The Panthers and the Zen

Panthers and the Zen

I have been reading with interest as much as I can about the Panthers over the last two weeks. I have read interviews from Coach Ron Rivera, and the general manager Dave Gettlemean. Both men, being humble and thankful were keenly aware of their journey and good fortune. They both attribute part of their rise to the Super Bowl to LUCK. That’s right; they both said they got lucky.

Dave credited his predecessor with providing useful parts for the team’s success, both on and off the field.  One of the things he stressed was how fortunate he was to be in this position. Ron talked about the journey. He had been passed over for head coaching jobs on 7 occasions. He talked about his aha moment when he felt the team turned the corner towards success. He gave his players freedom.

Now last night’s game was not pretty by any stretch of the imagination. A couple of things caught my eye. First the Panther players were not so inclined to give up a ball to a fan when a great play was made. I understand that. It was the Super Bowl. They seemed to have lost some of their strut. The last fumble when Newton seemed to make what one announcer called “a business decision” to not go after the fumble was quite revealing to me.

Peyton Manning on the other hand was humble. The 15 yard down and out pass was no longer thrown with force and zip. It was obvious that this was not his team. He handled it with class. The constant yelling at the line of scrimmage before each play was for the most part gone. He had been told not to do it and he listened.

The speech he made the night before was forgotten after the first snap of the ball yesterday. Players like to talk about that after the fact, but in reality, the cant think of it while they are playing. It was recounted and remembered after the game, only because they won. He did manage to get in a plug for Budweiser twice. But, mostly he was thankful, appreciative and humble.

I have never been a fan of SWAG. Too many things have to happen out of your control to go around showing off or strutting.  It does work for some people, but not nearly as many as people seem to think it does, and certainly there are repercussions and accountability factors in play. If you want to celebrate, show off, and prance, so be it. It’s not my cup of tea. BUT, when games like this happen, and days like yesterday happen, I sit back, smile and am amused.

No one talked about the Zen yesterday after the game.

One of my favorite expressions is…..

Peace of mind is victory