OK, get the picture in your mind.
We've completed three quarters in the football game (American football, not soccer!), and we're getting ready to start the fourth quarter. It's 3:00 in the afternoon, and this is the type of game that could easily go into overtime. The game is being televised on ESPN, and they're on a commercial break, so there's a lull in the action on the field.
On one side is the Green Bay Packers, a strong team rich in football tradition. They have an incredibly loyal fan base, and the fans take their wins and losses very seriously.
On the other side is the Miami Dolphins. Another team with strong traditions and loyal fans.
The score is 21-14 in favor of the visiting Packers. They're winning but it wouldn't take much to turn this game around and have the home team Dolphins pull an upset and send the Packers all the way back to Wisconsin with a terrible loss.
This is the last regularly scheduled game for the season. The winner will go on to a championship game, while the loser ends their season and heads for the showers.
Both sides have suffered injuries. Several key players from each team have already been carried off the field in a stretcher, some already in a local hospital. The game on the field has been very tough, very physical, very mean and personal.
While everyone is waiting for ESPN to come back form their commercial break the fans are doing their chants and cheers. Music is being played over the stadium's sound system. The cheerleaders are doing what they can to fire up the fans. An occasional player walks up to the fans and urges them to cheer and pull for their team. The stadium is filled with a strong atmosphere of the joys winning and depression of losing.
The crowds are in a frenzy, and then the unthinkable begins.
One entire section of fans from the Packers' side of the field suddenly walks out of the stands and onto the field. Both the referres and stadium security try to hold back the throng, but to no avail. The group takes their place on the Packers' 40-yard-line and begin screaming in unison. About this time ESPN has come back from their commercial break and now all their cameras focus on the group of fans camped out on the field. Then a spokesman from the fans comes forward, grabs a microphone, and begins speaking directly into one of ESPN's cameras, his voice and picture being carried out across the entire nation.
| QUOTE | Look at the darn score! We're winning !
It's 21-14. In our favor. We are winning. Therefore we, as loyal fans of our beloved Packers, do hereby demand that the entire offense team, as well as 2/3rds of the defense team, leave the field. We cannot allow our team, who we love more than anything, to suffer another injury. We have other games in the future. We have other seasons in the future. We need these players home right now.
Coach, if you do not release these players from any more play, and if you allow another injury, we will fire you as a coach and we will move our support to another team.
We are serious. We have support all over our state. We will have the local newspapers writing stories of how you allowed this game, a game we've already won, to continue to progress and allow more players to become injuried. We will have speeches on the local TV channels carrying our message to all the people. Enough is enough. |
The ESPN commentators are in complete shock. Something like this has never been done before. All the ESPN analysts are going through all their research to see if anything like this has ever been done in any sport ... in any country.
The spokesman then hands the microphone to the coach. The coach, only moments before concentrating solely on the game, now has this to contend with. He grabs the microphone and begins speaking:
| QUOTE | | Folks, don't you understand that if I send all the offensive players, along with most of the defensive players, off the field that we will end up losing the game? Can't you see that if we leave before the game is completed that the Dolphins will win and we will lose? To win the game we actually have to use all our players for the entire game. |
The spokesman quickly grabbed the microphone away from the coach and began screaming into the microphone, the cameras catching his every word:
| QUOTE | | Release our players! Bring them home now! We've played enough! |
With all this hubbub going on the ESPN cameras hadn't noticed that another group of fans had exited their seats and had taken a position on the field, this time on the Dolphin's 40-yard-line. And now their spokesman grabbed the microphone and began his conditions:
| QUOTE | Coach, we, your loyal fans, demand that you immediately set a time when this game will be over. You started this game at 1:00 pm. It's now 3:00 pm, and this game isn't over yet. What is wrong with you? How long will you drag out this game? Think about the players. Think about the fans. Stop this game, and stop it soon.
Will you go on record, right here and now, and tell us what time we can expect the players to leave the field? |
The poor coach is now flabbergasted.
| QUOTE | | What do you mean 'what time will the game be over'? The game will be over when we win, and not a minute earlier. If I say, 'we'll stop at 4:00' and the game is not completed yet then we'll lose. If I say, 'we'll stop at 5:00' and the game is not completed yet then we'll lose. I cannot set some arbitrary time when we'll stop playing, when the players can go back to the locker rooms, when we'll get on the bus and come home. The game is over when, and only when, we win. What's the matter with you people? |
Then one of the TV cameras notices another crowd forming on the 50-yard-line, this one becomming quite large. As this crowd grows one person steps forward and grabs the microphone for himself and begins his own rant against the frazzled coach:
| QUOTE | Coach, why do you let this carnage go on? Coach, why is it that you care so little for the players? Why do you care so little for the team? Why do you care so little for the fans?
The Dolphins are killing us. They have more 3rd down completions. They have more passing yards. They have more yardage on their punt returns.
And their uniforms are more attractive than ours!
Can't you see how they're beating us? Why don't you quit this game before anything else happens to us? Have you no heart? Have you no soul?
Darn it, we want you fired right now! |
The coach, now absolutely beside himself in shock, tries to explain the situation to this last group:
| QUOTE | Sure they have more 3rd down completions. Sure they have more passing yards. Sure they have more yardage on their punt returns.
But look at the score: we're winning 21-14. The game isn't over, but we're ahead by a touchdown. The total number of passing yards do not indicate who wins. Great punt returns do not win a game alone. You have to see the whole picture.
We've got way more rushing yards. We've got more time of possession. We've got a better field goal kicker. We've got a more mature quarterback. We've got a stronger front line. We've got better coaches on the sidelines.
Why is it that you only focus on the negatives? You have a dismal picture only because you look at what we're doing wrong, and refuse to see what we're going right. What is the matter with you people? |
By now there are ESPN cameras scanning the entire field as well as the stands. People all over are screaming at each other. The players are wandering around trying to figure out what's going on. The coach is being pulled by each of the groups. The announcers in the pressbox are giving their commentary on the ruckus on the field. The referees are wondering what they should do. Everything is in chaos.
What would you do about this football game?
What would you do about Iraq?
|
Dolphins lost, 7 to 62 
