No. 1 seed goes down ... bad

The title comes from the New York Times Athletic headline this morning; that is, Sunday, January 19th.     

Last night, as I could not sleep and my head was swimming with thoughts and sentences, I knew I had to write something. Our football team, the Detroit Lions, lost to the Washington Commanders 45-31 while playing at home, in Detroit, and after winning 15 games during their regular NFL football season.  I turned the game off in the early minutes of the 4th quarter just after the Lions threw their third interception in the game while trying to run one of the trick plays for which they have become famous.  They didn't need to run that trick play.  Rather, in my view, they should have got down to their workman-style signature play.  Ten yard pick-up pass here, twelve yard pick-up there, an eight yard run ... and so on.  They were behind in the score, but they still had time.  Washington was playing other worldly football but there was still time. Detroit is also capable of playing other worldly football.   

I couldn't watch any longer.  All season long they had played clinchers that they somehow pulled out of the hat and everyone went home happy.  This game was different.  I'm no rocket scientist, or for that matter no football expert either, but some things are just obvious.  The game was brutal.  The playing revealed this.  Clearly both teams wanted to win.  It's not as if the Lions rolled over and played dead.  But they made too many mistakes and ended up beating themselves.

Ended up beating themselves.  While unable to sleep, I thought of the many analogies we are facing in our current times. Starting with the Lions.  Surely they were deserving.  Surely their fans, by now everyone in the city and the entire state, are also deserving.  The Lions remain the only team in the NFL who has never gone to the Super Bowl.  They are a team, prior to the past three seasons, that have rarely had winning seasons, at least in recent memory.  During the whole time their fans stuck with them.  

Surely the city of Detroit is deserving.  For decades it was the laughing stock of the nation with corrupt politicians, crumbling homes, fleeing businesses, fleeing residents and failing schools.  It nearly lost its world-class art museum and a city park equal to New York city's Central Park.  Detroit had only one way to go and, over the decades, the city has clawed its way back.  We elected a mayor who has worked tirelessly for the city's revival.  The flippers are rebuilding the homes that are rescuable and those that are not have been or are being demolished.  Ford Motor Company has invested in an astonishing restoration of our historic train station.  Through a voter's ballot initiative and imaginative leadership the Detroit Institute of Arts is thriving, and after being made a state park, the governor of Michigan dedicated the resources needed to completely restore Belle Isle.  The Gordie Howe International Bridge from Windsor to Detroit is soon to be completed.  Restaurants, new apartments, road and bridge repair and many other things make Detroit an enviable city with a river running alongside it. 

The Washington Commanders are surely a worthy football team and have also experienced their ups and downs.  If they continue to play as they played last night, they may well win the Super Bowl.  I juxtapose this with our upcoming presidential inauguration of a swindler, thief, liar, narcissist, racist, sexist - add your own adjectives to the list - and cannot help but expose the unfairness.  But what is unfairness, or for that matter, fairness?  An argument can be made that only fools speak about fairness; that in fact, fairness doesn't exist.  People who voted for Kamala Harris know that fairness doesn't exist.  At every opportunity it seemed that our legitimate media sources threw her under the bus, while hankering for a different candidate.  But who would that have been?  Better headlines and the perfect being the enemy of the good, I suppose.  There was no one else.  When I think back on the presidential campaign - only a few months ago now, but seems an eternity - I am reminded of Kamala Harris's incredible work ethic and vigorous promise and I am crushed - again.  It is quite likely that the new president will, in some form or fashion, take credit for the Commanders' success.  He's that kind of guy and worse.

The Detroit Lion's loss also occurred almost side-by-side with one of, if not the worst, environmental disasters in the United States.  As I write this, the winds have died down [for now] and the LA fires are being bought under control.  After being the top news story for the past week, I've noticed that the fires have fallen out of the media headlines.  Just like that. Thousands of homes, businesses, schools burned to the ground leaving thousands of new homeless and kids without schools and the country has moved on.  After all, we have more football games today and a presidential inauguration is tomorrow.   Our new president will surely not reconsider his disastrous environmental policies, but this much is certain, he will definitely point his finger of blame.  This is not fair, but it is the madness of our time.

I think of the Lions' players and coaches.  While I am wrestling with my own disappointment and trying to find the words, they are probably still numb with only the soreness of their bruises and game images passing through their minds.  Perhaps some haven't yet even gotten out of bed this morning, or haven't yet even gone to bed.  What about the thousands and thousand of hard core dedicated fans?  The bitter taste will linger, but life goes on.  It must.  Nothing stops the hands of an ever faster moving clock.  Given time and the correct perspective, the players and coaches will move on, hopefully take well-earned vacations, and gain the clarity to make needed changes.  Next season will be upon them before they know it.  As with the Democrats, the voters, the residents of Los Angeles, and everyone else too, the Lions will have a new opportunity.  Detroit didn't collapse overnight and it's still being rebuilt.  Perhaps, for the Lions, it will take three tries.  Champions do not give up.