Well the hot button / water cooler / trending topic for the Redskins this week seems to be a fairly lax dressing room following their loss to the Seahawks on Monday night. John Keim, and others, reported the Redskins were less than forlorn after dropping to 1-4. That has sparked an endless flow of banter in Redskins Nation.
I have to admit, I’m a competitive person. I will make a race out of drinking a milkshake. I don’t like to lose. Hate losing. Don’t lose. Not at anything.
I don’t understand being okay with losing. At all. In fact, in a lifetime of activity and competitive sports, I can honestly say that I only recall one game that I recall fondly where we lost. One. In thousands. And only exigent circumstances created that enigma.
I have plenty of great sports memories. My head is filled with them. They all involve winning, and trophies… and glory.
While I could wax poetic about mine own personal feelings on the topic, what do I know? I never played the game as Ryan Clark has asserted that someone would have to, in order to properly understand the “context”.
What if I turn the floor over to a man who knew a thing about football? And about winning. He even coached the Redskins for a very short spell, so surely HE qualifies as being ‘in the know’. You may have heard of the guy? Vince Lombardi?
Yeah. That guy. He knew a lot about winning, right? And he had a way of summing up the essence of winning and competition like nobody else. So I may never have played a game of NFL football, but I attacked every game I ever played in any sport or vein, with the ferocity of a Lombardi-led team.
Here are some of my favorite Lombardi quotes about winning and losing respectively…
“Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.”
“Show me a good loser, and I’ll show you a loser.”
“Winners never quit and quitters never win.”
“Winning is not everything, but wanting to win is.”
“Winning is habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.”
“If winning isn’t everything, why do they keep score?”
“The real glory is being knocked to your knees and then coming back. That’s real glory. Thats the essence of it.”
“Success demands singleness of purpose.”
There are likely more. All of them as true as the last.
Since people like to line up at water cooler topics, and proudly stand on one side – I err on the side of Lombardi. Because…
“If you accept losing, you can’t win.”
Hail to the Redskins.