Competing While One of Ours Is Fighting

We’re about to compete.

And one of ours is in a hospital room or at home or somewhere that isn’t here, fighting something that makes this game look very small from where they are.

I want to name that tension before we take the field. Because pretending it isn’t there doesn’t make it go away.

Read this passage slowly.

Let that sit for a second before you move.

Wordless groans. Sometimes the situation is beyond what language can handle. The Spirit intercedes because we don’t have the words. That’s an honest description of where some of you are right now — carrying something that is too heavy to articulate and too real to set aside.

Here’s the permission I want to give you: you can compete fully today and care about your teammate at the same time. Those two things do not cancel each other out. The full competitive effort is not a betrayal of the person who can’t be here. In most cases, it’s exactly what they would want from you.

Some of you may want to dedicate the performance to them. That’s a genuine and honoring impulse. Do it if it’s real. Don’t do it if it becomes a weight that takes something away from the competition rather than adding to it.

Compete. Fully. Carry them in your awareness without being consumed by it. The competition can be an act of care for someone who loves this sport and this team and would want you to play your best in their absence.

Let them shape it. What comes from the team is more authentic than what is imposed.