"The measure of who we are is what we do with what we have." Of course, that's a quote by Vince Lombardi. Vince was the coach of the Green Bay Packers in the 60's and led the team to 5 NFL championships in seven years and won the first two Super Bowls. It's funny to me how many of the best motivational quotes out there seem to come from sports personalities. With all of their wisdom, they seem to think that the greatest impacts they can make in their lives is in playing and coaching sports.
I admit, I am of two minds on this issue. My Dad was a basketball coach, I have coached basketball in the past, and I am currently a sensei and I help to train people in karate. Obviously, I do think that there are benefits to sports and training. My problem with sports is when it becomes an obsession for people. Particularly for people who are not participating in it, but are just watching. I have seen grown men fight because they were rooting for opposing professional teams. I have seen grown men point at others and call them names because they are wearing a hat with the logo of an out-of-town team. It disgusts me. As I have grown older, I have stopped watching professional sports nearly all together. On occasion, I will sit through a game that is on TV while at a family gathering. I have no real interest in who either wins or loses. It's just on and so I will sit down and watch it with the other men at the gathering. Oftentimes, I end up falling asleep on the couch. It wasn't always that way. When I was younger I used to go to the games and root for the Rangers, the Knicks, the Giants and the Yankees. I collected baseball cards and yearbooks and had the pennants for many of my favorite teams. My epiphany came in 1982 when the NFL had their strike-shortened season. That is when it really hit home that professional sports, were not about the teams, but were just a business to most of the players and the team owners. The fans were a revenue source to these men and that's about it. Major League Baseball's strike-shortened season in 1994-1995 just reinforced my view. In the end, I started to feel like I was rooting for a corporation...which I was! I realized that since it was silly to go out and root for Procter & Gamble or Whirlpool, then it was equally silly to go out and "root" for these sports teams. Once I stopped caring about these corporate teams, large swaths of time opened up to me to do other things. While I could still enjoy watching a good play, I saw it as just that a good play by a talented individual...that I usually just saw on a highlight reel. I also found a new respect for amateur sports. The kids were still playing on teams and were loyal to their teams. They showed courage and skills and were not being paid millions (or anything) for their efforts. So how does all of this have anything to do with my opening quote? I don't know really. This post took a 90-degree turn from where I was originally headed with it. To get back to the quote, I think he was 100% correct in his assessment. It's just too bad that he likely meant it in how it pertained to sports. There is so much more to life than "sports". When your life gets so wrapped up in sports that everything else in your life takes a back seat to it, you end up missing a lot of what life has to offer you. Special moments with your wife or son or daughter. Time that you never have a chance to recapture. What you choose to do with your time does say a lot about who you are. It doesn't always say what you want it to say...particularly to the people who love you. So what's important to you? Better yet, who is important to you? Do your loved ones take a back seat to your passion for sports? Or are they front and center your reason for being? What we all have is time. What you choose to do with it IS the measure of who you are. Does it matter more to you that strangers have a good opinion of you, or your family? While everyone needs to answer this question for themselves, make sure that your answer doesn't measure up short with the ones you love.
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