Any young person who played team sports at any point in their lives will attest to what it means to "take one for the team." Week after week we are treated to new up-to-date stories of just what it means to be pa5t of a team. Unfortunately, by the time we get to be adults we forget what that means and everything starts to become all about "me". Just this past week, though, we saw once again what a young man thinks about "team".
When Robert Griffin went down for the Baylor football team, hit in te head and suffering from "concussion-like" symptoms, it appeared Baylor would find it difficult to maintain their high level of play against Tech and go on to win the game. Up stepped Nick Florence, who came in and played for a half of the game, his first action of the year, and finished out the game, securing the victory for the Bears. It had been determined earlier that Florence would be red-shirted, assuring him of another year at Baylor, a year he probably would have become the starter.
However, playing that one half of the game has now robbed him of an entire year of eligibility. What a sacrifice! Nick Florence gave up a whole year of eligibility in order to assure victory in the game for his teammates. Folks, that is what being on a team means. Team means more than any kind of personal gain for one member of the team. Team means acting for the greater good of the whole as opposed to what is good for one individual. Griffin stated that after about five or six minutes he was ready to go back in and would have done so had he been needed to win the game. That would have been foolish, risking his own health and future.
No one would have blamed Coach Briles or Nick Florence if they had decided to keep the red shirt on the young man, but they did not do so. They gave up a year of eligibility to assure victory for the team.
There are so many applications we could make of this action. There are applications for church staff teams, for associational teams, and for convention staff teams. However, too often we forget that we are working on a team and instead act like it is all about "me". It has often been said that there is no "I" in team. There are far too many incidents these days when we forget that. Every time we forget that we end up regretting it.
We should all be grateful to Nick Florence for reminding us of what it means to be part of a team.
2 comments:
While it was admirable and made the fans shiver with excitement, I'm not sure it was very smart. A whole season gone just to play one half of a game? Not really worth it.
Well, you made the Panda's blog yet again today. Maybe he can learn from your blog about how to count and calculate. We already know he sure can't spell.
If your blog is considered as the "cheer-leading source for the corrupt and failing convention" then we sure are glad you are here. Maybe you could give him some mentoring lessons on how to conduct a Godly and affirming blog.
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