Life Lessons From Football

Isn't it funny how every year, there are roughly two or three weeks during the football season where most of the top 5 teams lose?  Everyone moves down or up (depending on your team) and we start all over again.

Isn't it amazing how a team that starts out the season really strong and looking really good always loses to an unranked opponent who has something to prove (see the previous paragraph - it seems that often those top 5 teams are beaten by an unranked opponent within their own conference)?

And, isn't it amazing how the team who lost to that unranked opponent (and deserved to - let's face it, they were beaten, or didn't show up to play, or whatever) can come back and look pretty good the next week, and two weeks after that loss beat the living snot out of...a top 5 team (even ranked in the top 15)?

What does this mean?

Sometimes you get beaten, whether it's football, life, business, whatever.  Sometimes you are not as good as someone else - and sometimes you make too many mistakes and the other team/person wins.  Take that loss and turn it into something.  Learn from it.  Improve your skill, pay better attention to stop making mistakes, or change your priorities, or change your goal.  Don't sit on your ass and whine about it.

But of course, you already knew that, as do most of us.  We just all need a reminder once in awhile.  Mine comes every football season when the Gators lose to whichever Mississippi team they play...and then a few weeks later kick the snot out of highly ranked LSU, or Georgia, or Ohio State (for a National Championship).  But then, now I sound like Captain Kramer (Robert Stack) from the movie Airplane!: "When the chips were down..."