"Football is Life!"

I am somewhat conflicted about the result of at least one college football game this past weekend.  Our family can legitimately claim ties to at least six Division I FBS college football teams - Purdue, Indiana, Notre Dame, Alabama, Boston College, and the University of Cincinnati.  I root for them all, except when two of these teams happen to play each other, which happens at least once every season.  This past weekend, Notre Dame absolutely trounced Purdue by a score of 66-7.  The game (and score) was so lopsided, that Notre Dame actually played four quarterbacks - three of whom scored touchdowns!  I was happy for the Fighting Irish, particularly after their embarrassing loss to Northern Illinois the prior week.  But I was just as disappointed for Purdue.

If you are Coach Marcus Freeman (Notre Dame's head football coach) one week ago, what do you say after your team, which was ranked #5 in the country, lost to an unranked Northern Illinois team?  How do you move on from a loss which likely has greatly decreased your chances of playing in the college football play-offs at the end of the year?  On the other hand, if you are Coach Ryan Walters (Purdue's head football coach), what can you say to your team after they just lost by almost sixty points?  The game was so lopsided, many of the fans (and almost the entire student section) left at half time.  How do you go on from that?

Borrowing a phrase ("Football is life!") from one of the characters (Dani Rojas) in one of my favorite television shows (Ted Lasso), what is true in sports is often true in life in general.  If you are Coach Freeman last week or Coach Walters this week, you tell your team that the only thing that they can do is learn from their experience and move on.  As the ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius said, "Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall."  We are, after all, human, and as humans, we make mistakes.  And we aren't going to win every single time.  There will be times when we lose, and sometimes we will lose very badly.  What separates the champs from the chumps is that the champions pick themselves up after a loss, learn from their experience, continue to work hard, and move forward so that they can do better next time.