I wrote about this over at my blog, but had to repost a version of it over at EoT, considering that it is so dad focused.
So, the Saints won the Super Bowl. Good for them. I was rooting for them big time, mostly because I’m not a Peyton Manning fan and the Colts are evil.
While the game was fantastic, the best scene I saw last night (and arguably ever in professional sports) was when the cameras cut away to Drew Brees holding his son with tears in his eyes.
Not that I’ll ever be in Brees shoes, but I know exactly how he feels.
Accomplishing anything in life isn’t worth a dime unless you can share it with your family. All the work you put in doing what you love to do is all for them. When times are tough, they are there to support you and get you through it. When things are great, they are there to pat you on the back and give you a congratulations hug.
No matter what your successes are, sharing them with the ones you care about the most makes them even more special and really, truly worth holding on to for the rest of your life.
Congrats Drew and the Saints.
As I got thinking and as more people commented over at my blog, I thought I’d list some of the most emotional moments in sports where life injected itself — some old, some new and mostly in random order:
- Jackie Robinson’s breaking of the color barrier
- The first game the Celtics played after Reggie Lewis died
- Michael Jordan winning the NBA championship and clutching on to the trophy as if he was hugging his father, who was murdered not to long before that
- 1980 USA Mens Hockey Team, “Do you believe in miracles?”
- Brett Farve playing a fantastic game after his dad passed away
- Jesse Owens defies the world
- Woody Johnson and his Jets playing just days after the owner buried his daughter
- Alabama’s Mark Ingram’s Heisman acceptance speech with his father locked up in jail
- Derek Redmond, favored to win the 1992 400mm race in the Olympics, comes up lame with a hamstring injury, only to see his dad walk him to the finish line
- When the Anaheim Angels took the field after young pitcher Nick Adenhart lost his life in a car accident
- Hank Aaron passes Babe Ruth
- Muhammad Ali and the Olympic torch
- Dale Earnhardt, Jr. wins the Daytona 500 on the same track that killed his father a year earlier
- When a minor league baseball coach was killed by a line drive.
- And who could forget Marshall University.
I could go on and on, but the list is depressing to be honest. That’s why the Brees moment last night was so precious. It was a happy moment for him and his family, but, he shared it publicly with the world.
It was a subtle reminder that sports is something that happens in life, not something that dictates it.
Known on the social web as “bigguyd,” Don Martelli is just a dad, moonlighting as a PR exec, photographer and civilian journalist. He’s a frequent contributor to Shamable, Every Other Thursday, The PR Finish Line, Blogcritics and an editor for Technorati. Connect with him at www.donmartelli.com.
