Politics and sports have a lot in common. Nobody’s perfect, and no team has all the best players. Every team has its strengths and weaknesses.
That’s why teamwork and cooperation are so important to winning the Super Bowl, or winning elections.
For a team to win the Super Bowl, the players must work together, and the better players need to do a little extra to help the less talented players.
That’s the way it is in sports.
For example, you can have the best swimmer in the world on your team, but if the other members of the team don’t score points, you will lose every dual meet.
In a six lane pool only the first three swimmers to finish score points.
Since a swimmer can only compete in three races in each meet, the best swimmer may win three races, but you will still lose the meet if everyone else finishes 4th, 5th, or 6th in their races.
Football is the same way. Many a quarterback has put up gaudy statistics only to lose the game.
A team is like a chain, it’s only as strong as its weakest link.
Here’s an example from my youth to illustrate the point.
The five guys on the offensive line on my football team averaged 220 pounds. But the center only weighed 163 pounds. That means the other four guys each weighed about 234 pounds, which is 71 pounds heavier than the center.
Now any football fan will ask, “Why would a coach play a center who only weighed 163 pounds?”
Simple, he was the only guy on the team who could snap the ball.
During the pre-season, the team was having so much trouble with fumbled snaps; the coach lined up the entire team in single file and had each and every member of the team take a turn snapping the ball to the quarterback and to the punter.
All the linemen had to take a turn, all the running backs, the wide receivers, linebackers, and defensive backs, everyone except the quarterbacks and kickers.
The trick to being a good center is being able to get the ball into the Quarterbacks hands, and with the laces up, without looking through your legs.
If you snap the ball with your head down so you can see the quarterback between your legs, the defensive linemen will just push you down and out of the way, and then sack the quarterback.
The center has to keep his head up, so he can make the line calls, and see the defensive lineman he has to block.
At the end of the day, only one guy on the team could snap the ball. So a former running back became the center, and there were no more fumbled snaps. That was the upside.
The downside was that he was a small guy surrounded by four giants, and the defensive coordinators on the other teams couldn’t miss it. Our guards and tackles were all over six feet tall, but the center wasn’t even 5’ 8”.
So the other teams always lined a big defensive lineman up right over our center.
Then they’d put a linebacker up on the line, and since we never knew if the linebacker was going to rush the passer or drop back into coverage, the guards and tackles couldn’t always cheat in to help the center.
But the left guard was so good, he would almost always chip block the man over the center and then pick up his man one on one.
That helped the center, who was definitely the weak link in the chain.
The keystone of successful business is cooperation. Friction retards progress.
James Cash Penney
(Founder of J. C. Penney)
The guard could almost always do that. But not always, and when he couldn’t, the center was left on his own.
Like when we played the Raiders. Their defensive line was huge. They always rushed five guys, and their stock in trade was pushing offensive linemen into the backfield and breaking up the play.
Our guard had his hands full, so he couldn’t help the center and that exposed the weak link in our line.
Their nose tackle was a 270 pound mountain of muscle, and he spent the entire first quarter knocking our 163 pound center out of the way and either sacking the quarterback or tackling the running back for a loss.
Finally, our coach had had enough and he sent in the second string center.
It is no fun getting pulled out of a game, and the first string center was downhearted as he came off the field.
But when he got to the sideline, the coach called him over and said, “Stand here by me and watch.” So the teenager did.
It was bad. The second string center was bigger, but he was soft and carried too much fat around the middle, so the 270 pound nose tackle pushed him all over the place.
After a few series, where our team went three and out, and barely got the punts away, the coach spoke to the first string center and the left guard.
“I’m going to send you back in,” he told the center. “But every time you snap the ball I want you to hit that big guy in the ankles and knock him down. Then I want you to scramble back to your feet, and when he gets up, hit him in the ankles again from behind and knock him down again.”
Then he told the guard, “To chip block the nose tackle on every play, no matter what”.
When the 163 pound center went back on to the field, the other ten guys on the offense welcomed him back. None of them said anything to him about being the weak link in the chain. They didn’t have to, everybody already knew.
The only thing that will redeem mankind is cooperation.
Bertrand Russell
For the rest of the game the center would snap the ball, and the guard would chip block the nose tackle as the center smashed his shoulder into the nose tackle’s ankles, which would knock the 270 pound nose tackle down, and he always seemed to fall right on top of the 163 pound center.
They’d both scramble to their feet, and the center would smash his shoulders into the nose tackle’s ankles again, from behind. That would knock the 270 pound nose tackle down and he would fall on top of the 163 pound center again.
The pounding took its toll on the smaller center, but the 270 pound never sacked the quarterback for the rest of the game.
After the game, the 270 pound mountain of muscle came over to the center and said, “Good game.” The center replied, “You played great.”
They were both filthy; and badly bruised, but they smiled at each other, shook hands, and went their separate ways.
Without good coaching, cooperation and teamwork, that nose tackle would have had a monster game sacking the quarterback, batting down passes and tackling running backs.
Instead, he had a rough afternoon and was a very bruised and battered young man as he walked off the field. So was the center, but he’d learned what it takes to win - teamwork.
If the pro-Village people want to win the upcoming June election for two seats on the Village Board, then everyone is going to have to be a better teammate.
Everyone has to let bygones be bygones. Everyone has to support the weak links in the chain, and the first string players have to start making plays now. Next year isn’t good enough.
Seven months have passed since the last election, so there are only five months left until the next election. That means we’re in the second half of the game, and it’s the Super Bowl.
You either win it all, or you lose it all. That’s the way the Super Bowl is, there’s no tomorrow.
Work together and win. Continue bickering and lose. It works that way in sports and in politics too.
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