A tough loss

November 18, 2012
I watched the Duck game last evening with my family and friends.  It was a tough one.  I could see it unraveling as the Cardinal drove for their tying touchdown in the fourth.  I disagreed with the overturn of the call there but they never should have been in that situation in the first place.  I grimaced as our field goal kicker missed another goal and yelled along with the others as we thought that we had recovered a fumble that would let us move on.  Our mighty invincible Ducks had been grounded.
I watched as young students openly wept on the sidelines and the small Standford contingent cried tears of joy.  My grandson stormed from the room.  I knew he was fighting back his own and did not want us to see.
I held my own disappointment and helped clean up the room as everyone left....dejected and not wanting to believe that it had actually happened.
I looked for Jay and found him by the front door waiting for Carrie to leave.  "It will be OK", I tried to assure him.  "No it will not!", came the cracked response.  So, I told him the following story as we waited together for his mom:
Back in the 70's, I was a young passionate Charger fan down in San Diego.  My friend, Dan Fouts will probably remember this game well also.  The Chargers were seconds away from going to the Super Bowl and leading their nemesis Oakland Raiders by a few points with just seconds left.  We had just knocked their quarterback out of the game and a young Stanford graduate named Jim Plunkett came in to take his place.  Jim threw a quick touchdown pass and our hopes were dashed.
I was so angry that I wanted to take it out on my TV.  I actually did kick it and ended up hitting the corner with my toe.  I chocked back tears not only emotional but physical from the kick.  I felt bad all evening and did not want to speak to anyone.  It took me days to get over the loss of a silly game.  I realized that the bad feeling that I got from being so emotionally involved in the game was just not worth it all.  And I vowed to never get that emotional again.  It just wasn't worth it.
I hope that this one will be Jay's wake up also in his life.  Life is just too short to let a game get in the way.  Life comes with ups and downs.  But, if we look real close, we should always be able to find a silver lining somewhere.