Last week I had occasion to watch a tremendous amount of college and professional football. As a result, I detected a pattern that wasn’t apparent when casually watching football on a week to week basis. There is a marked difference between winners and losers. As I considered that proposition, it occurred to me that in America our whole culture has changed into such a risk adverse society that winning in a competitive activity is being trained out of our younger generations.
What I saw that peaked my interest is how football players have been taught to give up before the play is over. Those that gave up the soonest and the most were inevitably on the losing team. What do I mean by giving up before the play is over? The most obvious is the “quarterback slide.” When a quarterback was unable to find a pass receiver available and was forced to run with the ball, before a defensive player makes contact, the quarterback surrenders himself with a feet first slide. I can’t count the times I saw that happen last week. More often than not, the quarterback surrendered short of the line to gain for a first down resulting in his team having to punt the ball away. Had he just dived forward instead of “surrendering” he would have achieved a first down. Yes, you won’t get roughed up with this strategy, but you won’t win football games either.
