“I would say my poise comes from my faith. I just pray for peace.” That’s how Alabama’s freshman quarterback Tua Tagovailoa explained his amazing calm in leading his team to an incredible overtime victory in last night’s College Football Playoff championship game.
It was one of the greatest games I’ve ever seen. Georgia was up by thirteen points at halftime and firmly in control of the game. Alabama’s legendary coach Nick Saban went to Tagovailoa, who had not been on the field for a meaningful play all year. The Hawaiian phenom proceeded to become an “unlikely legend” at the age of nineteen.
Lost in all the attention Tagovailoa is receiving today is the fact that the Georgia Bulldogs had an amazing season. For perspective: 129 schools were eligible to compete for the NCAA Championship and, as of this morning, the Georgia Bulldogs outrank 127 of them. After their loss to Alabama, however, they will soon be an asterisk on the season, the answer to a trivia question.
Why?
Our culture celebrates winners
Vince Lombardi famously declared, “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.” Paul Bryant said it a little differently: “Winning isn’t everything, but it beats anything that comes in second.” Tiger Woods claimed that “winning solves everything.”
Of course, we should applaud those who win significant contests. The level of discipline required to achieve such a level of success is remarkable. Emmitt Smith, the NFL’s all-time leading rusher, noted: “Winning is something that builds physically and mentally every day that you train and every night that you dream.”
At the same time, winning can be arbitrary at best. Alabama got into the College Football Playoff despite losing its conference championship. A committee decided its loss to Auburn was less detrimental than the losses of teams such as Ohio State, which won its conference championship.
The University of Central Florida (UCF) was the only major college…
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