My column for this week: An Example Worth Noting “Integrity is doing the right thing even when no one else is watching.” – C. S. Lewis Many of you, like me, watched the Florida State vs. Oregon football game last week, where Oregon won a convincing victory over the defending national champion Seminoles. Today I want to share a story about that game that you probably aren’t going to hear much of anywhere else that I simply believe needs to be told and heard. Of course, if you were paying attention very much leading up to that game, much of the pregame hype from the national media focused solely on the line of suspicion and misconduct that followed FSU quarterback Jameis Winston from Tallahassee to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. Seems instead of focusing on anything positive the folks covering the game preferred to repeatedly stir the stink by revisiting all of the issues #5 has had in the last couple of years over and over and over again. You know how it is – bad news sells, right? As the game rolled along, it became clear that for the first time in 30 games Florida State was going to lose. Not only was Oregon the better team that day, FSU helped them with nearly a half dozen turnovers that ultimately led to a lopsided 59-20 Duck victory. But even before the game was over even more controversy started brewing. As the final quarter began, everything seemed to start steamrolling against Florida State, leading ESPN commentator Kirk Herbstreit to boldly state that “Florida State has quit,” a pointed accusation toward a team under any circumstance. Then as the game approached its’ conclusion, Herbstreit focused his attention on the fact that many of FSU’s players left the field without shaking the hands of the Oregon players, an accepted traditional part of football’s post game ceremonies. Thats disappointing that 70 percent of the Florida State team is in the locker room, Herbstreit said to the world. Its easy to go across when you win a game to shake hands. You lose a game after 29 games and you cant come over and shake a hand of an Oregon player and tell him, Congratulations? Some would say that FSU simply brought that stinging criticism on themselves by all of the before mentioned baggage that followed them to California, that so many negative stories about the team put them under a microscope where every move and action was brought under amplified scrutiny. But then you had Oregon. After the game, many of their fans mocked the now famous Florida State ‘Tomahawk Chop’ chant, which is normal when FSU loses a game. However, in this case some of the Duck players decided to pour salt into the wounds by yelling “No Means No” while chopping with their arms, a hard-hearted stab at Winston and a still swirling rape accusation that exists against him. Predictably, all of this got national press, and were all over the sports shows and internet following the game. The general impression was that one schools thugs had defeated another, and any degree of sportsmanship or integrity had been flushed down the proverbial toilet. But there was another story unfolding at the conclusion of the game that you missed, and one you need to hear about. Covering the game, photographer Susan Erdelyi was noticing all of the confetti cannons being fired as one team walked off the field and the other mockingly celebrated as the presentation of the Rose Bowl trophy began… when her eyes turned to a scene apparently no one else noticed. As the two walked alone toward the locker room, FSU punter Cason Beatty reached out to award-winning Seminole placekicker Roberto Aguayo, and the two garnet and gold clad players knelt down on the Rose Bowl field for a long moment of quiet, private prayer. Moved by the scene, Erdelyi snapped the photograph you see here today. “It was as if they experienced peace in the midst of a storm” she shared with me. “They stayed on their knees for quite some time.” Predictably, the national press has whispered barely a word about this, and they probably won’t. The taunting, dancing, extremism, and drama are the things that get all the attention these days, and subsequently get the ratings that lead to more sponsors and more and more money and profits - not two football players deciding to pray together. But regardless of that fact, in the face of an ugly defeat, in spite of all the negativity spewed around and toward their team including the mocking celebration of their victors, these two young men simply took it upon themselves to do something both of them clearly knew was what they needed to do, and do if for no one else, themselves. As I’ve stated here many times before, right will always be right, and wrong will always be wrong. In the face of a storm of negativity, these two lone souls positively did something very right. So I’d like to thank Beatty and Aguayo for being an example all of us should emulate, one of doing right even while it seems everything around you is falling apart or doing wrong, and doing so even if no one else participates – or, if it seems no one else even notices. I just thought you needed to know about it.
Posted on: Tue, 06 Jan 2015 22:41:33 +0000
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