I am a girl who loves football! That’s not to say that I know everything about the game – but I can hold my own in a conversation with my brothers. I am also lucky enough to have a husband who doesn’t mind answering all my questions during the game.
My favorite level is college football – and my team is the WVU Mountaineers… Let’s go Mountaineers!!! As far as the NFL – I like players, not teams. This is because there just isn’t loyalty in pro sports anymore – not from team owners or players. Trades, contract disputes, hold-outs and cuts – that all makes for great fantasy team excitement, but it’s hard to be a fan of a team when the team changes so often. PLUS, we don’t have a pro team in my state and the nearest team is the Steelers and I just can’t.. not even for a million dollars.
My youngest brother is a huge fan of the Cowboys. Me, I have never been big fan (unless they were playing against the Steelers). But, I have been drawn to this team all season. Zeke Elliot… Dak Prescot… these guys are why I love football.
The quarterback drama has bothered me though. I mean – QB Tony Romo, who has not been able to lead his team to success in years, gets side-lined with an injury and this moves Dak up to helm the team. Dak is winning. He is on fire. He is leading his team. His is in the flow. He is everything Romo stopped being. And, yet, there was a question about Romo returning to the helm after recovering from injury. The choice to keep Dak was obvious to me – I mean, WINNING!
Now, I realize I commented earlier about loyalty. And my position on this sounds hypocritical and disloyal to Romo. Luckily, for the Cowboys anyway, Romo was very graceful in taking the bench after his reactivation and threw support behind the younger QB.
Here, then, is my lesson:
There is a time to do what is best for you and a time to do what is best for your tribe. Just like contract disputes and trades and hold-outs, sometimes your needs and desires take priority over the tribe – even if the tribe must suffer the loss of your contributions. And, other times, you’ve got to suck it up, swallow your pride, and take a back seat to what is best for your tribe as a whole.
Times are changing. We are moving away from humans who must sacrifice everything for the good of the tribe and learning that we can be individual humans with unique talents and needs. We can share our talents with out tribe, or we can spread out and share them with other tribes. The Brules* of life are falling away and allowing us more freedom to live lives of joy and happiness. And, following up on yesterday’s post, perhaps the only loyalty really possible is the loyalty to oneself.
It’s the evolution of man. Funny that it took a rather barbaric gladiator type sport to show me how far we have come. 🙂
Genie Mathews 