As I wrote yesterday, I try to learn from things I see. Yogi Berra said, “You can observe a lot by just watching.”
What can we learn from the big fight at the end of the Browns-Steelers game Thursday night? In case you missed it (I only saw it on replay after the fact), Myles Garrett of the Cleveland Browns ripped the helmet off Pittsburgh Steeler quarterback Mason Rudolph and clubbed him in the head with it in the final seconds of Thursday night’s game. The weird thing was that Cleveland was winning at the time and won the game 21 – 7.
Garrett took responsibility for what he did as quoted on the ESPN web site:
Last night, I made a terrible mistake,” Garrett said in a statement issued Friday. “I lost my cool and what I did was selfish and unacceptable. I know that we are all responsible for our actions, and I can only prove my true character through my actions moving forward. I want to apologize to Mason Rudolph, my teammates, our entire organization, our fans and to the NFL. I know I have to be accountable for what happened, learn from my mistake, and I fully intend to do so.
I’m glad he’s taking responsibility, but I question his use of the word “mistake.” As my friend Joel, who teaches at the Air Force Academy sometimes says to a misbehaving cadet, “A mistake is when you misdial a phone number, hitting, say, a three instead of a two. What you did was a bad choice.”
And for some reason, players instigating such egregious actions often say it’s not their true character. But it is their true character! We have it on video. And in this case, it’s not the first time: Garrett punched a player back in game 1.
The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him, and he is held fast in the cords of his sin. He dies for lack of discipline, and because of his great folly he is led astray. (Proverbs 5.22, 23, ESV)
But there is always good news for Garrett and the rest of us!
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53.6, ESV)
The QB initiated the fight. The DE lost it and endangered the QB beyond the scope of a fistfight. When wronged we must think before we act! Both these men were wrong acting out the way they did.
However, the QB is skating, justice is incomplete.
I have been know to lose it–I pray for the wisdom to walk away for at least a moment.
Thanks for clarifying, Tom. I like your comment, “When wronged, we must think before we act!” That’s the word.
The best thing that happens to our cadets (and Garrett) and the rest of us is when bad choices are indisputably brought out into the light. We try to scurry back into the darkness, but it’s best to remain in the light. Our troubled cadets usually recognize that living in the light is what they really want . Many good and redemptive stories there.
Behind on blogs again! Love this one! Will have to remember Joel’s definition of a mistake.