What The Cincinatti Bengals Taught Me

Posted on November 4, 2004 in Campaign 2004 Hope and Joy

We need to remember that Americans love joy. It’s not a winner or a loser who they revere most, but the person who keeps a smile on her or his face and keeps her or his optimism even after a loss. They love this person more than any winner because isn’t that the situation most of the rest of us are in? We don’t get the gold every day. Sometimes not at all. The agony of defeat sounds good as a sports announcer’s tagline, but how I remember Kenny Anderson coming off the field after the Super Bowl after losing to the Forty Niners*, holding his son in his arms, head up and shoulders straight because he knew that just because the Niner’s defense had held him at the goal line and Joe Montana was nothing less than a miracle, he had lost only narrowly fighting a clean fight in a clean game by both sides.

Oh, how so much better it must feel to John Kerry who fought a clean election all the way and lost. And what a comedown for George W. Bush who is no Joe Montana, who had to sucker-punch his opponent, lie, and probably stuff the ballot boxes to get this victory. I feel good because the sun shines on me and I can enjoy it with a free conscience. Poor Republicans. You can’t enjoy this victory half as much as you want because you are no Joe Montana and no Kenny Anderson. Your candidate is no hero, no prophet. He’s certainly not John Kerry who shone magnaminously in defeat, unlike your man four years ago. Even in Victory, you hold rancid defeat in your jaws. There is no joy in Mudville when Casey wins the game by poisoning the other team’s slugger.

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*I love the Niners. With the class he showed in two losing Super Bowls, Kenny Anderson led me to love the Bengals, too.