My computer screen is busted, my iPad is shattered and my iPhone looks like the Terminator. Clearly I'm not good with glass. But this is all well and good, as long as you don't tell my mother, since all of these gadgets somehow still work.
It's fair to say I don't consider myself a big cover guy. That said, I could have used a cover, or in this case a helmet, to protect my face after a rough Friday night on the gridiron, aka the fraternity basement. If you have seen me at all this week, you know what I'm talking about.
But do helmets, masks and the like in fraternity mischief, or more importantly, in sports, really protect our beloved athletes' beautiful faces? Consider Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby. "Sid the Kid" took the puck in the face Saturday against the New York Islanders. The former MVP and current NHL points leader is now out indefinitely after undergoing surgery to repair his broken jaw.
And how about one of our very own, Patrick Resch '14? Resch, co-captain of the men's lacrosse team, is out for the year after undergoing the same surgery as Crosby. The only difference is that Resch's injury went down in practice. And if you know anything about Resch, the man prides himself on being from Philly, so you know he has the same take as Allen Iverson when it comes to practice.
Even though Crosby and Resch's injuries are no doubt serious, and in Resch's case seriously detrimental to his team's success, they are freak occurrences pale in comparison to University of Louisville guard Kevin Ware. Ware broke his leg during the first half of Louisville's rout of Duke University on Sunday. Fair warning: if you did not see the accident, please do not YouTube it.
I have never seen anything like it, at least not since Willis McGahee's knee injury during the Fiesta Bowl back in 2002. Or if we want to go way back, before I was even alive, to 1985, when Lawrence Taylor nearly decapitated Joe Theismann. Experts usually regard Theismann's broken leg as the most gruesome injury in the history of sports, and it didn't take Theismann long to show his support for Ware through Twitter.
I think everyone who tuned into CBS on Sunday felt for Ware. I mean, how could you have seen it coming? He was simply closing out on a Seth Curry three-point attempt and just happened to land awkwardly. So awkwardly that the bone literally broke through the skin. And that's when the Cardinals broke down in tears, and then broke through on the court.
When met with adversity, you can back down, go home and call it quits, or use it as inspiration. Overcome the challenge. Play for your fallen warrior. That's exactly what Peyton Siva, Russ Smith and the rest of the team did.
It was literally now or never for Louisville, at least for this year's team. If they lost this game, their year would be over, and they would never play another quarter together. It was lose and go home, or win and go to Atlanta for a chance to compete in the Final Four, and a chance at the national championship.
Louisville was winning the game with or without Ware, at least according to my god-awful bracket. But there is no doubt that his tragedy served as a catalyst and a rallying point for coach Rick Pitino's guys. They were only up three when Ware went down. When he hit the hardwood, Ware shouted to his teammates "Win this game, win this game," which is exactly what they did. But it was this moment, the moment where they looked each other in the eye, wiped away their tears and said, "Yeah, let's do this thing. Let's do it for our boy Kevin." This was the moment,the moment they decided there was no way they were losing this game.
That's called living. That's called not taking life for granted. Like the Dwayne Wade commercials preach, it's not about how many times you get knocked down, it's about how many times you get back up. Louisville's performance personified this, and Resch embodies this. And I'm sure Crosby isn't done writing the record books on the ice.
And what do you think was the first thing I did Saturday morning? There wasn't a cloud in the sky, and it was over 50 degrees, so I obviously had to hike the fire tower. There was still ice on the mountain, and of course I had the great insight to wear boat shoes. I'm no college athlete anymore, but if I have learned anything from the guys I talked about above, you know there was no way I was turning around.
