Patrick McCaskey's 10th Commandment of Football

Times Are Tentative in Sports and Life

The title of this post is actually Patrick McCaskey's 10th Commandment of Football: Game Times are Tentative and Subject to Flexible Scheduling. Patrick uses the 10 Commandments often in his speaking engagements and we have included them in a few of our books. Some of Patrick's Commandments are funny, some have reference to an Original Commandment, but all have a meaning and message. 

If we cut to the chase with this post, the underlying message of this commandments is that in order to succeed we need to be flexible and adapt to change. We are all subject to many changes in our modern lives. Even in huge sports events there are changes to scheduling. I have no personal insight on TV and professional football like my author, but I can just imagine how it might be to change directions when you have all these organizational elements in place. But, I suppose for a professional team, its organization, coaches and players, you must be used to the drill because it happens often. 

This past year in professional football, most of the NFL fans and writers knew that the Philadelphia Eagles were a very strong team. When Carson Wentz went down with a season-ending injury, it must have been scary for a lot of Eagles fans, but at the same time it was a call to action for the entire team. It wasn't just Nick Foles who rose to the occasion, although his performance was tremendous, but everyone in the organization made adjustments that kept the team on track. In the end, the Eagles did nothing less than win what many people argue is the greatest championship in sports, the Super Bowl. 

We've all been through the drill in our own lives. Sometimes the adjust can get us to a better place, a large success or new opportunity.  But sometimes the adjustment is about survival for a family.

It reminds me of times when I was a kid when a family lost a Dad. At the time, most of the Moms didn't work, but when a death occurred you would see an entire family scrambling to make it all work. I remember one family that I knew where the Dad must have had a bad heart and the oldest boy who was my age was constantly being shown by the Dad how to manage things around the house.  How to take care of the lawn mower and do so many projects that his dad at the time would have performed. The family was a large family and the oldest boy was being groomed to take over. We didn't understand it, but just knew that so many times when we called on him to play ball, he was unable to break away from something that he was doing with his dad. His dad did die, and as planned he took over at home. He never displayed any resentment over his fate, he just accepted it, did what he had to do and helped his younger brothers and sisters. It was an amazing story of adjustment to change and a heroism and the unselfish behavior that went with it. 

Larry Norris is the publisher of  Sports and Faith Book 2 and Pilgrimage by Patrick McCaskey. Norris is also the author of Callaghan Goes to St. Cajetan on Kindle and The Brown and White in paperback and on Kindle.