Everything I Needed To Know About Life, I Learned Watching Sports Movies

I was watching Friday Night Lights the other day—even though I have seen Rudy, We Are Marshall, Rocky, Invictus, Seabiscuit, Invincible, The Blind Side, Remember The Titans, Karate Kid, Bull Durham, Bend It Like Beckham, The Natural, and Any Given Sunday, somehow I missed this one—and it got me thinking about why sports are such a great metaphor for life.

Here is a short list of just a few life lessons I learned watching sports movies:

1.  There will always be bad calls, you gotta just move on
2. Sometimes you gotta take one for the team
3.  Respect the coach, your teammates, the opposing team, and yourself
4. Heart will get you just as far (sometimes further) than ability
5. Don’t count out the little guy (or girl)
6. Shake hands with the opponent after every game
7. Winning is not the most important thing-- and certainly not the only thing
8. Never give up
9. Heroes come in some unlikely packages
10.  Only someone who’s played, understands 

It’s so easy to get wrapped up in daily life and the stress of getting through tough times—it’s easy to forget the important stuff that I think we’re supposed to take out of life. Sports truly can bring out the absolute best in people—I believe that. And unfortunately, I also believe that they can bring out the worst. Like in life, players make illegal hits, take performance-enhancing drugs, or game the system to their advantage. For every Tim Tebow there’s a Barry Bonds, it seems. Fickle fans (or friends) can be your best friend or your worst enemy.

So what conclusions about life can we draw from sports? Playing team sports forces us to dig deep and as a team, do more than we ever could alone. That’s why sports movies ring true: they show us what we could be on our best day, and remind us that that person is still inside of us. We just have to not forget to let him (or her) out from time to time.