Josh Allen is the quarterback for the Buffalo Bills. His team was in a AFC Division Playoff game on Sunday against the Kansas City Chiefs. It was a barnburner. Touchdowns everywhere. Lead changes galore. Allen completed 27 of 37 passes for 329 yards with four touchdowns and no interceptions. His passer rating was 136. Combined with the previous playoff win against the New England Patriots the week before, Allen threw 8 touchdown passes, the most in two consecutive playoff games ever. Those are video game stats.
The Bills and Chiefs combined for 25 points in the final two minutes of the fourth quarter. With 13 seconds remaining, Josh Allen threw a touchdown pass to take the lead, 36-33. Allen did everything that he could do. The Chiefs took the field and drove the ball 45 yards in two plays, setting up a game-tying field goal with no time left on the clock. The kick was good. A few minutes later, the Chiefs won the coin flip, received the ball and scored a touchdown to end the game.
Joe’s Perspective: Some times you can do everything right and still lose. Josh Allen worked hard during the off-season, he played hard and improved all year. He had two of the best playoff performances in NFL history, and he still lost. The last time he touched the ball, he threw a go-ahead touchdown pass with 13 seconds to go. 99% of the time, that is game over. But, football, just like all sports, is a team game. And, let’s remember, there are other athletes on the other team who worked just as hard and wanted to win just as bad. For example, Patrick Mahomes, the Chief quarterback had a pretty good game too.
This might seem like a football lesson, and it might even seem like a sports lesson, but this is really a life lesson. Life is not fair. Sometimes, regardless of how hard you work and how much you want something, it just doesn’t go your way. In my life, this has happened repeatedly. Only one team can win the Super Bowl and only one person is going to get that dream job. And, no matter what you do, sometimes it will not turn out the way you planned. The other person will play just a little bit better or give the better interview. The only thing you can do is asses what happened, learn from the situation and later apply what you learned.
Your Turn: Name the time in your life when you gave everything you had, did everything right and still came up short.
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During the golf season I was playing these two girls. We were on the last hole and I hit the ball perfectly all day. We are on the last hole and I just chopped it. It went in a completely different direction then I was hitting for. I gave my all that whole match but I messed up on the last hole.
It was my first home game in awhile for softball season my team and I have practice day and night to win this game.Everone hits the ball getting us on bases with a 5 point lead.Out of no where the other team starts to hit ball after ball sending them into the out field giving them time to run to base to base .Soon enough the game ends and we have lost once again.We didn’t give up that day the next home game we took what we have learned from the last game and won.
In 7th grade we were playing in the big cat tournament and I worked really hard that game, so did the whole team, but at the end I was able to get the last shot on the inbound and it rimmed out.
In 6th grade I was at the championship game, we played a perfect game and then In the last inning and they hit a home run to win it.
In 7th grade I was in the championship game for baseball, we had a perfect game but in the last inning they hit a home run to win it.
This year in one of my volleyball tournaments, we were ahead during the first set and ended up winning, second set they won by 2 and the third set we started of really good until one server dominated and soon we were losing by five, however we were able to come back the score was back and forth however on game point I went up to block the ball and it went off the tip of my fingers and out because I didn’t press hard enough.
I’ve wrestled my best matches ever and still lost. You just have to keep your head up and keep working towards your goals and you will eventually accomplish them.
Last year during football season the whole team gave their all on the field,
But still lost the game.
I was trying out for my hockey team and I lost the spot to a first year player because he was the coaches nephew
Hi Joe
As a coach on many different levels for well Over 40 years, I have seen tons of character and or the lack the rod.I have seen student athletes who assumed they would win simply because they were the best. I’ve seen the smallest athlete become a huge hero!
I believe that the fundamentals of character building in athletics resonate into life if only their is an internal fortitude to be a person of character regardless of the athletic competition and or output!
The pyramid of Success by John Wooden has been a tremendous asset in helping student athletes be successful in life as well as an athlete.
Author
Thanks Craig. John Wooden is one of our 144 Wednesday Role Models. There is a reason that he was voted the best coach in any sport at any level. I also had a coach provide a life lesson on the pyramid of success. He’s not really all that exciting to listen to, but he does a good job with it – https://vimeo.com/228747637. If you ever want to hear more about this program, let me know. It is growing quickly and the research on it is solid.
