Tonight I watched the New England Patriots win Super Bowl LI. It was historic because this was the first Super Bowl that was decided in overtime.
I guess I’d say that I’m a Patriots fan. I was born in New England. I’m a fair weather fan and I’m always late to the party. My family NOW watches football, but growing up, the only sport I could count my family in watching was NASCAR. After adult years watching games, mostly the Super Bowls, I can follow it a bit better than that annoying person who asks a lot of questions at the party. Yeah, I probably used to be that person though.
Anyway, no matter if you like the Patriots of not, we can learn some things from their win.
- You can start slow, you can start from behind and still come out ahead. The first quarter score was 0-0. That’s not exciting. By the third quarter the Falcons were up 28-9. It’s absolutely unheard of to come back from that deficit in a championship game. But they did. History can always be made.
- Use your disadvantage to fuel you. Why do some races need a bunny? Why do people need a goal? The chase is a powerful tool for performance. When the tide seems to be against you, you dig in and get stubborn. If there’s something out of your reach, you close the distance. When they tell you that you can’t, you say “watch me.”
- Go with the momentum. Once the momentum swings in your favor. It’s super powerful. Once the Patriots started to turn the game around in the 4th quarter, there was no stopping them. Any negative referee call? Didn’t matter. They decided it was their game and they went for it. As soon as overtime was a matter of fact, I knew they would win. Their momentum was too huge to be held back. It was inevitable.
- It’s never over until the absolute last second. They didn’t stop. They didn’t give up. They went straight out, pedal to the metal. When you need to, you get singular in your focus and you just go for it. Don’t even think about failure. Total forward movement with no regard to failure or alternative outcome.
- Let your haters be your motivators. The Patriots have been a winning team but a team with controversy. But any sorts of infractions were handled and fines paid, suspensions carried out, drafts adjusted. When opinion is against you, you can be defeated by it or you can use it to show them all. Let it fuel the fire in your belly.
No matter what, both teams that played had great seasons and did fantastic things in the game. No matter what , you have to respect what it takes to perform at that level. And this was truly a game that will go down as a big deal in the history books. Biggest comeback and the first overtime.
Triathlon-My-Ass-Along 