Lessons Learned from the Super Bowl

I haven’t always been a football fan. I only started appreciating the sport later in life for keeping me company as I spent every fall Sunday grading papers and writing lesson plans. Football became a welcome and exciting distraction, and it even made its way into the classroom. Did you know you can use math to calculate the angle and speed that a defender must use in order to tackle the player with the football?

But my favorite part of football is not the math. It’s not even the sport itself, nor my love and enduring hope for the Minnesota Vikings. To me, it’s the displays of athletic excellence, mental toughness, teamwork, and sportsmanship. And I have never been more inspired by a team than I was this year by the Kansas City Chiefs. Quarterback Patrick Mahomes and his team showed us a thing or two about first-rate football but taught us even more about faith and perseverance.

We can come from behind

During the postseason, the Chiefs displayed an incredible ability to come from behind. They came back from trailing the Houston Texans 24-0 to win their division. And the next week, they overcame a 10-0 deficit to beat the Tennessee Titans and earn a trip to the Super Bowl -- their first in 50 years!

It was the Super Bowl, though, that had me tearing up like a Hallmark movie. The Chiefs were behind 20 - 10 going into the final quarter. It didn’t look promising. My son sat on the opposing couch and deemed the game as good as over. But, incredibly, the Chiefs scored 3 touchdowns in the last 9 minutes to win 31 - 20. In those last 9 minutes, they won by more points than they had been behind!

As I watched them celebrate their unlikely victory, I thought of all the times those of us living with cancer feel behind. We come out of remission, our numbers go up, our scans aren’t clear, or we mourn the loss of a loved one. We feel financially, physically, emotionally, and mentally behind where we were and where we would like to be. But, like the Chiefs, it doesn’t mean that we have to stay there.

Never lose faith

After the game, when Mahomes was interviewed  about coming back from being down 10 points with only 9 minutes to go, he said, “We never lost faith.” Such a simple statement. But considering the odds of coming back from being down 10 points with only 9 minutes to go, it’s statistically and spiritually profound.

At times in our cancer journeys, we can lose hope in our doctors and our treatments. We may lose faith in our loved ones, in ourselves, and in our higher power. We get lost in the numbers, prognoses, statistics, and side effects. But, like the Chiefs, we too can have faith. We are every bit as capable as digging deep, bouncing back, and overcoming setbacks.

We can recover from setbacks

And if being behind wasn’t enough, Mahomes threw 2 interceptions during the Super Bowl. This may not seem noteworthy, but he had only thrown 5 interceptions during the entire regular season. He also hadn’t thrown 2 interceptions in a single game in over a year! But he didn’t let his mistakes determine the outcome. He learned, readjusted, and moved forward.

And so can we. We will have setbacks. At times we will throw the ball in the wrong direction. We will make decisions in haste. But, like Mahomes, we can choose to grow, adapt, and not let them deter us from our goals.

We need each other

After the game, with coach Andy Reid standing by his side, he was asked about his two interceptions. He said, “Coach told me, 'Keep firing. Keep believing in your eyes. Keep throwing it.' ”

Also, he didn’t say, “I never lost faith.” It was, “We never lost faith.” He added, “Everybody on this team … No one had their head down. We believed in each other.”

Right on, Mahomes. We all need to keep believing in ourselves, and we need people with us and behind us to remind us. Living with cancer is truly a team effort. We need to surround ourselves with people that believe in us. We need people on our team that know we’re capable of coming from behind and from recovering when we lose our focus.

We, too, can be MVP

Mahomes was voted most valuable player (MVP) of the 2020 Super Bowl. At the age of 24, he is the youngest ever to earn that title. Some say he’s the best quarterback in the NFL.

Each one of us gets to be the quarterback of our own lives. We decide when to run and when to throw the ball. We will get sacked, throw a few interceptions, and fall behind. But we need to have faith in ourselves, in our team, and in the incredible power of the human spirit to overcome obstacles and unfavorable odds. These are the qualities that will make us MVP, no matter how we throw a football.