When you’re married to Jerry Varnado who spent a big chunk of his life
on the football field and played on a Southeastern Championship team, you’d better learn to love college football,
and especially guys dressed in red and black.
And so I have.
During the close match-up during the Rose Bowl, I almost had to undecorate
the Christmas Tree to deal with my tension level. Double overtime and all. I
heard the anxiety level rose so high with one University of Georgia fan, she
actually jumped into her Christmas tree. I understand.
As I began to write this post, the match up for the national
championship loomed. Our guys haven’t won
a national championship since 1980 so tension has been high, and my
Christmas decorations were already in the closet. I didn’t know what I would do
if it became a replay of the Rose Bowl. I guess I’d resort to my usual pacing.
Well, now we know, our guys didn’t win. Lost by a measly three points last
night in overtime.
Though the match up was called the championship game, it seems to me
that being a champion encompasses far more than getting the highest score and taking the trophy home.
Olympian speed skater Apolo Ohno who at one time topped the list of
most medals won at a winter Olympics said this, “Do I feel any pressure as the
most decorated Winter Olympian in American history? None at all. The only
pressures that I know I face are those of how to pay it forward: How can I
continually make a positive impact in people’s lives, help others achieve their
dreams, create their own Olympic mindset, creating champions within themselves?”
Jesus said it this way, “Great gifts mean great responsibilities;
greater gifts, greater responsibilities!” (Luke 12:48 The Message).
I believe our guys are champions no matter what the score was. The word
champion itself came from the middle English, campio, which means fighter. Our
guys are definitely that. Few would have guessed last fall that they would have come this far. Several players delayed professional careers to try for a championship.
These fellows are fighters on the football field, but they are
also fighters in other ways. Part of being a champion is being an advocate and
defender of others.
One example of this is how tight end Jeb Blazevich has conducted
himself. According to this source, for his work with Extra Special People (kids
with disabilities) and other organizations like it, Blazevich was “one of 12 athletes
named to the AFCA Allstate Goodworks team” and a “finalist for the Wuerffel
trophy” given to a college football player for their work in the community.
I read somewhere that the success of the football team has spurred on athletes
in other collegiate sports. As our guys take up the challenge of giving away
what they know and what they’ve achieved, inspiring others to dream big dreams
and never give up, kids out there are
looking to these players and seeing what they’ve done and deciding that they,
too, can be champions.
So, let’s all take one giant step back and look at the big picture and
not just one game.
Meanwhile, we’re still sporting our red and black here cause my hubby
says, “I’m not going to whine about being number two in the nation.”