Rule No. 76: No Excuses. Play Like a Champion
Role models matter.
No matter how hard we try and do what we believe is the right thing to do in any given situation, it is always helpful, and sometimes critical, to have someone else that we can look to, or point someone else to, to help guide our decisions and actions.
While role models can be found anywhere, and at any age, sports have always been used as a potential source of inspirational people. Unfortunately, those role models often let their believers down - mostly because they achieve role model status because of their sporting abilities and not their personal actions. It’s the personal actions that make a difference. That’s where the truly hard battles are fought. That’s where the lessons are learned.
Recently, Men’s Fitness did a small piece on one of my sports hero’s and it reinforced the reason why I’ve always respected him:
When motorcycle racer Nicky Hayden showed up at the Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix in September, there was a tiny sticker on a piece of his equipment. “Rule No. 76: No Excuses. Play Like a Champion,” it read. Now before you write that off as just another empty sports cliché, consider the equipment the sticker was attached to: crutches.
Hayden had a broken bone in his heel but was still prepared to pilot his motorcycle at speeds approaching 200 miles per hour in the first MotoGP race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He led for 12 laps and finished second behind five time world champion and current points leader Valentino Rossi.
True to his “no excuses” mantra, Hayden didn’t blame his finish on his bum leg. “Getting on the podium is good. But honestly, I’m greedy. I want to win,” he said. Hayden won the MotoGP world championship in 2006, ending Rossi’s five-year reign, and wants nothing more than to get back to the top. “Once you’ve tasted blood and had that success,” he says, “there’s no going back to just being a contender and being happy with it.”
Hayden has never looked to the other’s weaknesses as his opportunity, he focuses completely on turning himself into the best he can possibly be. And not just on the track, but as a “Racer” and everything that that term means. His demeanor with his fans, the way he interacts with his competitors and his team (and that hasn’t been easy given the team dynamics recently - read here for more info), and his realization that being a good person is clearly part and parcel with everything he does.
Think about that when you you’re in your workplace, when you’re interacting with your children, when you’re simply hanging out with friends. Everyone needs and looks for role models. Be one.
Why has Formula One become a penalty game?
If you’re not a top-level motor racing fan, then you’ve missed the transformation of one of the most-watched sports in the world from a struggle of man and machine against each other in a very traditional sense, into a battle of lawyers, rules makers and conspiracy-theory riddled umpires who are now in control of the championship. Not a very graceful evolution for the sport where the phrase, “that’s racing” ruled the past.
Over the past four races, in Belgium, Italy, Singapore and Japan, there have been at least six different penalties meted out by FIA Formula One Race Director Charlie Whiting or his disciples that have had significant influence on the overall World Championship contest. Almost all of them either completely unnecessary or extremely poorly handled when compared with near recent racing history. In the prior season, the entire World Championship was decided by court-room proceedings on the scale of the Watergate incident.
Cries of conspiracy theories, bribes, and personal agendas at the top echelons of the sport are becoming common discussion. Where does this leave the fans?
For a sport saddled with monumental costs about to face a major global recession, this is not an enviable position to be in. When the machinations of a small number of extremely wealthy and selfish people are being blamed for the possible demise of the modern global financial infrastructure, do the leaders of the FIA and Formula One really want to draw such easy parables to their own situation and infrastructure?
The spirit of the sport is what keeps people coming back. The passion to win and the belief that great, or even historic things can happen at any turn is the inspiration behind a fanatical fan base. To negate those emotional drivers with controversy-tinged penalties that ruin the spirit of the sport can easily be the beginning of the end.
With only two races to go, and an incredibly tight battle for both the Driver’s and Manufacturer’s Championships, we can only hope that the spirit of the sport returns and we can witness a fitting end to an epic battle on the track, not in the courts.