On The TunneySide of Sports January 14, 2019 #727 Up next… The Bounce of the Ball!
After further review… If you watched the NFC Wild Card game last weekend between Philadelphia Eagles and Chicago Bears, perhaps you felt the disappointment of Cody Parkey, the Bears kicker. He missed a 43-yard field goal as time expired that gave the Eagles a 16-15 victory moving them onto a divisional playoff game with the New Orleans Saints. (Ed. Note this was written before the divisional games were played.)
The kick by Parkey was his second kick on that same down. His first kick went pretty much down-the-pike, as they say. But wait, the Eagles head coach Doug Pederson, called time-out just before the ball was snapped. By then, Parkey had begun his kicking-motion. However, with this “icing-the-kicker” call by the Eagles, the kick didn’t count. His re-try kick was long enough, but the ball hit the left goal post and then bounced on the crossbar and fell into the end zone. If the rotation of the ball turned on either of those two bounces, it could have dropped on the back side of the bar and been good. Indeed, isn’t life often about the “bounce-of-the-ball?”
Parkey said in a post-game interview, “There’s really no answer to it. I thought I hit (with my foot) a good ball. It’s one of the worst feelings in the world to let your T*E*A*M down. I feel terrible.” Wait just a darn minute before you jump all over Parkey. Replays showed that Eagles defensive tackle #90 Treyvon Hester (6’2” 304 lbs.) jumped-up to get his finger-tips on that kicked ball just enough to divert it off course!
Perhaps you missed getting a promotion that was diverted off course. Or when you lost your job were told, “Well, that’s just the way the ball bounces!” Yes, like the bounce of Parkey’s ball, sometimes your life takes a bounce on which you didn’t plan. You prepared; you did your best, but the ball didn’t bounce your way. For Parkey, twice it didn’t bounce his way.
Haven’t we all been there at one time or another? You prepare, you gave it your best shot and then it bounced in another direction. Perhaps you missed getting a promotion that went to another candidate. How do you deal with it, when the bounce doesn’t go your way?
It’s called mindset! Move on! Continue to believe in yourself. Prepare for the next opportunity. Because it will come!
Will you maintain your self-confidence when the bounce doesn’t go your way?
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