Lessons Of The Father

My father would often dispense little bits of wisdom to me growing up. Some things I took to heart, other items went in one ear and out the other. Those are the ones which would later on in life come back to haunt me. This won’t be eloquent, as he’d say, nor will it all be nice. I wanted to take a moment and share a few.

Lesson 12: Winning Doesn’t Exist and Sticking With The Pick

I recall being introduced to sports one Sunday afternoon. Well, it’s actually just my earliest actual recollection, but I watched the team whose helmet I had sitting out in the backyard and played with everyday, the Dallas Cowboys. The year is 1978 and the Boyz are in the Super Bowl playing the Pittsburgh Steelers. My father explained some of the rules to me, but I recall being lost as I watched on. As the game continued, I saw my team in white lose to the ones in black. The following fall as would be the traditional location for years to come, my father was planted in front of the television watching NFL on Sunday. The Cowboys were not playing until later, but I wanted to stay and watch with the old man. I would ask who was playing and he would tell me.

“The Chicago Bears vs the Oakland Raiders.”
“Oh, where are they playing?”
“Out in Oakland.”
“Oh… what is that??”
“Oakland is a city like Dallas, but far away from here.”
“Oh. where is it?”
“Look it up on the globe over there son. Find California and I will show you.”
“Ok. Who is winning?”
“Oakland is ahead in the 4th quarter.”
“Oooh so Oakland is going to win!! Ok, goo Oakland!!”

At this point my father shot a look at me as though I had just spoiled the end of a book he was reading or given away a surprise ending to a movie.

“No son, being ahead doesn’t mean winning. You haven’t won until the clock reads 0:00. Then you have won. There’s no such thing as winning a game. There’s either being ahead or behind. You either win or you lose in sports.”

He went further.

“You pick your team from the beginning and you stick with them through the game. Picking a team because it’s ahead is not very sporting. Pick the team and stick with them.”

I chose Chicago that day because I liked their uniforms. Oakland did go on to win and this interchange began a series of Sunday geography lessons (“You want to know where the Cleveland Browns are?? Go look it up”) and sportsmanship tutorials (“Taunt me today if you want, your team will lose one day and you won’t like someone sticking a finger in your face now will you?”). I would watch the Cowboys pull out wins in the closing minutes of games as well as watch them lose leads. The second part of what he said held true as well as the Cowboys stayed my team through the lean years as have the Los Angeles Lakers (1979), the New York Yankees (1981)/ the Mets (1986), etc.

-J