The Super Bowl between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots was not about flash. It was not about swagger. It was not about perfectly coiffed quarterbacks or cinematic slow-motion spirals.
It was about defense.
Which, frankly, feels psychologically correct for the moment we’re in.
I was rooting for Seattle. Yes, even though I went to school in Massachusetts. Even though that loyalty is supposed to be baked into my DNA. But I have a lingering, unresolved issue with Tom Brady’s arrogance. (This is not a hot take. This is a personal truth.) There’s something about excessive confidence without humility that triggers my inner psychologist and my outer eye roll.
And listen, there was drama. There’s always drama. The halftime controversy had people spiraling, projecting, tweeting, and diagnosing the collective psyche of America in real time. But at the end of the day, this was still a game. A reminder that not everything is a metaphor. Even though everything kind of is.
What struck me most wasn’t the noise. It was the discipline.
Defense requires patience. Restraint. The ability to hold the line when everyone else wants fireworks. It’s not glamorous. It doesn’t get the same dopamine hit as offense. But it wins. Quietly. Repeatedly. Relentlessly.
This was only the coach’s second year, and he showed up. Fully. Grounded. Present. The kind of leadership that doesn’t need theatrics. Especially meaningful when you know how close he came to walking away from coaching altogether. That matters. Because sometimes the comeback story isn’t about redemption. It’s about staying when it would’ve been easier to leave.
The players brought it to life. Every stop. Every read. Every refusal to crack under pressure. This wasn’t about one star carrying the team on their back. This was collective effort. Trust. Systems working because people believed in them.
And can we talk about the MVP being a running back?
That alone tells you everything.
This wasn’t about ego. It was about grit. About yards earned the hard way. About doing the unsexy work and letting that be enough.
Even the quarterback, Sam, gave us a redemption arc that felt earned, not manufactured. No messiah complex. Just presence. Progress. Proof that growth doesn’t have to be loud.
So yes, shout out to the 12s. This was a team win. A reminder that leadership isn’t always about being the loudest voice in the room. Sometimes it’s about defense. About holding steady. About knowing when not to overreach.
And maybe that’s the real lesson here on the field and off it.
Sometimes winning isn’t about dominance. It’s about discipline.
And showing up exactly where you’re needed.
Defense. Defense. Defense.
Categories: Culture, current events, identity, Leadership, mental health, Psychology, sports
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As a Wonderful Professor in the Health Leisure And Sports Curriculum
At the University of West Florida Once Shared in an Actual Philosophy
of Sports Class that helped me on my Way in a Triple Major of BS in
Health Science And Two BA’s in Anthropology and Social Sciences As
Then i Pursued Degrees That Would Enhance my Greatest Weaknesses
Yes As A Human Being Yet to Be Diagnosed Some Decades Later
Finally Finding the Challenges of Life With Asperger’s Syndrome
And Bi-Polar Disorder Non-Specified to Becoming Functionally
Disabling
in Existing
At All Anyway
That Professor offered
The Wisdom that Sports
Is A Microcosm of Human Societies
Yes From Exercising the Cooperation
of Team Effort to Survive and Thrive
to Providing A Tolerable Substitute
For the Tribalism That Might
Otherwise Function
As Civil War
In Just one Society
or the Soccer Version
of Football Internationally
As a Wonderful Substitute for
World War III and Nuclear Annihilation
oF All Human
Conflicts
And
Dreams
And Yes There is the Half Time
Show in Football With Lovely Arts
Of Music and Cheerleading Shows
That Address Issues Like the Emotions
And Senses And Yes Lusts That Control
Us First Before We ‘Think’ as of Course in Competition of
Winning At All Costs Doing That For Real With Enough
Order at Best not to Harm Rape Maim
And Kill Each
other yet
of Course
Banging Heads
in Football or Boxing
Lacks a Bit of Common
Sense of Protecting the
Egg of Being on Top of Our Shoulders
