Rudy v. Cool Runnings

I was watching some of the guys playing flag football outside of my apartment the other day, and noticed that they were running unopposed plays, e.g. guys were in motion, making pitches, qb options, but nobody was playing defense. So it got me to thinking about people like that who would love nothing more than to play football for OU which is ranked #2 in the nation right now. However, these guys reminded me of the character Rudy, from the movie "Rudy." For those of you who don't know Rudy's life-long ambition was to play football for Notre Dame - this is back in the days when Notre Dame was still a national power in college football. So Rudy, who had a lot of heart but not much talent, tried out for the Notre Dame football team as a walk-on. He made the practice squad but the movie portrayed him as an absolute terrible worthless football player, but he had a lot of heart and never gave up. So because of his dedication, the last game of his senior year the coach allowed him to be one of the active members on the Notre Dame football team. Rudy didn't get to play in the game when it was close but only after the game was a blow out in ND's favor and in the last play of the game, the only time Rudy ever got to play, he got a sack. The movie portrays him as a hero but in reality, the sack was meaningless and the fact that he played on the scout team was meaningless for Rudy also, because he didn't get to contribute much to ND's success - maybe he contributed as much as an athletic trainer would have.

Recently I watched Cool Runnings (peace be the journey). At first I wondered how the Jamaican bobsled team was any different from Rudy, because in the first olympics they participated in, the Jamaican bobsled team was considered a joke, and finished dead last. However, they had talent and what they lacked was money, and in the olympic games in Nagano, Japan finished 14 overall. So just like Rudy, the Jamaican bobsled team was a complete underdog and considered a joke, but unlike Rudy they accomplished something. The Jamaican bobsled team traditionall has the fastest start of any of the bobsled teams, their problem is that they lack funding and often have a lesser sled than the other teams that they compete with.

So my question is, why do we think that Rudy accomplished something? Sure he got to play in a game and got a sack, but the sack had no outcome upon the game. Whenever someone plays for the scout team that person is a live tackling dummy that the coach could care less about. Rudy is a motivational speaker now, but I don't know what he could motivate me to do, because all he did was not quit, yet nothing was accomplished. If Rudy never played football at Notre Dame, Notre Dame has the same record. Now one of the original team members on the Jamaican bobsled team is a motivational speaker, but he has something to say, because they did accomplish something. When they finished in 14 place, the Jamaicans beat the Russians, the French, the Canadians, and one of the United States' teams. If Jamaica did not race then all of those teams finish higher, thus Jamaica impacted the event. Whereas Rudy had no impact.

I realize it's not a good thing to quit and heart is a good thing to have, but it's also a good thing to be realistic. Success is not measured by not giving up, it's measured by what one accomplishes, if the best thing that you can say that you accomplished is that you never gave up, then that's not saying much.