My Favorite Championship Memory
If you are a fan of sports, the chances are pretty good that, by the time you read this, the college football championship game will be a distant memory for you. After all, they’re already playing baseball.
For just a few moments, though, I would like to share with you my favorite memory from that football championship game. It involves what seem to be two very contradictory factors. The first of those factors is that the memory involves a player who is one of the (if not the) most overlooked players on any team. The second, and seemingly contradictory factor, is that the argument could be made that this player is the most important player on any team.
The fact that the person who plays this position on a football team is mostly overlooked should become very obvious if you’ve spent any time watching football on television. It is very common to see the cameras focused on the offensive players who make spectacular runs, complete spectacular passes, etc. On the other side of the ball, we see individual shots of those who make interceptions, tackles, etc.
One unit is usually referred to as just that – a unit. They are unknown and overlooked. You don’t usually see the camera on just one of them unless and until he makes a huge mistake that results in a penalty or gets hurt. My memory involves one of those players; a member of the most overlooked unit on any team; the offensive line.
It is also my contention that this player is, without a doubt, the most important person on the field. He is the center in that line. He snaps the ball. Nobody else on the field can do anything until and unless he does that. (Of course, if he should fail to do that or do it at the wrong time, he would get his “few seconds of fame – or infamy.”)
Landon Dickerson was the center for the Alabama Crimson Tide this past season. He was having an outstanding season until a very severe knee injury put him on the sidelines during the SEC championship game in December. He was, in the language of sports, “out for the season.”
As I watched the national championship game on January 11, I was surprised to see him in uniform. I thought that it was a nice gesture by the coaching staff to let him do that even though he was nowhere near able to play.
I continued to watch the game even after it became obvious that Alabama “had it in the bag.” I thought that I had seen all of the memorable plays and moments there were to see. I could not have been more wrong.
As the clock wound down and it came time for Alabama to just snap the ball a couple of times and have the quarterback kneel down to end the game, something on the screen caught my attention. It looked like Landon Dickerson was “lobbying” his coach for the chance to go in for those last two “meaningless” snaps. Apparently that was the case because, even as one of the announcers said, he had “absolutely no business being out there,” he did snap the ball those last two times.
The events surrounding those last two snaps make the entire experience something other than “meaningless” to me. The first occurred as soon as Landon reached his teammates on the field and before he could snap the ball the first time. As best as I could tell, every single member of the offense gave him a big hug. The second occurred just as the clock ran out after the second snap. Landon made his way to his coach, picked him up off the ground, and held him as high in the air as he could.
I pray that I will keep those images in my mind for as long as I live. It seems to me that there are some real life lessons in those images. At least to me, they reinforced some things I’ve believed for a long time. There are probably more than I will mention here, but maybe the ones I mention will prompt all of us to consider others.
I’ve already sort of hinted at one of those life lessons. It is often way too easy to overlook people who “make things go.” This is true in every one of our endeavors. (You might want to take the time to read 1 Corinthians 12:21-25 to see how this applies to God’s people.)
Those images also reminded me about the value of relationships. The “skill players” who make the spectacular plays and the “anonymous” members of the offensive line all made sure that Landon got a hug. There was an obvious camaraderie among them. It occurs to me that this may be sort of a corollary to my first “life lesson.” These players know that he is a vital part of “what makes things go.”
Another life lesson involves another relationship. A relatively obscure guy “in the trenches” felt comfortable enough with the leader of an entire team to make a request. The leader, who is paid over $9 million a year to coach the team, listened to and granted the request of a young man who has a scholarship to play football. The young man “rewarded” his coach by hoisting him in the air.
There was an obvious difference in the economic status of these two people. There were also differences in age and in a variety of other things. Thinking back to those hugs when Landon entered the game, not all who participated were from similar backgrounds, came from the same parts of the country, or even had the same color of skin. The life lesson in all of this is that, to the extent to which people are united in a cause, barriers become irrelevant or cease to exist.
Maybe the ultimate life lesson is that life, itself, is a lesson. We do not need to spend our days pursuing trophies, material things, titles, accolades, etc. All of these things would well qualify as those “…treasures upon the earth…” that the Lord told us to not “…seek after…” (Matt. 6:19).
We would do much better spending the days we have learning and applying the words of the One who said:
…the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him on the last day (John 12:48).
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AUTHOR: Jim Faughn