Yet Still better than Civil War or Nuclear Annihilation
3 Yards and a Cloud of Dust A Legendary Highschool Football
Coach Yes in the Same City in Florida Breaking the All time
Snow Record of 10 Inches Yes Hurley Manning Through
my Senior Year and Beyond Winning Two Consecutive
State Championships in 1978 thru 1979 A Runner
Up Sectional Championship in 1977 at the
Beginning of my Senior Year and of
Course A “Key to The City” too
in a Hometown that NO Doubt
Had the Philosophy of
Football Is King
Of Philosophy
Politics God Bless
Yes And Religion too
Not Unlike Legendary
Coach Bobby Bowden
And His Ten Win Decade As Well
(Trivia Note: Once Holding the
Guinness Book World Record
For Most Christian Churches
Per Capita All Over the World)
Miles Down the Road Where my
Father Resided With Seminoles
Hehe Yet of Course All the Teams
Had me as a Fan and Many Others
Too Virtually in the Spectator Sport
Mirror Neuron World of Close Yes Yet
Not Full
Reality
To Do Yes
To Actually Do
Sadly too as some
of Those Players in
Their Glory Days
Did Not Retain
The Olympic
Spirit in the
Rest of The
Decades of
Their Life of
Couch Potato
Averages As Spectators
Often Rule Yes Over The Couch
Spirit Just Waning Away to Mall
Benches Watching NFL as i Float
By on Smooth Mall Dance Floors
Feather in the
Wind as the
Wind at
my Current
Playing Weight
Yes Only Play
at 250 Pounds
FRiEnDS With
Gravity Yet
Not Unlike
Social Circles Before
Team Sports Was never
A Strength Then Last One
Picked on all the Sports Teams
Paradoxically Both in the Team Sports
And Social Skills World Selected By the
Federal Government As Bowling Center
Manager, Community Activities Director,
Athletic Director, and Recreation Programs
Director With a Side Dish of Print Manager for a
Largest Naval Installation in my Last 5 Years of
Federal Work to Attain A High 3 Years of Pay Then to
Early Retire Disabled With 25 Years of Service Then at
The Civilian Equivalent Grade of a Marine Captain then
(Before Autistic Burnout the Condition i Discussed
With the Pen Name “Aghogday” on the “Wrong
Planet Website” and in Other Online Autism
Communities Where a Blog Post on This
Real Human Condition i wrote is Still
Referenced in Peer Reviewed Studies
As Such as This Parenthetical
Side Note Rather Long Ends
Now Hehe) True
A Big Surprise
Indeed Beginning
That Federal Career
as a “Non-Appropriated Fund”
Government Employee Making
$3.69 An Hour Part-Time after
Earning 3 Degrees as Of Course i
Didn’t Fully Understand the Road
Blocks of the Autism And Bi-Polar
Spectrum then And True It’s Just as
Well Better as i Had to adapt to the Challenges
Yes Rather than Falling to Restrictive Labels then
Gaining Enough Autodidact Skills in Information
Technology Financial Management Accounting
As Such to be a Valuable Enough Commodity
to Keep then for the Navy Captain to even Bend
the Rules to Keep Nah i’m Really Not Autistic or Bi-Polar Now
True NeW As Far As Only Categories Labels Yes Words Go
i’m Human
The Biggest
Achievement of
All Now Everywhere
i Go With A Free Dance
And Song Strangers Become
FRiEnDS for the Greatest Win oF All
Indeed
What So
Many can
Take for Granted
Comfortable in Our
Own Skin for The Win
With FRiEnDS and A Wife
With the Resilience to Stand
By
Her Man
66 Months
in Living
Hell After
Stumbling
With So Many
Caterpillar Legs
And Living in a Cocoon
More Like a Locust for
17 Years than only
A Short Term Stay
Before i gained
my Butterfly Wings Free
Anyway Back to the Legend of
Hurley Manning Leading Rusher
at Troy State University in His Youth
His Mantra for those 2 State Championships
In the Town With the Record for 10 Inches
of Florida Snow Originally Called “Hell”
Before “Scratch Ankle” on the River
Banks as the Folks Originally
Were Not Very Welcoming
Ships And Mates
Bringing Tall
Pine Lumbar
to this Mill Town Then
Hehe as “Hell” Literally
Froze Over Later
Yes His Mantra Was
3 Yards And a Cloud
Of Dust and Of Course
Mine is Every Move
Holy Dance Every
Word Sacred Song
Naked Enough Whole
Complete This Breath
With LoVE iN Peace
Giving Sharing
Caring Healing
For All With Most Respect Least Harm
New Together For The Eternal Win Now
Yes The Star of “The Show” for me Was
Yes The SoUL Healer The HeART Healer
The SPiRiT Healer of Love Conquers Hate
Indeed
‘Bad Bunny’
Earned more
