Imperfect

In almost all undertakings in life, we can never be perfect even as we strive, Sisyphus-like, for perfection, aware the goal is unattainable but determined to push forward nonetheless. That’s why so many became enraptured in the New England Patriot’s quest for an undefeated season. They almost got the boulder to the top, and that’s a rare thing indeed.

You could say a perfect NFL season is not perfection at all, the pursuit just a game and the achievement defined in the narrowest of terms. And yet that misses the point. Sports is the only arena in life where perfection is actually attainable. The quantification of athletic success makes ultimate success possible in a way that’s impossible in business or art or politics. Numbers are inarguable. You are either 19-0 or you’re not.

The New England Patriots are not. 18-1 is laudable, the team’s season is legendary. But they are not perfect. And we may never see another team come so close. Even under the clearest of definitions perfection is brutally hard to achieve. Only one NFL team has ever reached such heights – long ago and in a different era. They look, more than ever, to be alone on that hill for years to come.

If some who rooted against the New England Patriots are feeling malaise today, perhaps it’s because a historic moment vanished, replaced by just another Super Bowl winner, strong yet imperfect. Instead of seeing the near impossible happen we witnessed the all to commonplace drama of greatness succumbing to mediocrity.

The Patriots lost their bid for immortality because they lost one game. Perhaps, in the end, that’s why we respect sports achievements less than we respect the triumphs of art or culture or humanity. In sports, you’re either perfect or you’re not. And there’s almost all nots. But in art and literature and humanitarianism and life, perfection is infinitely debatable, feats measured not in whether a man or woman reaches the top but how close he or she gets and how hard he or she fights.

Personally, I’d rather struggle for unattainable perfection than be measured by a rigid mark. The Patriots had no such luxury. They are imperfect, just like every other team.

Talk About Putting Your Heart Into a Game

Apparently, being an avid sports fan is bad for your heart -- at least when your team is in a big game. Brings a whole new meaning to "heartbreaking loss" doesn't it?

Still, you won't find me turning off the TV when my team is playing. Maybe I'll just invest in a defibulator. In team colors, of course.

Sportsmanship Matters

Yesterday in the world of sports, the New England Patriots ran up the score on the Washington Redskins. That’s an indisputable fact. What’s open for debate is whether or not the act was appropriate. Many have argued that, since we’re talking about professionals, there’s nothing wrong with continuing to score long after a win is inevitable. I disagree. And I think the failure to support good sportsmanship is one more indication that some serious ills afflict our society.

As anyone who has ever participated in sports knows, good sportsmanship is a vital component to playing a game. Without sportsmanship, sports lose their dignity and become just another venue for unmitigated aggression. One of the cornerstones of sportsmanship is the notion that, once the outcome of a game is no longer in any doubt, the winning side does not rub the losing side’s face in the defeat. They don’t taunt and they don’t boldly attempt to increase the other team’s humiliation. This does not mean that the winning team should stop playing once they’ve established an insurmountable lead. It simply means the winning team should not arrogantly pursue unnecessary points.

The fact that so many people (on-line and on sports talk radio) seem willing to defend the Patriots acts of poor sportsmanship is further evidence that we, as a culture, are losing our sense of honor and decorum. Sportsmanship, at its core, is an acknowledgement that while our teams may be opposing each other on the field of play, we, as a people, are still connected and don’t mean one another any harm. The failure to uphold the ideal of sportsmanship is part of the same trend that has all but removed civility and decency from the political arena.

As a society, we are becoming more and more selfish, believing with greater and greater fervor that our own satisfaction and our own victories (however superficial) are more important and inherently more deserved than those of our countrymen. We lack perspective and we lack a sense of the greater community. Concepts such as sportsmanship exist to uphold the promise of a civil and peaceful society. We should be concerned that such positive ideals are being treated as irrelevant.

Taking Tournament Brackets to the Next Level

I don’t follow college basketball. But that doesn’t matter. My brackets consistently hold up as well as the brackets of friends who obsess over the sport. That’s why the NCAA tournament is so much fun. It’s structured yet random. A lot of people get to play but only one wins.

Come to think of it, it’s a lot like presidential politics. And, really, wouldn’t the 2008 race be far less tedious if we made it a bracket system? Clinton and Obama as the one seeds on the left. Giuliani and McCain as the one seeds on the right. Then suddenly everybody’s brackets are busted when eight-seed Huckabee takes down two-seed Romney in the first round. Wouldn’t that be a hell of a lot more fun?

Get rid of the primaries and conventions. We do the whole thing every four years in November. Call it November N-sanity. We all go to the polls every weekend and vote the candidates down until one Democrat and one Republican remain. Then we throw a big party, get drunk and vote on who gets to cut the nets down on the White House basketball court.

Simple. Efficient. And, you know, pretty dang American.