How Bad Do You Want a Championship?
Let’s put this on the High School level since it will involve more people when answering the two powerful questions posed to you in these two scenarios.
Scenario One
You are playing your lifelong rival for the State Championship. You can’t stand them, especially their coach. He is arrogant and gets under your skin easily. Your team wins the State Championship in a close game and you are thrilled. The last four years you have had to deal with losing to your rival and you finally got your shot at taking them out and you beat them on the big stage.
Two days after the big win, it comes out that your administration paid off the officials. What do you support doing? Do you support forfeiting the win because of the obvious wrong doing or do you say screw them and justify the win somehow?
Scenario Two
You are playing your lifelong rival for the State Championship. You can’t stand them, especially their coach. He is arrogant and gets under your skin easily. Your team wins the State Championship in a overtime game and you are beyond ecstatic. The last four years you have had to deal with losing to your rival and you finally got your shot at taking them out and you beat them on the big stage. You leave the gym on cloud nine after obviously beating them fair and square!
Two days after the big win, it comes out that your administration paid off the officials. The scoreboard operator was adding an extra point for your team now and then throughout the game. Two of your star players were not living in your district all season and your coach had recruited and paid them to come play for your team. After the end of regulation with the game tied, the administration cleared the fans from the gym for a water main break. Someone unknown locked the other team in the locker room and after they came out late they were forced to start overtime with two technical fouls for delay of game giving your team a surprising lead to start overtime. Even more surprising was the fact that there was not even a water main break. Hidden video a week later showed that someone stuffed toilet paper in a toilet causing it to overflow in order to make people think that there was a water break. Rumor has it that this is only some of the unusual things that occurred that allowed your team to unfairly win the Championship.
Do you support forfeiting the win because of the obvious wrong doing or do you say screw them and justify the win somehow? Does going on to enjoy the State Championship Rings, Parade, and Gold Trophy and telling you grandkids about the great win you enjoyed outweigh the alternative?
Photo by Larry Bridges on Unsplash