Losing to Winning

It happens. It happens a lot. You lose. Your team gets (pick one - or as many apply):

Beaten to a pulp.
Waxed.
Their clock cleaned.
Their butts kicked.
Their hats handed to them.
Thoroughly embarrassed.
Bloodied.
Sent packing.
Hammered.
Shellacked.
Creamed.
Steam rolled.
Schooled.
Beat up.
Clobbered.
Cold cocked.
Ambushed.
Bushwhacked.
Their fannies kicked.
Spanked.
Humiliated.
Shown the door.
Murdered.
Stomped.
Beat like a drum.
KO'd.

On Saturday night in Eugene, the UW Huskies were on the receiving end of all of the above. Got spanked 44-10 by the rival Ducks. A lot of folks are calling for coach Ty Willinghams head. I think some of them would even take it on a plastic platter. It has been a long, ugly, painful and humbling eight years since we last tasted of the victory nectar. Although it seems like only yesterday that Tui was running amok in the Purdue secondary on his way to yet another Husky score. In all actuality, it was eight years ago and we have been in the tank ever since, trying to claw back out.

There are some parallels here that I have long been exploring and would like to take advantage of the timing to relate. The parallels are from losing football games to life. Please bear with me.

It is not the end of the world when you lose a football game. We are talking about 18-22 year old kids here. They are prone to mistakes. Looking back at this time in my life I think I fucked up about 9 of every 10 opportunities. The key is to LEARN FROM YOUR MISTAKES AND NOT REPEAT THEM. This is how you win games in both arenas.

When you get (pick one of the above), man-up and congratulate those that inflicted the lesson. After all, getting schooled today could mean graduating tomorrow. This goes for fans too, folks!

Don't look for excuses. Examine yourself. Be brutally honest and see if there is anything that you can do RIGHT NOW to improve. I'll bet there is.

Don't blame others. They might have played as badly as you, but what they don't need is one of their peers reminding them of their failures. They need support. They need a brother. They need solidarity. They need you to be a stronger you so they can be a stronger them. So be stronger, work harder, shut up and lead by example.

Don't believe everything the press says about you. It is NEVER that bad. The media is trained to seek out failure, weakness, corruption, conspiracies and defeat. DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, GIVE THEM ANY.

Never give up. It is a long season. Dearest Huskies, I guarantee that if you are able to learn just a few of these lessons, bounce back and beat BYU, and then go on to continue the improvements, NO ONE WILL REMEMBER THIS AWFUL TASTE OF DEFEAT WE ARE CURRENTLY TASTING.


And then losing becomes winning.