The Difference Between a Hero and a Goat

I hope you were able to watch the NFC Championship game last night between the Packers and the Giants. Or at least the end of the game. For those of you who are were in a cave over the weekend, the Giants beat the Packers 23 to 20 in overtime. Only the final score does not tell the drama of the game. Giants kicker, Lawrence Tynes, missed two field goals in regulation, including one as the regulation time ended. If you were watching the game, you saw Giants coach Tom Coughlin looking disgusted at the young kicker. Two times he had the opportunity to win the game and two times he missed.

Did it matter that the temperature at the end of the game was -4 or that the wind chill was around -25? No. Lawrence Tynes job was to go out on the field when the coach called and kick the ball through the uprights. And he failed twice.

His coach was obviously displeased with him. His teammates probably were not very pleased with him either. Now matter how much confidence he has in himself, Lawrence Tynes probably had doubts about himself after the second kick. It would have been easy for him to give up. It would have been easy for him to have totally lost his focus and concentration. He could have blamed the elements. He could have blamed a bad snap on the second kick. He could have hung his head and felt sorry for himself. but he didn't.

Then came the chance for redemption. 3 minutes and 25 seconds into overtime, Coach Coughlin and the Giants called on their kicker again. This time, Lawrence Tynes' kick was true and the New York Giants are going to the Super Bowl. In the brief moment from the time he kicked the ball until it went through the uprights and the referees signalled the kick good, Lawrence Tynes went from Goat to Hero.

There is such a lesson to learn for all of us here. We all face failure, sometmes in our area of expertise, in our primary career. All to often, we just give up or hang our heads. We let the mistakes get to us. We allow ourselves to let an individual failure to define us instead of coming back the next time and the next time. We need to be like this kicker. We need to refocus and try again. There might be something equivalent to a bad snap to stop us when we try again, but we need to keep going. Tee it up again. We need to keep trotting out on to the field so to speak. If Lawrence Tynes had given up on himself, he might not be heading to the Super Bowl in two weeks. But he is, and from that, there is a lesson from which we can all learn.

(c) 2008 Eddy Seegers

I hope you enjoy my ramblings. Check out some of my links. If you are interested in better health, click the link that says "A Healthier You."