By Ronald
N. Guy Jr.
It is
fascinating how a story finds you. One
minute you’re lost, out of ideas and incapable of creative thought, then a daydream,
a song, a headline or a random event delivers the goods. It’s the chase - the pursuit of
inspiration. That’s the best part of the
writing process. The words
themselves…that’s a love-hate thing. Sometimes the sentences come easy and the
final product does the original idea adequate justice; other times it’s a grind
to type a coherent sentence.
For this
“View”, the idea arrived by accident – the best kind of delivery. A deliberate, early-morning search of the infinite
World Wide Web offered nothing. I was
trying too hard. The topic was waiting
in my in-box.
It wasn’t
obvious. A friend sent an innocuous
YouTube link to an NFL Films segment on one of our favorite players. I clicked on it with no expectations other
than a distraction from my lack of leads.
Minutes later I was feverishly searching for a killer excerpt from a
poet and a poem I had never heard of.
That’s the chase. Love it. And now for those sometimes troublesome
words…
The player
was ‘Skins Hall of Famer John Riggins.
The poet? Robert W. Service. The poem?
“The Law of the Yukon.” And the
excerpt? Well, I’ll get to that.
It is easy
to underestimate Riggins. A
self-proclaimed horse of a different color, his showmanship and appetite for
debauchery always lead his story. Yes,
he did drink a couple morning beers during his first visit with new ‘Skins
coach Joe Gibbs. Yes, he was “El
Presidente” of team’s infamous post-practice beer-slinging “Five O’clock Club.” And yes, he did once encourage Supreme Court
Justice Sandra Day O’Connor to “loosen up, Sandy baby, you’re way too tight” in
an obnoxious drunken stupor.
But Riggins
was and is more than an inebriated jock.
He is very thoughtful and a keen skeptic of conventional wisdom. He possesses both the intelligence to see
situations for what they are and the courage to speak about them honestly. Abraham Lincoln once said, “Every man is born
an original, but sadly, most men die copies.”
Riggins isn’t “most men.”
During the
NFL Films piece, Riggins talked eloquently about how the nasty business of
football affected him personally. He described
his initial naiveté, his quick loss of innocence and how it bothered him to see
teammates cut. Riggins loved the game
between the lines; the game played outside the lines weighed on him.
The process
of tearing through veils and uncovering the truth isn’t unique to football; it
is part of growing up. Eventually the
fairytale of youth diminishes and the world is seen through an adult lens. From that more complex and conflicted perspective,
politicians become less virtuous, corporations less just, churches less
wholesome and many people less genuine than advertised. It’s the messy truth…making peace with it is
an on-going internal wrestling match within us all.
Riggins eventually
found some peace with the underbelly of professional football. When reflecting on his infamous playoff run
after the 1982 season, Riggins, by then an 11-year veteran, talked about being
aware of the moment and the opportunity to rewrite his legacy. This awareness was the impetus for him
demanding carries from the coaches. Riggins
was all-in. Football was going to be just
a game again, if just for this brief stretch.
Riggins’s
run to glory ended with Washington’s first Super Bowl championship and the Super
Bowl MVP trophy for its eccentric running back.
Riggins was lost in the moment, a grown up once again playing a child’s
game. He found something in the
competition between the lines that allowed him to play true to the excerpt he
quoted from Service’s “The Law of the Yukon” poem: “Men with the hearts of
Vikings and the simple faith of a child.”
Riggins found
something pure during his legendary playoff run, something that, despite
knowing the impurities of football, allowed him to play with all his heart and
believe with the uncorrupted faith of a child.
While navigating our own complex and imperfect worlds, may we all find
something worthy of such unqualified commitment.
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