Full disclosure here – I don’t watch much football. Sometimes, I’ll join my husband to have a drink at the local watering hole and witness him suffer through another Bears season. I’ll watch the Super Bowl so that I can at least be one of the cool kids the next day when people are talking about their favorite commercials and the halftime show.
My husband arrived with a bag of beer, and I realized that Sunday was a playoff game. My usual routine continued, and I kept popping in to see the scores and talk with my husband. At one point I realized that the Los Angeles Rams were enjoying a huge lead against Tom Brady and whatever team he’s playing for. I thought, “Wow, I guess this game is already over.” I returned a while later to discover Tom Brady and the Tom Brady team had brought the game to a near dead heat. The Rams pulled it out, but I hadn’t expected that late battle.
I did not return to the television (and the man glued to it) until the last two minutes of the Chiefs and Bills (that’s who it was, right?). Boy, oh boy…what a two minutes it was. I had little knowledge and no stake in the game so it was a rollercoaster ride. The Chiefs will not be back. There is no way that the Bills can come back. There is no way for the Chiefs to come back and there’s certainly not a way that they will. Again! My tv was my idol.
The Chiefs prevailed. I’ll leave the post-game post-mortem to better sports mind than my own, but I’m a political writer, and I couldn’t help but draw some parallels. I’m not very competitive, perhaps to a fault. That’s probably why I don’t dabble too much into sports (I’m a baseball fan, which is a pretty tame sport). When I saw Brady going down to the Rams I felt…worry. This is not for any important reason, but for Brady (this is such an egregious thing that I am sure). I felt bad. I thought about how disappointed he would be, how far he’s come and what an amazing legacy he’s had. I thought about all the haters out there who would be happy the Tom Brady team lost just because they’re sick of Tom Brady at the Super Bowl.
You know exactly what Tom Brady thought about it. Scoring. He was right there, but I was already focused on the hour ahead. To me, the game was over. The only thing that was different for the player on the field was how much effort it was going to take to win.
Although the Chiefs’ game was more heart-breaking, it was a very similar experience. I happened to be watching the screen at the exact moment the viewer could see Patrick Mahomes’ brain switch to “Gotta clean this up” mode. That’s what I saw. It was only seconds before the game ended. Already, the Bills celebrated a playoff win. Mahomes wasn’t shedding tears and pouting. Mahomes and his coaches had done the math and went out on the field determined to win. Even though they knew the time was short, they continued to play as if there were still time.
Then they won.
All time, I get calls from worried conservatives complaining about how the odds are stacked against their favor. They tell me that they feel helpless in the face of the rising tide of progressivism. They feel beaten down, shouted at, and overpowered. It feels like time is running out. This election is one of the most significant in our lives, and it will not be the last. The opposition moves too fast and is too far ahead. They control the ball, the plays, and are too quick. The clock is ticking and we are far behind.
I understand the concern and I’d be lying if I said I never succumbed to defeatist thinking. Sometimes, it can feel overwhelming. But sometimes I think we are already walking off the field, conceding to the clock when what we should be doing is acting like we’re going to win and focusing on the next seconds, like Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes, and not the next hours, like I was trying to do during the playoff games. Sports fans like to invoke the metaphor of the “warrior spirit” when talking about revered athletes. Conservatives must adopt the same mentality. It is one that says, “When the chips are down, you don’t think about losing. You think about how you’re going to win and what needs to happen second-to-second to make that happen.”
It doesn’t always work out. Poor Tom Brady, he is going home now to be with his wife of ten years and their silly family. It’s hard to feel sorry for him. I’m sure you do too.
Patrick Mahomes survived and will fight for another day. You can lose sometimes, but winning by the skin of your teeth is often the greatest victory. Virginia has more information.
My point is that it’s time for conservatives to get their head in the game. Even though things can seem very dark, there is still time to make things better. There are still many plays to be played. Let’s start looking at the steps we need to take to win instead of constantly complaining about seconds ticking down to our losses.
Stamina in politics is like in football without a winning attitude.
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