The game was hard fought and the stakes were high. Both teams played with single-minded devotion to winning, both quarterbacks were great, the coaches were brilliant. Fantastic catches, incredible passing, carries that defied belief, sacks that left the offense reeling, bone jarring blocks, spectacular interceptions and so much more. But in the end, good sportsmanship meant shaking hands and congratulating the winner. The Super Bowl always has a champion, but after the glow wears off, both teams are back to thinking about next year, just like the rest of the NFL. What can we do to be better next season? Who do we need to draft to make us stronger? Who were the key players we need to keep? Who needs to go? Before too much longer practices will begin again and every player will be out there working as hard as he can to be the best that he can be to make the game and his team great.
Election Day 2016 was epic for many reasons. Among others, because no one really expected Donald Trump to win, except perhaps himself. It was epic because it was the first time since Dwight Eisenhaur that an outsider with no political experience became president-elect. And the loss for Clinton was epic as well - in her own words, "it hurt, and it will hurt for a long time." Both parties fought a hard campaign. Both put their heart and soul into doing everything they could to win the election. But in the end, there was no tie - there had to be a winner - just like the Super Bowl. Good sportsmanship demanded Hillary call to congratulate Trump and Trump to find a way to compliment her and all she gave to the fight. In the months to come, both parties will review the results, decide what needs to be done differently, who they need to listen to and why, and how to be stronger and better in the future.
It's also up to us. We are all Americans. We need to shake hands, congratulate the winner, compliment the loser and then begin to work together. The losers are grieving, perhaps more than any other election, at least in my memory. And the winners, are stunned. Some of the losers are not being very gracious in their loss, screaming "NOT MY PRESIDENT!" Well, sorry to tell you, but he is. Unless you're planning to renounce your citizenship, Donald Trump will be your next president. Likewise, some of the winners are not being very good sports either. Some of them aren't even being good citizens. What we all need to be doing once the mourning and the celebrations are over is pretty much what the NFL players do once the celebration and all the replays are over after the Superbowl. While Trump is deciding who he needs to draft to fill out his team, we need to get back to business, working as hard as we can to be the best we can as Americans, as friends, as neighbors and as families. We need to leave gloating and fear behind and reach out to understand our opponents.
If you are a person of faith, pray to your God, by whatever name you call him or her. Pray for our country. Pray for our new president-elect that he will choose his team wisely. Pray for all the other elected representatives, senators, governors and state congressmen that their leadership will be honest and true. Pray for understanding and acceptance for men and women of all colors, creeds, races and gender. If you have no faith, then try hope. Put the hate and the condemnation behind you and look forward with optimism. This is not a time for name-calling and drawing lines in the sand. It's not a time for running around like Chicken Little declaring the sky is falling. We are all on the same team and it's time to play as if we were headed to the Superbowl. I read an interesting mime on FB the other day before I left the nastiness behind until things calm down. It read something like this - "Hoping for Trump to fail is like hoping the pilot of the plane you are on will crash." So lets hope for everyone to be surprised. Suprised that the worst you fear does not come to pass. Pray that Trump will become a better leader than anyone expects. Pray and hope for America to be strong.
