Stick & Move
The deals, lessons, and questions to keep your mind active this weekend.
Substance over sizzle. I make no promises about the cadence of this email. I do promise it will be worth your time and mine. -Dave
This isn’t about sports…
It has been a heavy week in America. We remembered 9/11. Twenty-four years passes in an instant. Before celebrating that fateful day’s heroism and mourning the magnitude of loss, we were shaken by the assassination of Charlie Kirk, a married father of 2 young children. Many have said it, and it’s worth repeating, one need not agree with Mr. Kirk’s points of view in order to grieve the loss. And so I grieve.
On Saturday, the University of Georgia will play the University of Tennessee in the game of football. Yes, it’s a game. There will be dozens just like it played at the collegiate level, and many others — hundreds, in fact — at the high school level and below.
These games matter. This week’s events make them matter, as do recent events in America. For all the supposed division within society outside the playing field, we are united on it. Politics has no place at the goal line. In a utopian society, we never consider such a thing. We don’t live in one. This week reconfirmed it.
Therefore, I care not so much about either university, nor the outcome of the Georgia-Tennessee game itself, yet I will tune in. Many will. Similarly, they have no dog in the fight either, yet American sports represents something that makes sense to, well, Americans. It’s a reflection of our culture. It’s flawed, yet elegantly refined. While countries opposed to America’s well-being can (effectively) erode our trust in this great experiment of democracy and capitalism, sport — especially America’s version — is untouchable to that kind of outside perversion.
This is why we (increasingly) watch. Maybe it’s why in a life dominated by ‘snackable content’, America still turns out in mass for the game of football and we acquiesce to its pace and quirky customs. Its pageantry is almost ridiculous when viewed in a vacuum, yet it offers an increasing proportion of society solace in a “weekday” world increasingly unrecognizable. American football makes sense to us. Our communities are shaped by it. We coalesce around it, in good times and bad. The sport itself is wildly different than it was back whenever, yet so much of it is still recognizable. It’s nostalgic, yet current, and we pray and plead for it to remain so forever.
I am not one to advocate for returning to anything. “The good ‘ole days” were flawed too. Man must continue to progress. This type of progress, however, is only achieved when the best of a society is brought along for the ride. The game of football is brutal, entertaining, and unequivocally American. As division exacerbates, and chaos persists, and ‘state actors’ work diligently to undercut this great experiment, may America’s appreciation and respect for its sports prove to be the insurmountable force that keeps us going. Together.