“For I know the plans I have for you. Plans to
prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and
a future.”
--JER. 29-11
With apologies to our understandably proud and jubilant
Crimson Tide faithful, the University of Alabama , to me,
wasn’t the biggest winner in Thursday night’s BCS
national championship football game.
That distinction went to a young man from Tuscola , Texas ,
named Colt McCoy. Colt McCoy! Are you crazy, you say?
Yes, Colt McCoy, the Longhorns’ All-American quarterback
who suffered an injury on the game’s opening drive,
knocking him out of the remainder of the contest. The same
Colt McCoy who won more games as a starting quarterback than
anyone in the history of NCAA Division I football.
Yet, you may ask, how in the world can you argue that Colt
McCoy was the game’s biggest winner? After all, he hardly
even played.
In reply, I would reference the young man’s post-game
interview before millions upon millions of people who
watched the nationally-televised matchup. The reporter asked
McCoy, “How did you feel, watching the game from the
sidelines?”
Smarting from a shoulder injury that numbed his cannon-like
throwing arm after being hit by Alabama’s Marcell Dareus,
McCoy kind of gazed up in the night sky, cleared his throat
a couple of times trying to fight back emotion, and
couldn’t really respond for five or six seconds. Finally,
the recipient of the prestigious Maxwell Award acknowledged that
“it was unfortunate that I didn’t get to play” and
that he “would have given everything I had to be out there
with my teammates.” He then congratulated Alabama and
later called the Tide “a tremendous football team.”
But what he said next was the real clincher. Still makes me
a little misty-eyed. He told the interviewer, “I alwaysgive God
the glory. I never question why things happen the way they do. I know
God is in control of my life, and I also know, if nothing else,
that I’m standing on the rock.”
Now, folks, let’s think about the profound nature of that
response. Here’s a kid who always seemed destined to play
in that national championship game. My goodness, with a name
like Colt McCoy, he was born to be the gunslinging quarterback
of the fabled Burnt Orange. His entire experience playing junior
high, high school, and college football had been vested toward
Thursday night, Jan. 7, 2010, in Pasadena , California’s Rose Bowl.
And he got to play one ill-fated series. One.
Now, the 6-2, 210-pound Heisman finalist completed over 70
percent of his passes and threw for 112 touchdowns and
13,253 yards in his storied college career. Just phenomenal.
Those accomplishments aside, in his post-game interview, the
Longhorn quarterback hurled the most important scoring pass
of his life - a real “Hail, Mary,” if there ever was
one. Despite his obvious and deep disappointment, Colt McCoy
came through like a true champion for his God, giving praise
and thanks even in bitter defeat. Notwithstanding religion,
he taught the nation a lesson in class and humility.
You know, as all of us progress through this life, we
experience what some call “defining moments.” It’s
those crossroads episodes that establish, for good or bad,
whatever legacy we leave on this Earth. Most of us will
never have a national television audience, like Colt McCoy,
when our defining moments come, but I have a feeling, in God’s
eyes, that a street corner ministering to just one other
human being might do.
Colt McCoy may never become a star in the National Football
League, although I suspect he will. Nonetheless, in
this age of professional athletes having well-publicized
extra-marital affairs, brandishing guns in locker rooms,
lying to grand juries, and using performance-enhancing
drugs, Colt McCoy is a star on a stage far transcending any
football field. No, he never got to hold that coveted
crystal trophy, but Thursday night he made a resounding
statement to the youth of America about what it really means
to be a winner.
And I know God will continue to bless him for that.
Nice post!
ReplyDelete