I believe that man’s finest hour, in fact his greatest fulfillment, his finest fulfillment, is that moment when he has worked his heart out and for a good cause and lies exhausted but victorious on the field of battle
Vince Lombardi
Cited in What it Takes to Be #1
2003
Highlight clips make it look like competition is all about showy showdowns; in fact, teams cooperate to compete. The unsung lineman opens the way for the star running back and the downfield block decides the game. But think of individual mountain climbers, weightlifters, and deep-sea freedivers. They strive mostly for a personal best.
Stressing chess
Contact sports are fierce. But what about board games? Imagine Grand Masters after a punishing match. Handlers hospitalize the loser. Even the winner retreats to a Black Sea hideaway for a long soak. One expert contends that the successful chess player must not “give anything away, materially, positionally, or psychologically.” Another says succinctly, “only the attacker wins.”
Gridiron vs. field of dreams
The comedian George Carlin often contrasted football, a game that can end in “sudden-death overtime,” with baseball, where players “go home.” A chasm yawns between Americans’ two national games. Football is planned, orchestrated, and corporate. Baseball is spontaneous, open-ended, and pastoral. Gridiron referees calculate their game in seconds. No time limits rule baseball. Quarterbacks run and gun. On the diamond, the defense holds the ball.
At one with play
To a Western mind, meditation and combat are opposites, like peace and war. But the warrior heroes of films such as The Matrix and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon seek as much to master themselves as vanquish opponents. Detachment rather than fury frames their special-effects battles. Real-life martial artists, learning to become wholly absorbed in their contests, discipline themselves to respond automatically, without thinking.
