Winning, Losing & the Super Bowl

Super Bowl 50.

The game was the exact opposite of what everyone expected. Except for the Denver Broncos. They KNEW they were going to win. Faced with the reality that very few people believed in them, they decided to believe in themselves. There was a list of reasons that they were supposed to lose. The media pointed them out everyday for a week. But the only list that mattered, to them, was their list of reasons that they WOULD win. Game day finally arrived. Sixty minutes of football and two hours of empty commercials later, it was the Broncos who were the champions.  Why? Because they wanted to win and were prepared to handle losing, should it have happened. After a Broncos turnover, the team rallied on the sideline and made up their minds to fix it on the next possession. After a Panthers turnover, you saw pouting and disbelief in the eyes of key players. Major difference in the two teams ability to handle failure.

Here's where I get "political". For the next 24 plus hours, the story is focused not on Denver, but on Cam Newton. Apparently he didn't react gracefully enough to losing. He showed his disappointment by walking out of the post game press conference. For that, he's painted as a "sore loser" and "spoiled brat". But, is that not what society should expect?  Isn't that the way that we have set everything up to be?  Let me explain.

It all started with the political correctness movement that began some years ago. The notion that everyone has the right to not be offended. To not have their feelings hurt. Eventually, we were telling our kids that there shouldn't be any winners and losers. Everyone gets a trophy. That way, everyone feels good about themselves. To make an extremely long story short,  I'll sum it up like this; Cam Newton is doing exactly what our society has come to expect. Or, at least it SHOULD be expected.  The very same people who go out of their way to make sure that nobody is going to have hurt feelings are complaining about the fact that someone doesn't understand how to handle losing.  And it's going to get worse if we continue down this path.  Presidential candidates are running on a platform that everything should be free. Forget hard work, let government help you. Free college. Free healthcare. Free housing. Free puppies. You get the idea.  You can feel the Bern now, but when life slaps you in the face, you're going to feel a different burn. And it will hurt.

Back to Cam Newton. If he has such a hard time handling disappointment and failure with 100 million dollars to his name,  how can we expect the average person,with maybe 100 dollars to their name, to handle it any better? Unless society stops picking flowers for everyone and get back to preparing our kids to handle life, our country will go down in flames all for the sake of feelings.



Not going to be a popular opinion, I know. But truth is truth.


Until next time,

Peace