How Life Is Like Footballfeatured

I have always loved playing football. I can honestly say I understand maybe 60 percent of the rules. I get the main idea, but some things go right over my head. Although this is true, the basic principles are universal.

I have a boss that likes to compare life to football. Every single scenario turns into a football scenario. I never understood the parallel until the other night.

As I watched the Super Bowl, I thought many things. Most of which consisted of how an American tradition can rack up so much revenue. I also thought about how we attach ourselves to familiar rituals and how fandom plays a huge role in our society.

But how is life really like football? Life is like football because in order to be successful, you must be consistent and be a team player. Not only must you be a team player, but you must be loyal to your values and mission.

My boss always says “be consistent.” In the way you walk, talk, act, and look. Much like the Patriots, you must never lose momentum and this can be done by staying consistent in all you do. You must be the same as much as possible in order to gain credibility amongst your peers.

I guess I never understood this until I started meeting flakey people who blow you off without any warning. I have never experienced such frustration as when other people make it seem like their time is much more valuable than yours.

The Patriots are known for keeping momentum through every quarter. Rather than starting off with more energy than they end up with, they maintain the same amount throughout the entire game. Consistency is obviously key in everything we do.

What about the whole being a team player thing? I have always thought this is such a cliché piece of advice. It wasn’t until I met the walking definition of a narcissist that I understood the importance of being a team player.

Narcissist only cares about one person. It is obvious in every action they take. Yes, we should always love ourselves above all others, but the rest of the world doesn’t need to know that. If you are not part of team, then your team will never carry you when you are injured. Instead of being like Narcissist, we should be more like Brady, who owes much of his success to not only his football team, but his support system (or team) at home.

We all have teams that we create within our worlds. Whether it be at work, home, gym, or in our hobbies, we have teams that we often rely on to stay consistent and always be there for us. If we don’t stay consistent, the rest of our team will never trust us. If we aren’t team players, we will forever be playing a game of solitaire. We won’t ever have the support we need to just simply keep going on some days.

So that’s why life is like football and football is like life. We are all just metaphors, now aren’t we?

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