The Super Bowl and the Art of Living in the Moment

Chiefs are the NFL champs... this isn't normal.

In the 1980s, the Los Angeles Lakers dominated the NBA. I grew up in the City of Angels and witnessed their entire run. Magic, Kareem, Cooper, Worthy, Scott, Rambis, and a bunch of other players amassed twelve Finals appearances, and five championships from 1979 to 1991. 

Every year you believed the Lakers had a chance to do something special. Nothing could stop the force called “Showtime.” I remember vividly my father saying from the couch something like: 

What did my dad mean? What isn’t normal? In my little elementary school and later middle school brain, this is normal. Magic Johnson is Superman and has no kryptonite. What is normal is winning our division, cruising through the playoffs, and hoisting championship trophies every couple of years. Right?

Wrong. 

My father’s prophetic words came true. The normalcy of the Lakers winning championships came to a screeching halt when Magic Johnson announced an HIV diagnosis in 1991 ending his career. The Lakers would not raise another championship banner for ten years. 

Enjoy this… because this isn’t normal. 

Last night, our Kansas City Chiefs won the Super Bowl. I’m a transplant to the City of Fountains but have called KC home since 2009. When we moved to the city, our football team was beyond awful. I affectionately call them the Matt Cassel days. The overpaid quarterback of the Chiefs should have never started in the NFL.

From 2007 to 2012 the Chiefs were 4-12, 2-14, 4-12, 10-6, 7-9, and 2-14. One playoff appearance, and no wins. But, in 2013, the Chiefs cleaned house and hired a new GM, coach Andy Reid, and a scrappy former first round quarterback with something to prove Alex Smith. 

Since hiring Reid and adding elite quarterback Patrick Mahomes later in 2017, the Chiefs have made the playoffs nine times, made three Super Bowls, won two, hosted five straight AFC Championship games, and knock on wood, it looks like the Chiefs will be good for the foreseeable future. 

Enjoy this… because this isn’t normal. 

I’ve played and watched sports all of my life. The window of success is small, more accurately, tiny. Our Kansas City Royals in 2014-2015 made back-to-back World Series winning one in 2015. The Royals haven’t made the playoffs since. 

The Los Angeles Angels won a World Series in 2002 when we still lived in LA. They haven’t sniffed the World Series in twenty years. This was their one and only appearance in franchise history. 

How about one more? The Detroit Pistons from 2003 to 2008 made six straight NBA eastern conference finals, winning a championship in 2004. We lived near Detroit during these years. The Pistons have only made the playoffs twice in the last 15 years. 

Enjoy this… because this isn’t normal.

I understand sports are not a cure for cancer. Grown men playing with a ball will not help the flourishing of our souls and the flourishing of the lives of our neighbors and cities. But when you watch a city come together for a moment, a blink of an eye to rally around their favorite team, it’s special. I’ve come to appreciate the life long fans of Kansas City. The joy on their faces in victory when they remember all the years of obscurity, and the close playoff losses that never matched their championships aspirations. 

I especially love the generations of Chiefs fans who have endured many years of terrible football. When the Chiefs won the Super Bowl in 2019, it had been 50 years since their last championship. These older men and women were in tears, thinking it would never happen again in their lifetime. I know a man who remembers as a kid showing up at the airport with his dad after the Chiefs won a championship in 1969. These are special moments. 

It’s special because this isn’t normal. The Chiefs will one day go off into the sunset and miss the playoffs and stop winning championships. Sorry, it happens to every franchise. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but sustained success of any shape and kind eventually goes away. 

But if sports can teach us anything, the present moment is all we have.

Tomorrow is a mystery and a riddle. We may live, or not. The shot may go in or it may rattle off the rim. Our city may celebrate multiple championships or we wait 100 years for the next. Butker may punch a field goal down the middle, or shank it off the goal post. Nothing is guaranteed other than this moment. 

I’m old enough to remember Dan Marino, the Miami Dolphins quarterback, going to a Super Bowl his second year in the NFL. Despite having a hall of fame career and playing in multiple playoff games, Marino never went back to the Biggest Game. Today is all we have. 

Enjoy this… because this isn’t normal. 

Our lives are a series of moments and experiences. One moment tethered to the next. Unfortunately we have a hard time enjoying each moment as they come because we’re constantly looking to the next thing, or believing this moment will always be this good. 

Five minutes after the Chiefs won the Super Bowl, local sports websites were already making predictions for next year's free agent market, draft picks, and if the Chiefs were favorites to win it all. 

Can we just enjoy this win for a minute before we have to think about the Draft?

I’m fascinated with people who have experienced success in various disciplines. The woman who wins an Oscar never to hear of them again. The guy who builds a great company only to see it vanish ten years later. More often than not, in their later years they’ll say: I wish I had enjoyed the moment. I wish someone would have told me this wouldn’t last forever. 

I wish someone would have told me this isn’t normal… enjoy it. 

Everything and everyone has a shelf life. These moments are all we have. Whether we are winning, or losing, or somewhere in between, we must learn the art of being present. Why? Sometimes these moments aren’t normal. Don’t miss it. 

Something I’m learning from the spiritual masters is their ability to be present in the here and now. They had an uncanny ability to live fully present to God, themselves, and others in ways I fail to do most days.

Mr. Rogers said it well:

"We get so wrapped up in numbers in our society. The most important thing is that we are able to be one-to-one, you and I with each other at the moment. If we can be present to the moment with the person that we happen to be with, that's what's important."

Mr. Rogers got it. Perhaps mysteriously sports are trying to teach us that life is fragile. These moments are fleeting. They are filled with great highs and lows. But try to enjoy it because right here and right now is all we have.

This isn’t normal. 

I think my dad and Mr. Rogers were onto something.