Life will always and forever require perspective in front of premise. Call it an absolute, a must, a law. Call it one of the most basic, yet complicated paths that humans must follow. Pick up your phones and call it NOW a la Miss Cleo if you have to, but make sure you find it on this Memorial Day. The importance of perspective stands equivalent to the importance of keeping score in athletic competition or keeping win-loss records. How can ANY of us in the media have jobs without those records present to provide opinions or perspectives about past and present?
When reversed in order it might not stop you from achieving, but what it does (or, does NOT do) is give you a very good chance at using all of your skill-sets or give you an opportunity to assess your ability to stand among the rest of us.
Hypothetically, think of it like outlawing the forward pass and only allowing running on offense. Tell the DC’s that they are not allowed to call blitzes. We’ve seen teams that CAN work under these conditions (SEE: Georgia Southern), HOWEVER; why put yourself through that kind of stress? Why take part in a game that discriminates against any other approach (no passing) at achieving the same goal (SEE: scoreboard)? That’s kinda-sorta-not-so-much what this ‘Merica represents, right? Wait, please don’t answer that yet.
We live in a country that promises prosperity, but only after you put it all together; and even then you can say we live in a country that promises to keep you on your toes once you believe everything has come together. We’ve heard of such gents as Jackie Robinson (WWII), Ted Williams (WWII & Korea), Willie Mays (Korea), and Rocky Bleier (Vietnam), that were drafted to fight in wars they were not looking to start all by themselves. They were told, “we understand you have already begun your careers as professional athletes, but you now belong to the United States Army, or Navy, or… whether you like it or not.”
Robinson was brought to Court Martial for refusing to move to the back of an Army bus in 1944, while serving as a part of the first black tank battalion to serve in combat before even beginning his much-documented struggle to achieve things that were supposedly “guaranteed” to him in his own country simply because he was FROM here, but something he wasn’t quite experiencing; yet he still sacrificed.
If you were a fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers in the late-70’s, without Rocky Bleier’s contributions you probably do not have four rings; and Bleier was told he would never walk again after his platoon was ambushed in Vietnam, taking a gruesome shrapnel-wound to his right leg only one-year into his career in the NFL in 1969. All Bleier did was use some perspective given to him in a note by Art Rooney, the Owner of the Steelers, and his own set of beliefs to become a starter by 1974, and when he retired in 1980 had amassed over 5,000yds rushing and receiving.
Then there’s Roberto Clemente who was a Marines Reservist from 1958-64. While his peers were in the Caribbean crafting their skills in winter leagues, he was showing off his ability to sacrifice, and not the kind of sacrifice where he needed to get a runner over to 3rd with no outs. And then the well-known, heralded yet poignantly tragic story of Pat Tillman, who after the events of 9/11 was moved to put down his helmet and shoulder pads and pick up a rifle and a rucksack in Afghanistan.
While we may live in a land that is free in premise, the perspective is that freedom is not “free” at all. While we sit and peel back the layers of the onion (for our grilled meats of various choice), let us also peel back the mythical layers of the sometimes sweet, subtle-then-ALL-UP-IN-YOUR-FACE-bitter onion otherwise known as the United States. In order to be “free”, there has to be payment in other forms. The “debt” owed to the service men and women, is not one that gets paid with the same currency they were given to barter with.
You can add up the total populations of Tampa, Miami, and Orlando (1,001,099) and it still wouldn’t equal the amount of lives lost (1,210,031) to battle deaths in-theatre and out in all wars fought by Americans, as well as the 1.4 million of those with “non-mortal” wounds that can carry just as deep-if-not-deeper scars than those that were fatal. We cannot bring back the heroes that left their families (voluntarily or involuntarily) and never made it home foolishly thinking we can “pay” respects through our words. They are paid through ACTIONS of respect and awareness through their proper perspectives.
As we wake up and read our tablets, our phones; as we sit around and plan to head out on the water, or head to a ball game played by insanely well-paid professionals, someone (with a uniform bearing the name of the greatest country and flag representing the most stubborn-yet-baddest-mofo-in-all-the-world) is taking live bullets on ground they don’t want to be on. Soil that is not in their backyard or sand that is getting in-between their toes because they’ve left their flip-flops in the car. It is very much a possibility that person’s very last image on this Earth is of that ground, not his own; and yet we will go on arguing QBR’s and numbers of stars in a matter of hours.
We will go on arguing that SEC schools get all of the bias and that free unlimited snacks are an acceptable concession (pun intended) and that it is someone else’s fault their boy did wrong and that we should cross the street when we see….wait. Those that served past, present and even in the near future will use the games we play as a distraction from their jobs (aka the proper perspective) while those of us that are wrapped up in the premise will merely bury ourselves deeper into the lunatic fringe of believing that football (or sports in this country in general) are ultimately the proper representation of life or death.
Sports are meant for distraction. Aristotle once said, “Education is an ornament in prosperity, and a refuge in adversity.” The more you know, the harder it becomes for you to just become a run-only team on offense. The harder it becomes for you to comprehend intentionally handicapping yourself when not even remotely necessary. The harder it becomes for you to believe in one approach, and one approach only. The near impossibility of forgetting that the reason why you can approach life (and sports) the way you want to is made possible by someone that didn’t get to make the choice; and were left with nothing when it was promised to them even if they are still walking amongst us.
Today is not just a holiday. Today is Memorial Day. It is a day containing memories of joy AND pain. Let us keep all of those past, present and future in hearts, minds, and souls and be reminded no one is perfect; not even those that have fought and served, but what we have is a lot closer to perfect than most because of them. Call it perfectly imperfect. Call it, America.
– Doug Pugh