It was third down and we needed our defense to make a stop. Both teams lined up, ready for the play of the game. But just before the snap, one of their linemen moved. Then their quarterback handed the ball off to their tailback who took the ball sixty yards for a touchdown. And while they celebrated in the end zone, we looked around expecting a yellow flag. It never came. After the game one of the referees came over to admit his mistake. He saw the false start but he didn’t call it. We all wished he had kept that to himself. Still, as coaches of a youth football team, we had to set the right example.
We were cheated because a ref decided to keep his flag in his pocket. It would have been easy to lose my temper. It would have been easy for any of us to launch into a tirade or to do something stupid, using the fact that we were cheated as a reason to do wrong. Instead we decided to act like adults. We thanked the refs for doing a (mostly) good job and then we pulled our team together to talk about what we could do better. As a team we took responsibility for our loss. As coaches we acted like adults. I wish that was what happened on January 6th down at our nation’s capital.
I understand that our president and his supporters feel cheated. I don’t agree with them but I do understand that this is what they are feeling. But we needed the crowd to handle these feelings correctly. The nation needed adults who understand that in life you will not always like the outcome. In fact, you may even get cheated out of something. However, that is not an excuse to incite an unruly mob. It is not an excuse to commit crimes. It is not an excuse to attack the government of this country or any other country. It is the time to act like adults.
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