Tired of all of the football games? I am. I love football, really I do. It’s just too much. 34 bowl games, really? 1978 was the year I got my driver’s permit, and there were also only 8 bowl games to choose from. Going to a bowl game meant something special. You were a champion, the top of the heap, one of the best. Today you can have a 50% win/loss for the season and still go to a bowl. How did we get from there to here, 8 bowls of champions to 34 bowls with mediocre teams?
- An insatiable desire by the masses to watch modern day gladiators spar in multiple finales to what were otherwise neutered seasons? I’m thinking not…
- The natural result of children in Pop Warner leagues with horrible seasons ALL receiving trophies no matter how terribly they played? Ummm, maybe, but probably not…
- A culture that has become so lazy that we’d rather watch our 19th bowl game than go rake the leaves or play with our kids? OK, maybe that one has a little more merit… but it’s not the sole reason…
- Greed? Bowl games are big money! Credit card companies, insurance companies, pizza chains, even Kraft Mac & Cheese are in the bowl sponsorship game…
Truth is, it’s probably all of these, and some other stuff I haven’t thought of yet. I don’t guess anyone really cares that it bugs me that 10 years from now the number of bowl games will most likely top the 50 mark, with teams like the Deltas State University Fighting Okra playing against the UC Santa Clara Banana Slugs in the Annie Chun’s Sushi Wrap Bowl.
My own personal revolt against this terrible trend of minimizing the masters by building Bowls until every awful team is playing post season?
I will applaude the exceptional that I encounter in life.
I will celebrate with those who are authentic champions, true masters in whatever their art or sport may be.
I will accept that although all people have worth, all are not winners, nor are all deserving of special recognition.
I will passionately pursue a level of amazing performance in my own efforts with my faith, my family, my business and my world.
And if by some incredible stroke of luck and providence I find myself “bowl eligble”, I pray it’s because I earned it, not because Tidy Bowl is desperate for someone to take the field. I hope it would happen because of years of work, sacrifice, taking risks and overcoming insurmountable challenges. I desperately want that dream to come true because life and the people in it have looked at mine, and said, “hey, that’s pretty awesome… no, it’s incredibly awesome! Let’s put him in a bowl!” That’s the only way I wanna go.
Oh yeah, and I hope Cheetos is the bowl sponsor… or maybe Double Bubble chewing gum… that would be so cool.