{"id":6913,"date":"2016-11-27T08:41:21","date_gmt":"2016-11-27T13:41:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=6913"},"modified":"2016-11-27T08:45:02","modified_gmt":"2016-11-27T13:45:02","slug":"picking-teams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=6913","title":{"rendered":"picking teams"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"q4esnb5f0ru-nathan-shively\"<\/a><\/p>\n

On Saturday, Michigan at Ohio State and Florida at Florida State dominated our flat screen (\u2026 congratulations,\u00a0Buckeyes\u00a0and ‘Noles).<\/em> It was great. In fact, this whole week has been sweet; it\u2019s \u201crivalry week.\u201d Rivalry week means the fiercest rivals finally face off against one another.<\/p>\n

They bring their so-called \u201cA\u201d games. Emotions run rampant. They leave it all on the field. That\u2019s key: they leave it all on the field.<\/em> When the contest is done, they remember that they have more in common than they do not; after all, they both love football.<\/p>\n

Because we both love football,<\/em> we remember that we are not defined by our \u201cteams.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the clear challenges in current culture is that we are encouraged to \u201cpick a team \u2014 any team,\u201d<\/em> but when we do, the encouragers want us to stick with it, always. They forget (and they encourage us to join with them in their unfortunately, seemingly self-serving forgetfulness)<\/em> that the \u201cteams\u201d are only subsets of what\u2019s bigger. Remember that both Michigan and Ohio State fans each love football. If only they could remember that we are \u201cfootball fans\u201d first\u2026<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Intramuralist is concerned at the numbers of persons who justify forgetting what\u2019s first.<\/p>\n

Let me first not negate the fierceness of the above. Oh, no\u2026 not at all. I will not deny it nor encourage said denial in any way, shape, or form. The passions run deep; they are based on valid perspective, and thus our loyalties are strong. Because those loyalties are strong, sometimes we need a self-imposed timeout \u2014 not a timeout to regroup and figure out how we can go \u201cget \u2018em\u201d or sabotage somehow; rather, a timeout to gather our composure, re-commit to listening, and figure out how we can move forward together, respecting all people; that\u2019s right: respecting all people \u2014 which means respecting the other \u201cteam.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eight years ago, in our early days of blogging, we penned a post about the change in quarterback for the Green Bay Packers. Many were thrilled with some new guy named \u201cRodgers.\u201d Others had invested years of emotion and support in former QB Favre. There were reasonable, objective arguments on both sides of the playing field \u2014 although many could only see the reasonable and objective from one\u00a0side.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat should I do now?\u201d<\/em> I then asked.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026do I support the\u00a0team even though I thought the other guy would be a more effective leader?\u2026 or do I remember that I\u2019m a Packers\u2019 fan first, and in order for our team to near any level of greatness, I need to respect the QB, whether I previously cheered him on or not.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Respect takes on many forms, friends. It doesn’t mean I have to be happy nor fake it when I’m not. While it manifests itself differently in each individual, there do exist three common threads:<\/p>\n

One,\u00a0listening.
\nTwo, humility.
\nAnd three, no disparagement of the other team.<\/p>\n

Let none of us be arrogant. Let each of us be gracious. No team or QB is perfect; let us not dissect the specks in the eye of another without first wrestling with the logs in our own. There is indeed a bigger “team.”<\/p>\n

Remember, too, that \u201crivalry week\u201d is more than one game or one sport. In fact, it\u2019s also rivalry week in my family\u2019s fantasy football league. I\u2019m playing my spouse, my fiercest competitor. One of us will win; one of us will lose. And let me raise the stakes a little higher: with a\u00a0loss, one of us (moi)<\/em> may be kicked out of the playoffs.<\/p>\n

At the end of the day, however \u2014 maybe after an intentional cooling off period \u2014 we will remember that we are a part of something bigger. Not only is it\u00a0bigger; it\u00a0also is what is best.<\/p>\n

Respectfully\u2026
\nAR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Saturday, Michigan at Ohio State and Florida at Florida State dominated our flat screen (\u2026 congratulations,\u00a0Buckeyes\u00a0and ‘Noles). It was great. In fact, this whole week has been sweet; it\u2019s \u201crivalry week.\u201d Rivalry week means the fiercest rivals finally face off against one another. They bring their so-called \u201cA\u201d games. Emotions run rampant. They leave … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “picking teams”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-issue"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6913"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6913\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6933,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6913\/revisions\/6933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}