turn his back on an opponent under the assumption that the opponent will not strike back. It’s a common lesson that every “professional” wrestler learns when he turns to the audience to celebrate a victory prematurely. The downed opponent always rises in the ring to attack the celebrant. We know it’s all fake, but it is also a life lesson.
The Biden Administration took for granted that the Afghanistan army would sustain the peace bought by American lives. It turned its back to the Taliban. It celebrated even as the Taliban rose to dominate the country once again, probably with the eventual re-emergence of Al Qaeda.
2) Trust Your Opponent to be Untrustworthy
Almost immediately after the Iranians signed “treaties” barring them from developing nuclear weapons, they stalled on allowing unfettered inspections of their nuclear facilities. They developed and deployed strategic missiles contrary to agreements and restrictions, and they exported weapons for terrorists to use against Israel and the West. In the interim, both the Obama and Biden Administrations fed the Iranian billions of dollars once retained as a punishment for their international bad behavior. The Iranians continue to prove themselves to be untrustworthy, and the Biden Administration continues to treat them as if they are trustworthy.
3) Be Mindful of Where You Are
Joe Biden never seems to know where he is. That applies on different scales, from his having no idea where to stand on a stage of foreign dignitaries to his having little idea about the nature of the energy-rich country he leads. America has inordinate energy wealth, but he has played a large role in making the country oil dependent—and oil dependent on nations that are neither democratic nor friendly. Coming off four years of burgeoning oil independence under the Trump Administration, Biden took office and immediately shut down a major pipeline and instituted other restrictions. America was just on the cusp of dominating world economies and oil production when he “dropped the ball.”
4) Know and Employ the Optimal Strategy for Victory
Running with green energy in spite of its limitations has led to numerous fumbles: Windmills that don’t operate in cold weather, inadequate power to power both electric transportation and homes, inadequate mileage from electric vehicles to facilitate the flow of commerce, and the biggest fumble, a minuscule return on “controlling” world temperatures. Yet, Biden and company keep pushing a strategy that will likely not result in any victory over world temperatures when countries like China and India continue to burn fossil fuels. In addition, the strategy of green energy can easily be overwhelmed by natural swings in climatic conditions, as evidenced by the Little Ice Age, the Medieval Warm Period, the Roman Warming, and the Younger Dryas, all of which occurred in the absence of (or before) humans began using fossil fuels. In addition, the green wave requires not only a restructuring of American energy, but also an enormous expenditure of tax dollars, diverting them from needed expenditures like defense and decreasing the national debt.
OH! And One More Lesson: Recruit Players with the Skills to Win
In football, coaches place players suited to positions in those positions. A lightning-fast wide receiver can’t play defensive center or tackle. A 350-pound lineman can’t go deep for a long pass. Players play where their skill sets and physical attributes coincide with the demands of the position and only with proof of success at that position. Coaches can’t play favorites in this; and the moment a player can’t perform to the standard, coaches bench, dismiss, or trade the player. Choosing a player because of political leaning, race, religion, or gender isn’t wise. The best-at-what-they-do is the ideal. But look at the Biden Administration: A Secretary of Transportation chosen because of sexual orientation, not because of expertise in transportation; a Press Secretary who stumbles over reading notes, chosen for who knows what reason—sexual orientation, race, quota demands?— and a Secretary of Homeland Security who thinks an open border is a closed border and whose policies have facilitated, not limited, the illegal drugs flowing into the country, the number of cases of child abuse and enslavement, the rapes, and murders all attributed to his enabling cartels to exploit an open border.
What kind of a team does Biden coach? One with players ill-suited to their positions. One that employs feckless strategies. One that drops the ball before scoring the touchdown.
Bet you won’t watch football the same way this coming weekend.
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