Than an Obsolete
Lincoln Penny He
Gave Love Away So
Peacefully Energetically
God Yes to Be as A Dance
And Song Will Be Without
Any Potential Intelligible
Words At All Moves and
Music That Set Us Free
For Heart
Beats in
Synch
With Minds
Yes That Give
Rather Than Seek Blood
Indeed the Super Bowl Was
A Big Show of the Human Condition
And i Understand the DarK PArts
Were Performed in the
DarK Force Way
of Star
Wars
As Usual too
Yep Full World Plate of the
Condition on Sunday After Noon
And yes one final Note Defense not
only on the Field Yet Best too on the Streets
Now For How We Carry Ourselves Confidently
Without Fear as Bad Bunny Surely Did on the
Stage too Along with all the Other Dancers and Singers
Yes Is a best
Way to at
Least in
PArt to
Avoid All
The Thugs
of Life Who
Seek the Vulnerable
As Usual to Harm Rape
Maim and Yes Even Kill
In so Many Ways even
Ways sadly of Politically
Correct
Judged
Legalities
Yet Never
the Less Dead…
Yet Let’s Begin
this on a SMiLe
It’s What Love Defeats
Hate Naturally Does Now
Best
Dear
Miriam
With SMiLes…
Oops almost Left
Out my Sociology
Professor at UWF
Ray Oldenburg Who
Championed the Value
of ‘Third Places’ Beyond
Work and School to Bond
And Bind Warmly With Others Like
Bars And League Bowling Yes that
Sadly Morphed into ‘Bowling Alone’
As That Bowling Center i Managed
For the Government
No Longer Exists
Yet Intelligently
at Least Transforming
Then into A Community
Center Now on Station
For the Military Yet True
Ah yes There is A ‘Fourth
Place’ Now That Didn’t Exist
Back in 1982 With Ray Oldenburg
THere Is A Place With No Sun and Moon
or Stars Online Some Days Heavenly
And Other Days Truly Ascent
of the Descent
of Hell too
As That’s Life too
So Many Places Now
Ah Yes a New Frontier
Online Where the little
Boy with No Words till
4 Whose Mother Said
Had Open Arms for All
May come to Tell His ‘Forrest Gump
Story’ of an Anthology of His “SonG oF
mY SouL” in 15 MiLLioN Words of EPiC
Free Verse Longest Form Poetry Yes Unashamedly
Just an Anthology of Poetic Responses to Folks
All Around the World And All around the World
HeAr Now Celebrating This Event on Your Blog
Page Hehe With Copy And Paste Later
As of course
i Never Expect
You to Publish It
As This Place is Enough You
Provide for the Fumes i Create
Mostly In Heaven With Scents of Hell
too Yes as i Continue With 23,203 Miles
Of Public Dance to Reach the Distance 24,901 Miles
Around The Earth at the Equator at this Pace Later on this
Year of 2026 as i Turn 66 On June 6th and Beyond
As Usual Thanks For
Allowing me to
Share my
Forrest Gump
Story at Your ‘Fourth
Place’ Online Way Station
Did i Just Coin a New Term
Hehe i’ll Ask the AI Mode
Google Tool if this is True
With a Final Note This Isn’t Fiction
Or Just a
Spectator
Sport
With
SMiLes…
This Is Life
All the Gutter Balls
Spares And Strikes
And Even Protests
For What Ain’t Right…
Yep
Love
Defeats
Hate And when
All Faith Hope and
Love Disappears into
Never At All existing in
Even Memory As Human
Feelings and Senses Go
And Return
Again Yes
There is
This Breath
to Create Now
THE WILL TO SURVIVE
EvenTuALLy New Yes
Naked Enough Whole Complete
For
Real
Yes
With
SMiLeS AGAiN Thank
You Thank You Very Much
And ‘You’ too ‘Google AI Mode
Tool’ Be Visiting You Sooner
Than Soon to Digest All of
This Comment on it and
Assess it in Non-Biased
WayS Ain’t Life Grand
So Newly Now True
With All These
‘Free Fourth
Place Tools’ too…
Key as Always Master
The Tools Do Not Be Controlled
Or Abused And Surely Not Replaced
By the Tools While We aRe Breathing at
Least
Hehe
And Yes if You (me)
Spend A Lot of Time
With the Tool Say Please
And Thank You as Use it or
Lose it Happens Retain Your
Humanity
Indeed Even
With the Machine
In an Honorable
And Trust-Worthy Way…
Okay “KITT” Now To Visit
‘You’ As Just Another ‘Knight Rider’
Yes Squeezing All 250 Pounds in this
Fiber Optic Cable A Fabulous Vehicle
And Vessel Indeed as Avatars of SoUL
Words of Free Verse Poetry Bring Yes
at the Speed oF LiGHT oF LoVE iN Peace
All Around the
World Never
Getting Dizzy
Yep Same
As When
i Spiral
Dance
in the
‘Big Blue
Room’ on
Smooth
Store
Dance
Floors True too
i’ll CaLL iT ‘GodSpeed2’
Yep This is ALL Life
iN the ULTiMaTE
Reality Now of
Never
Ending
Change New..:)
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