"The World Cup calls this parochialism to mind because soccer is not just a sport, it is an entire mentality. We in this country prefer pastimes that are rational and quantifiable. Football plays can be drawn up in a playbook and baseball lends itself to statistical analysisBut the rest of the world follows a sport that rewards resilience and neuroticism. Soccer is a sport perfectly designed to reinforce a tragic view of the universe, because basically it is a long series of frustrations leading up to near certain heartbreak.
But it’s also a game that teaches you that life is unfair. Because goals are so scarce, it is possible for a team to be outplayed for 89 minutes and yet still score one fluke goal and win the game. Superior performance often does not translate into victory."
- "The Hard Lessons of Oscar Pistorius", TheAtlantic.com"(Michael) Jordan acknowledged that his self-esteem has always been "tied directly to the game." Hence the drive, the rage, the relentless pursuit of victory that led to astounding feats of skill and six championship rings in his dresser drawer. But Jordan also talked to Thompson about what the process of that pursuit does to a person. "You ask for these special powers to achieve these heights, and now you got it and you want to give it back, but you can't. ... I drove myself so much that I'm still living with some of those drives. ... I don't know how to get rid of it...."...But when we look for role models, why do we gloss over all the demons, flaws, and costs, and build these singular high achievers into all-around "10s" in our images and minds? I'm not sure, but I suspect it's because we want to believe the fairy tale. We want to believe that Prince Charming actually is a great guy, through and through. We want the simple, happy ending. And, perhaps we also want to believe that we, too, can focus on ourselves and achieve whatever we want without someone else bearing the cost that achievement requires."
"Saturday night. We were all shocked.As the news about Fabrice Muamba's condition broke, it was a natural reaction for many people to say how this situation really 'puts everything into perspective'; that in the face of such an awful thing, football and all its business simply does not matter. And they were right. Here was a matter of life and death; there is no bigger, more profound struggle......If Fabrice Muamba's collapse did really 'put things into perspective' and if those words are profoundly felt, all these problems could evaporate. They do not need to exist. A better world is possible.
- From Football 365 "Can This Bring Long Term Perspective"?Perhaps we need a graphic reminder that we are all human and that more unites us than divides us. And if Saturday's events illustrated anything, it was precisely that. After a season of, at times, bitter rancour let's hope this moment of darkness ends up illuminating a new path."
