Keep Pounding, Yamabushi designs the lessons learned from the Panthers loss in the Super Bowl

Cardiac cats and panthers growl as a Elementary school Dabs in unison. Super Bowl Fifty where the good guys are the bad guys and the bad guys are the good guys. There is an old sheriff in town that needs a horse called destiny to ride off into the sunset. The stage was set old guard versus the new upstarts. Yes we Cam had gotten the Panthers to the final testing grounds of a dynasty. The ride was amazing, after beating the Seahawks, at their house, you could feel the momentum building. A team like that, if they could keep playing well, could go all the way. With nobody to throw to Cam and company kept up the pace much further than anyone imagined. A stout turnover hungry defense stingily protected many a slim lead. The team prevailed through the dirty play of the NFL’s new phenom. Only to loose the next week to the evil dirty birds. Still tempered in fire, our team marched through the play offs to make it to the big game.
The two weeks of hype leading up to the game I watched the narrative unfold. The David versus Goliath if Peyton is the sheriff then what does that make Cam? Let him end his career with a big red cherry on top with Johnny Football sweeping up the ticker tape and confetti. Cam is too brash, is code for he needs to know his place. Everybody talking about dabbing makes the scene so much more bizarre.

The fix was in. Bet big on the Broncos and make big bucks. Cam took the briefcase full of money. The money made him allergic to the football. He just looked at the fumble with dollar signs in his eyes. He took one for the legacy of the league. The propaganda fairytale of football in corporate America. You bet with your head not your heart, and the smart money knew. The bad feeling I had in the pit of my stomach only intensified watching the game. The energy was not right. The jukes weren’t there. Where did half of my team go? The biggest stage, to silence all of the haters, and its chokesboro? The Denver defense was dialed up, they played fast and fiercely. It seemed if the game lasted a little longer things could have been different. Watching the dream season come to an end in a slow motion train wreck with a full belly and cup, surrounded by friends, felt weird. The oxygen was knocked out of the room as the gloomy reality set in on everyone.

The nectar of success is addictive, but the way you handle defeat tells a lot about your character. They say when you strut you stumble. How the Panthers bounce back, no pounce back, will say everything about this team. There are lessons here, life is going to hand you setbacks, it is how you handle them that counts. It can be a learning opportunity or the setbacks can be another echo in your grave. When the chips are down and the fair weather friends and fans fade away, then you can see who really stands with you.