Quarterbacks and Interesting Comments

This week a quarterback for the NFL, Kirk Cousins, was being interviewed, and he didn't stick to the old adage of thinking before you speak. He was asked about the virus and how some on his team were cautioning to be extra careful off the field if they expected to have a football season. Cousins, a talented player, began to ramble a bit and finally settled in to comments about how the virus really wasn't as terrifying as people have made it out to be. He said, "And just say that if it knocks me out, it knocks me out. I'm going to be o.k. If I die, I die." Simple enough for him to say since he is a healthy athlete who would probably be able to beat the virus, but his statement got so much backlash that he had to come back in the next day and try to show that he had empathy for anyone who had a medical condition or for his grandparents or anyone vulnerable including his own family. Words got him more than a big defensive lineman. 

Years ago my great-niece Shannon(now a mother to Shaun) came to San Antonio to visit her grandparents, and they showed her a fine time with visits to parks and pools and all the summer activities a five-year-old would want. Coupled with the activities was Vacation Bible School, so the mornings were crammed with more things to do. But it also meant being awakened by 7:30 so there would be time for breakfast and morning duties before getting to church by 8:30. Things went all right until Friday morning when by now Shannon was not as excited about getting up early in the June summer. Staying in bed longer was much more enticing. My sister, her grandmother, came to awaken her but got no response. Trying to make a logical plea, she said, "Shannon, get up because all the children at Bible School will be waiting for you." Shannon opened one eye, turned her head ever so slightly, and said, "All the children are dead." Can't get more specific than that picture.

When I pass by big Cibolo Creek which is perhaps 20 blocks from my house, I always think of David Crockett. Not Davey because he didn't like being called that, so none of his friends and family did so. It was only after the tv series and Disney movie that people began to use his name as that. He was an amazing man, a frontiersman with almost no schooling, he was able to rise to the halls of Congress, battlefields, and finally the Alamo with as much ability as anyone. When he was in Congress, he fought against the bills which would move Indians out of their native areas and pushed across the U.S. He offered one bill to abolish West Point because he said at that time it was only for rich men's sons. People began to feature his picture in magazines, write plays about him, compose folk songs, and make him the person they most wanted to invite to their homes. When all the attention was given to him, he said, "Fame is like a shaved pig with a greased tail, and it is only after it has slipped through the hands of some thousands that some fellow by mere chance holds on to it." Just as he rose to the top, his good luck left him, and he was defeated in a congressional race, was at odds with President Jackson, couldn't seem to get as stable a home life as he wanted, and lost some money in land deals. He might have hung around and tried to latch on to some former friends, but he stood up, got his horse, and said, "You can all go to hell, and I will go to Texas."

And so he came and admired every bit of it, knowing that storm clouds were all around the Hill County. When he joined Travis at the Alamo before Santa Anna had moved his complete army, there was talk that a small group of Texas defenders might be gathered near Austin and would be coming down to join the others. The story is told that Crockett and 3 or 4 others rode out of San Antonio to Cibolo Creek and waited to see if a messenger was coming from the Austin group. I picture him waiting there with the hope that more men were on the way. But they weren't, so he went back to the Alamo, knowing that a larger force was inching toward them.

How did he die? There are many different versions: died with the bodies of 16 Mexican soldiers around him and burned in a funeral pyre; badly wounded but still alive and dragged out to be put on a funeral pyre and burned; badly wounded but surrendered and was shot before being put on the funeral pyre and burned. It may have been only parts of the truth, but we have no gravesite, only the ashes of all the defenders that were dug up years later and buried at the Alamo.

Sometimes we say the perfect thing; sometimes we say the first idea that comes into our heads. We can never be 100% in our response, but it is what we do after that is more important. Maybe Crockett gave us the lesson to live by when he said, "Always be sure you are right; then go ahead."

ReplyForward