The Day After...

It's the day after the shocking loss at Willamette and the sharpness of defeat is still twisting inside. I've talked to a few Linfield'ers on the phone and my wife talked me off the edge last night on the way home. Mrs. 11 was great...she had a hot meal and cold beer waiting for me when I walk through the door with my lower lip dragging across our kitchen tile.

I started pulling clips a few hours ago for the highlight DVD and still can't believe how we went from total domination to a dog flight in a very short time period. It was just a wild situation to witness.

So here I am feeling like garbage and I get a random email from a Linfield fan I've never met but he's been checking out the blog and felt the need to drop me a line. His email really snapped me back to life and made everything all clear. Let me share you the excerpt that made it come together for me:

I remember a statement made by Terry Bradshaw years ago ( and I paraphrase) how easy it is to be a happy, reasonably stable and well adjusted person when everything is going well.

It's when the stuff hits the fan and performance and results are lost that the real metal of a man can be found.

Right when I read that I felt 10x worse and then 10x better at the same time. I felt worse because of the way I reacted right after the game. I was cursing in my mind and on the phone with my anger of the loss and questioning if I'm somehow contributing to this by glorifying the program with all the videos of the 'Cats cutting up team after team during the incredible run of the past years. I just reacted as poorly as a fan and as a supporter could get. Looking back I'm just as disappointed in my reaction to the loss as much as the loss itself.

The reason why I felt better is that my anonymous emailer was spot on. At Linfield we always talk about handling adversity and when the clips and odds are against us we find a way to rise above the panic and chaos and perform like winners.

So instead of crying in my milk and contributing to the crush of worriers of the jeopardy of the streak I'm going to turn all of my support towards helping my 'Cats just go out the next game and do the best they can. As players I hope they are finding that same mindset that on Monday they're just going to hit the practice field and work each snap on improving and competing. If the kids get caught up in worrying about two or three games down the road they won't see the hurdle and the opportunity right in front of them.

If you are a fan that is reading this I hope you take this to heart also. Instead of feeling dread and trying to dissect everything and coming up with a list of "what ifs" about last Saturday, just show up at the Catdome and put everything into feeding the 'Cats that Catdome energy that has propelled so many teams of the past to that higher level of play.

What's done is done and it's time to find out if this team is made of steel or tin foil. As a fan I'm putting my Reynolds Wrap away.