The pain of losing the national championship by a last-second field goal will never go away. The Ducks didn't play their best game, didn't have good luck in the crucial moments, and couldn't overcome a couple of breaks that went against them. It happens. Football is a game of adversity, of rising up and meeting challenges and fighting your way through difficulty.
For nearly a month now we've lived with the uneasy memory and the unwatched recording on the DVR. Some of us have immersed ourselves in recruiting or comforted ourselves with the notion that this group isn't done. Chip Kelly said "we'll be back" and it's easy to believe him. The man has delivered on every commitment he's made so far. He doesn't make predictions or promises. He makes statements. He plans and executes. And his players believe in him completely and play with all of their heart.
FowlPlay2010, one the fan contributors at Addicted to Quack, produced this highlight video which is a living testimony to everything that's special about Oregon football. Watch it and save it. It is beautifully done. In the pain of a difficult, nail-biting, bitter loss, it was easy to lose sight of all they had accomplished, and how hard they played in that game. FP's video will propel you forward as a fan, and if you watch carefully, as a person.
The willingness to believe fiercely in something can be a sustaining energy that fuels every part of you, the father, the worker, the husband.. It's a call out of mediocrity and numb inattention. Hope is a good thing, and no good thing ever dies.
Thank you to FowlPlay for a beautiful effort. We should do all of our work as well as this.
Nice video.
ReplyDeleteI don't have that bad of a feeling about the game. I mean, I'd much rather had won, but a play here or the ref seeing either of a couple of plays at a better angle and we win.
And now UO can go into any living room in the country and recruit.
BP--
ReplyDeleteGreat to have you back. It is incredible to see the growth in Ducks recruiting, with players from Iowa, Arizona, Texas and Florida, and several of the best players in the country.
Years past it would have been news for Oregon to get one player the caliber of Lyerla, Thomas, Blackmon, Sumler and Wallace, and now they're recruiting them in bunches.
Dale