| 18 January 2010
I hate when I hear analysts or ex-coaches talk about how a loss for a team was a good thing; it came at the perfect time or it will prepare the team better for the future. I don't buy it. I don't think losing is ever a good thing. Anyone can lose, not everyone can win. I think our country as a whole might have lost some of that winning at all costs attitude within the last couple decades due to the increased attention on political correctness. You can't talk about this, say this about that, and don't ever refer to or mention this to those types of people? We have all these unwritten rules that tell us how to speak to different people and act different towards different people just so we don't hurt their feelings. We wouldn't want to hurt anyone's feelings in 2010. No way! In 2010, that would mean that the person you made fun of would probably charge you with harassment, file a slander lawsuit against you, and then go and seek counseling for the grief that was caused. People just go to the extremes these days and it seems like it's not just in common situations, it's in football games too.
We've seen it before and we saw it yesterday. A football team scores a late touchdown and the losing team gets all upset and blames the other team for being classless. I think it's classless for the loser to complain. I think someone like Keith Brooking is a bigger loser because after letting the Vikings run rampant on your defense you finally get upset because they scored a late touchdown. It's ridiculous in my mind and something that is increasing in sports these days. Losers can't just accept a loss they have justify their losing on another team's actions. It's never their total fault for losing. It's the refs, the coaches plays, the ball was thrown bad, the weather, etc..., etc...
This is why I think that you don't learn anything from losing. It's too easy to lose. Everyone can easily have the feeling of losing and feeling upset against the person or team that put you into that melancholy feeling, but not everyone can be a winner. Most people probably don't know what it's like to continually win. The type of confidence that can be seen with the way that some players run with the ball, some players throw the pass, and some players just have that happy grin; knowing nothing is going to stop me. Winning is a disease; it's an attitude and a way of life. Losing is a feeling and a predicament. I don't know why anyone would feel that they want that feeling or predicament, I'd much rather always feel like a winner.
Losing is never a good thing. All losing does is turn you into the person who catches feelings when someone says anything negative against you. Winners take the hate and use it to win more. The tough part about it all is that losing is inevitable. It's going to happen to everyone. The difference is that some players lose classy and respect the other team for winner, while others can't accept the loss and move on. So I may not feel like I learn anything from losing, but I guess I can learn something. I can learn what players lost who will someday be a winner and I learn what players will continually be losers.
