Do you coast when you have a big lead? Do you not study for a test when you know you're running an A-minus or B-plus in a class? Do you lighten up on an opponent in tennis when you're up a set and 4-love in the second?
I hate settling. Yet, we see it in sports all the time. Teams that let up and lose their focus and/or aggressive nature when they get a big lead and then, despite outplaying the other team for the majority of a game, allow the opponent to make a comeback. It leaves the would-be winning team snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
I hate it. I watched my beloved NY Giants do it against the Philadelphia Eagles just recently. I've watched so many teams do it so many times in every sport, so many individuals do it in so many one-on-one matches so many times.
Why? Why does it happen? Why do we let up when we should be beating up on an opponent? You can shake hands afterward, maybe even apologize (I wouldn't but you can). But don't let up.
Not just in sports either. In all things. Don't take your love for granted. Or your lover. Don't take victory for granted. Or the vanquished. Don't take a championship for granted, or the prospective runner-up.
I like to read books through to the end rather than assume the ending. Or read the "cliff notes" (remember those?). I like to watch mysteries through to the end, rather than assume I know "whodunit." I like to do research through to the end rather than assume I know how the study will turn out.
I hope prospective contributors to "Journal of Sports Media," which I'll be editing in the future, will already have the same attitude. Every outstanding piece of research usually concludes with the acknowledgment that another study for further evidence is necessary.
Just like every football game is 60 minutes, not 52-and-a-half. Ain't that right, NY Giants?
Welcome to JSM 2011. Happy New Year.
HS
(hbssports@gmail.com or hschlossberg@colum.edu)
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