Football Analogy

A Football Analogy

I’ve been a Dallas Cowboys fan all of my life. Most of my memories of the team begin during their hey-day of the 1970’s when the team became “America’s Team”. In a way, the Dallas Cowboys symbolize what is right and wrong with United States of America.

The Cowboys have a tradition of winning. During the ’70’s they won with style and class that made other teams (dare I say, even entire cities) green with envy. Their success earned them respect on the field of play and in business boardrooms. Those teams were great.

In the early ’90’s, things changed with Jerry Jones. The team became a winner again, but with an entirely different ethic. The team took an Al Davis (owner of the Oakland Raiders) ethic of “Just win baby” nothing else matters. In a way it works. The team makes lots of money, more than it ever has … but are they “America’s Team” anymore? Not really. They are not respected and looked at with admiration as they used to be. Respect is earned. What you do matters, how you do it matters, and who you do it with matters. Maybe things will change in the coming decade - we’ll see.

Our country was built upon a foundation of strength, fairness, self determination, freedom, and liberty. That foundation was reinforced with individual accountability. Americans were considered good. We went to church, were fair, brave, honest, hard working, generous, it is this list of superlatives that made us great. Without these attributes, we never could have achieved so much in the short time that we have been a nation. Yes, there is hypocrisy - no people or nation has ever been exempt from it. Yes, we have faults and wrongs have been committed - let those with out sin please step forward.

We are a nation that has become dependant rather than independent. We’ve let our long held beliefs, morals, ethics, honors, and traditions erode. We’ve allowed the privileged class, in combination with the under-privileged class and political liberalism, to ridicule, mock, disregard, and cast away much of what was good in the United States. We live a more leisurely lifestyle then at any other time in history - yet if you were to listen to some, you would never know it. Personal wealth has replaced personal responsibility. Expecting a hand-out has replaced lending a hand in business and at home. “Yes we can” has replaced “yes I can” - the implication being that the Untied States is no longer the land of opportunity and we have to depend on collectiveness to achieve our hopes and dreams. I don’t buy into that thinking and I don’t think most Americans do either.

I look at the Cowboys and hope that some day a new ethic will emerge that more closely resembles the team that I grew up with. I look to our country with the same hope that we will renew our commitment to become “a more perfect union” never satisfied with what is wrong and correcting our shortcomings as a nation and a people and to refocus on those virtues that build great things.

There you have it.
Pass it on if you like or let me know if I don’t have a clue.

Eddie