Written by Todd Howey

I have no doubt by now you have read about the horrific attack in New Orleans early New Year’s morning. A madman drove his pickup truck through a party of revelers, killing fifteen and injuring over thirty more. Madness is all I can say, complete madness. To imagine one can be having a good time with friends in one moment and then in the very next moment being mowed down by some lunatic in a pickup truck. I’m glad they postponed the Sugar Bowl between Notre Dame and Georgia, which was scheduled for the evening. It was the right thing to do because a football game is so insignificant to the sorrow and grief being experienced by the victims of the horrific attack.

At that moment, the Sugar Bowl was put into proper perspective, it is just a game. We would survive, whether they played the game or not.

Nothing puts things into perspective quicker than tragedy. The death of a loved one, a serious diagnosis of an illness, a crazy terrorist attack out of nowhere. It is moments like that when nothing else matters on the entire planet other than the health and safety of the ones you love.

I understand a lot of people may not agree with my – it’s just a game – approach, so we’ll just have to agree to disagree. But my approach goes a bit deeper than that.  What is not a game are the life lessons one can learn from athletics. Work ethic, how to overcome adversity, dealing with failure and learning the elements of teamwork. Those are life changing experiences that can propel one onward to greater things in life.

I have no issue with a player being upset after losing a game. As an athlete, one does put a lot into it emotionally, physically, and even spiritually. So being upset after a loss or down on yourself for not performing well is expected, I just think it’s immature to take those emotions out on others.  But, if losing doesn’t bother you, then I wouldn’t want you on my team.

There is too much focus on winning at the youth level today and not enough on the development of character in young boys and girls. I have a feeling we are teaching more kids to hate the game than we are to love the game. Perspective can get skewed for a coach when winning championships becomes more important than building champions.

I believe it was Snoop Dogg that said being famous on Instagram is like being rich when playing the board game Monopoly. It does not mean very much.  Stacking up tournament trophies at the youth level is like monopoly money. There is no value unless life lessons are learned.

It’s just a game, not life or death. There are many more important things.

I feel pretty certain that each head football coach participating in the Sugar Bowl took an opportunity to talk to their players about the tragedy and what truly is important in life. I feel that way because they would not be where they are without having a proper perspective, I know both teams prayed for the victims along with their coaches.

When I was an athletic director, I would tell my coaches that the coaching profession should never be the most important thing in their life. Their job is not their life, just part of it. I will admit, I struggled with that early in my coaching career – until I developed some perspective.

I didn’t watch the Sugar Bowl last night, I just kind of forgot about it. I think a lot of people probably did. Looks like Notre Dame won the game, but knowing what I know about life, there will be bigger wins than that in the lives of those players long after their football career is over.

Perspective is the ability to understand what is important and what isn’t. I think we can all agree that the least important thing that happened in Louisiana over the last few days was a football game.

There’s no greater gift than life, and when it is taken away so senselessly as it was in New Orleans early Wednesday morning, I can’t help but realize how unimportant many things in my life really are. It gives me perspective.