The Deeper Meaning Behind Football #1

(Title By Sara, Post By Nick)

I grew up a Buffalo Bills fan. This is important because it’s not easy being a Bills fan. Since I’ve been a conscious sports fan, I’ve witnessed a lot more disappointment than victory. In fact, the only national championship my favorite team has accomplished is the team I follow the least, the New Jersey Devils. The Twins won the World Series when I was 13, before I was really a loyal fan; and of course the Jazz and Bills both played for their respective championships- the Jazz lost to the Bulls twice, the Bills lost four Super Bowls in a row. And then there’s the Utah State Aggies. They’re always so close, win a lot of moral victories, in all their sports, but so often come up short.

But back to being a Bills fan. There was an ESPN commercial that said without sports, we’d stop believing. It was claymation of a town in upstate New York. It’s a gray and gloomy town, the yards uncared for, the sky stormy and bleak. A family, including the grandmother in her motorized cart, sit round a TV on a Sunday afternoon while the announcer from the TV talks about the end of another Bills’ game where it looks like they will come up short. In the final play, the other team fumbles and a Bills player picks it up and runs towards the endzone. The sun comes out from behind the clouds, the grass turns green, the houses become colorful. The family gets excited, smiling, cheering; grandma jumps up from her motorized scooter and starts dancing. All the while, the announcer calls the touchdown, how incredible it was that the Bills would win. Then the announcer says “wait, they’re calling it back, they’re saying he stepped out at the 30 and the game is over. The Bills lose another heartbreaker.” The sun disappears again, the town turns gray, and the family falls back into their morose, lethargic state. In the first Super Bowl they played in, Scott Norwood missed a 47 yard field goal wide right in the final seconds. In their second, Thurman Thomas spent the first quarter looking for his misplaced (or hidden) helmet. He fumbled on the goal line in their fourth Super Bowl which would have been what they needed to take a lead they could possibly have held. They were the victim of the Music City Miracle, took the lead with only seconds left on the clock, and then lost as a lateral pass on the kickoff that was right on the edge of being illegal (and probably was) successfully switched the field allowing the Tennessee Titans to win. They would eventually lose to the St. Louis Rams in their own heartbreak, their receiver being tackled within a yard of the endzone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OP8XPxPWaU4


Which leads me to yesterday. I woke up excited because it was the first day of the Utah State football season. I wasn’t expecting much from this season; a rookie quarterback being inserted into an offense that underachieved horribly last year, and a defense that ran out of gas by the fourth quarter, so I just wanted them to play well against last year’s national champions, cover the spread. They did much better than that; they dominated Auburn through the first half, and the offense had no problem driving the ball against a super-athletic (and paid for) SEC defense throughout the game. With just over three minutes left, Robert Turbin scored a touchdown to put the Aggies up 10. But like my dad always says, the Aggies always play just well enough to break your heart. Auburn scored a touchdown within a minute and then executed a perfect onside kick that USU didn’t defend against at all. With no time outs, Auburn drove the rest of the football field and scored, going up four with 30 seconds left. A last second screen play got them half way, but that was it. There’s a little solace in the fact that they were in a game that they had no business playing in, but it’s a game they should have won, and lost because they panicked, or weren’t prepared, or Auburn finally woke up, whatever reason, it’s a disappointment that the team will fight all season.

Five hours later, my little family went up to the Utah State volleyball tournament.

It was the final night of the round robin, and their final match was against Texas State. I’m pretty uneducated about the abilities of volleyball teams, but I figured USU would be able to dominate the much smaller future WAC school. Looking at the opposing team, I thought the same thing. It didn’t happen that way; the Aggies were run over in the first set, eked out a win in the second, dominated the third, and barely showed up in the fourth. In the last “overtime” set, they go down early, and it looked bleak, but they came alive, played solid defense, and rode the arms of their star outside hitters Liz McArthur and Jocelyn White (the tournament MVP) who got the last three kills of the game.

To finish the night, my wife and I rented The Adjustment Bureau, a movie about a “government agency” that makes small adjustments in people’s lives to keep the plan on track. The point of the movie is the defense of Free Agency, especially in terms of love. It seemed the perfect movie to accompany our day. Volleyball is about small adjustments at high speeds, a forearm rotated a degree in the wrong direction shanks the ball into the crowd, or benignly over the net, or straight into the Libero’s face. A couple of close calls that went the Aggies’ way changed the course of the final set. The onside kick, hit a fraction higher, lower, to the left, or to the right could have knocked the ball straight to an Aggie, or out of bounds, or trickling only a few yards when it has to go at least ten before it’s touched by a Tiger.

I don’t mean to imply that God cares at all who wins a preseason volleyball tournament, or a meaningless college football game, or even a Super Bowl. Sports is just a microcosm of our lives. Yesterday reminded me of the value of each tiny moment, or the importance of each choice we make. It gives me a little glimpse into the purpose of this life, an inkling of the plan for us to learn to make small choices with limited knowledge and a miniscule amount of time. And I guess I just wanted an excuse to litter my wife’s blog.