I had a volleyball tournament with my team playing from EMV about a month ago and our last game in the tournament was tied neck to neck and the last point we needed to score was up to me.. I was playing outside and the setter set the ball right out to me, I did the right footwork and swung back my arms and swung over the net but they were able to play it out and won the point against us. I think it’s my fault because I didn’t snap my wrist all the way and swing down fast enough
That reminds me of Ridge volleyball, we work harder than most , care more than most , want more than most , but things still don’t usually fall our way. We don’t let that discourage us though , we continue to work in hopes one day it will!
during a tournament it was game point for the other team and we were doing everything right and got the game tying point, but the ref made a late call and they got the point.
It was our game against timber creek and we go gave our best and played our hardest but the ref were being unfair and made us lose some points and they got ahead and won.
reminds me of our own team, all the teams work so hard, have great attitudes and such great girls, but in some games they just don’t go our way and we work so hard but it’s life and life throws obstacles at us
reminds me of my club team, we work hard we workout and we give it our all and lay all our cards down but we still come up short and we always blame ourselves but sometimes there’s stuff not even we can control and it suck .
During a tourament it was the last set we went to 3 and I was busting my tail off trying to win the game and subconsciously I felt like nobody else wanted it
When I was in middle school and played softball, my team went to the championships and lost. It was gut wrenching because you knew we had put everything out on the line, trying our best
Mine was Kinda like Aaliyahs it was are Last Freshman B game against Timber creek it was a neck and neck game to see who was going to win even though we lost the game I feel like we showed out with it being suck a close game the crowds was screaming ever time someone touched the ball but we didn’t let that distract us.
Mine was Kinda like Aaliyahs it was are Last Freshman B game against Timber it was a neck and neck game to see who was going to win even though we lost the game I feel like we showed out with it being such a close game the crowds was screaming ever time someone touched the ball but we didn’t let that distract us.
Mine was Kinda like Aaliyahs it was are Last Freshman B game against TCHS it was a neck and neck game to see who was going to win even though we lost the game I feel like we showed out with it being such a close game the crowds was screaming ever time someone touched the ball but we didn’t let that distract us.
The last game in our season for this year was disappointing but it was a really great game for us. It was our best game that we had played where we worked together and had good communication, hussle, and just great points overall. Even though we lost , it was the hardest we tried all season.
During a tournament we were up by 4 but one mistake brought the team down and no matter how much I put in the work and did my part on the court, it wasn’t enough to win the game
It was that one game that we had for a Volleyball season the last game was the game that we tried our hardest even if we knew we would lose we would still try so we tried our best on that last game but we lost but I was proud that we tried
During the last game of the season we played as a team, communicated to each other, and had fun. I was sure we would come out with a win, but sadly ended up falling short. I feel like this was one of the best we’d played all season so I wasn’t disappointed or mad it just felt nice to play with everyone one last time.
My first year of club I work for a position and i didn’t get it but I learn to work for it through the summer and got it my next year of club
During all my activities, that were important for me, where I was working hard every day happened this situation and it wasn’t one day, it was period of time (about a few months). In my opinion, it’s one of the part to be successful in what are you doing. If you want to reach you goal(whatever you do), you need understand it and be ready to go through the hardest work – with yourself. To prove yourself, that you can do it and don’t stop on the half way. Of course, it’s not easy, but only the strongest can do it.
A time i did everything i could was my junior olympics i gave everything i got and worked hard for it and we were sure we were going to the finals but by two places we lost and didn’t make it. This was the first time me and this team ran together so i was very happy that we even made it there.
It was a a championship game for silver. Me and my other volleyball peers put everything we had yet we lost in three. However our team was not sad because we had put everything we had on that court with no regrets. Instead we learned a life lesson that you can work but still end up with the short end of the stick. What matter is if you had put all of your efforts into that goal.
this ties into integrity because it takes integrity to come back put in even more work even though you did everything you could you come back and he tries again
this ties into integrity because it takes integrity to come back put in even more work even though you did everything you could you come back and he tries again and does better
this ties to courage because it takes courage to come back and play again and try harder
When we played Coleman in baseball, we lost 2-1.