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Eagles’ Super Bowl Victory Highlights Sportsmanship as Tom Brady Reflects on Defeat.

todayFebruary 16, 2025 1

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(ThyBlackMan.com) The Eagles victory was greeted joyously in our family. It’s always a high when you (or your team) come out on top. But in the final minutes of the Super Bowl, as the clock remained stuck on the two-minute warning for what felt like 20 minutes (at least for those of us eager to pop the Champagne), former quarterback-turned-TV-commentator Tom Brady filled the air time with lugubrious thoughts about how awful it is to be the loser. “The reality of a loss in this game,” he opined, “is you don’t ever get over them,” adding that he thinks about his losses more than his wins.

Eagles' Super Bowl Victory Highlights Sportsmanship as Tom Brady Reflects on Defeat.

Whoa. Whatever happened to “You win some, you lose some. What matters is how you play the game”? That may be a tough attitude to adopt in the first minutes or hours after a crushing disappointment, but time heals that initial hurt, and a philosophical acceptance of inevitable ups and downs eventually prevails for emotionally healthy people.

I don’t presume to judge Brady’s inner life, but love him or hate him, he’s a legend, with no fewer than seven Lombardi trophies on his mantle — the most of any player in the history of the NFL. Surely all of those wins should soften the disappointment of his three losses? And if the wins don’t salve the disappointment, what about the handsome check? Each player on the winning team gets a bonus of $171,000, but the losers are not forgotten. Each player on the losing side gets $96,000. That’s on top of the average NFL salary of $3.2 million. People who lose out on a job promotion or Pulitzer Prize don’t get a consolation check.

Instead of focusing on the “agony of defeat,” Brady could have pointed to the handshakes and pats on shoulders that Kansas City Chiefs players were offering to the Eagles. That’s sportsmanship. That’s how grown-ups respond to loss. As someone once said, “Greet victory like a gentleman and defeat like a man.” (I know the saying leaves out women, but the same principle applies.)

The game was also quite clean — no epithets or thrown elbows as far as I could see — and that too should be noticed and praised. Frankly, it’s an accomplishment for men engaged in a game that consists of barely disguised physical combat to keep their tempers.

Consider how many kids were watching the game. Do we want to convey the message that losing a game — even an extravaganza game — is something you can never get over? What does that tell kids about other setbacks they will inevitably encounter in life?

 

Finish story hereEagles’ Super Bowl Victory Highlights Sportsmanship as Tom Brady Reflects on Defeat.

 

Written by: Black Gospel Radio

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