Ohio State- Clemson Game and all Bowl games

First of all, I do not  think that Bowl games are anything but a reward to a great year for the teams, but to win one is of course special indeed.  But not the same as the regular season in which you are accumulating wins or losses.

I am writing this post because I emoted on Facebook about my old time philosophy of putting the team before the Coach.  I am one of those persons who naturally shies away from being in the spotlight so that when I was a teacher and sponsor to the cheerleaders, song leaders, and school newspaper I put the emphasis on the people who were performing the duties of cheerleader or editor of newspaper, etc.  I stayed in the background and wanted it that way.  Of course, when I had  to do it, I stepped forward to corral all the groups together, but I did not want the attention or limelight for the work that they were doing.

So whenever coaches get too much attention for team work, I bristle a lot. I know the value of the coach but it is the team who gets on the field, throws the ball, catches the ball, or gets his butt kicked. It is not the Coach.

I do not even know the coach of Clemson's name nor do I want to know it.  I did not know who Urban Meyer was at Ohio State University until recently.  It appears that some consider his team capable of cheating a lot, and one thing that did disturb me at this Orange Bowl was all the deference given to Ohio State during the game and after the game as well. The underdog team did win and whether honestly or not, is a matter of referee opinion and spectator opinion.  The ESPN network that I watched it on did make a point of showing the last interception that cost OSU the game and the guy did drop the ball which was not allowed in a previous bowl game when that happened there too.  So one might question whether OSU did get robbed or not.  I think so but that is because I think that rule should apply in all league games.  But I noticed that so many reversals had happened to Clemson that I guess the refs were tired of always changing the score.

You can rerun that tape all you want to decide that for yourself. I don't really care.

Anyway, I am a bit inconsistent I admit, because I did have to interfere in my journalism class to write an editorial when Robert Kennedy was shot. I used St. Francis of Assissi's prayer in that editorial too. I loved his famous prayer.

In the end I quoted Edgar Cayce actually by saying what we do to another we do to ourselves.  Like the Golden Rule to do just that, we actually do it in all our actions...To cheat another is to cheat yourself, especially to cheat yourself of a good and clear conscience if conscience means anything anymore in this society.

I always had in my classroom another statement....Virtue is its own punishment...

One day finally we all learn the value of virtue and why it is such a prized commodity. To have lived cleanly and purely should be the goal of each and everyone...it is like the person who abstains from drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, and other poisonous substances to one's body. One is healthy, clean, and free from remorse or guilt feelings...Try it. You will learn that virtue is the reward of all rewards...to be free is the best pleasure that one can enjoy.