“So make the best of this test and don’t ask why…”
Dateline: Behind the Stage
“One man practicing sportsmanship is far better than a hundred teaching it.”
~Knute Rockne
Dear Little Britt:
Honesty from me comes when I type, maybe not so much when I’m on stage, maybe not so much when I’m “db,” maybe more so when I’m just, “Don.”
This letter to you, this letter to your dad, this letter to those who take the time to read it, this letter here is from…Don.
It’s now been a third of my life that I have covered, written about “Sports.” A third of a life writing about the great, the near great, writing about the field of play, the fans in the stands, the famous, the infamous.
And as “Don,” and not “db” I have to type honestly here…most times I wonder if I have completely wasted a third of my life.
I am a child of the ‘60s, a wanted to change the world type of child, and yet, I wonder, and yet, I know, as a man I’ve changed nothing.
I became a watcher, moved from the court of play in society, to the sidelines, wrote of the world as an observer, not so much as a participant.
Watched it all from the Press Box.
And from the Press Box every once in awhile I would see how the world is supposed to be.
I would see that “sports,” does in fact have value, that players can in fact transcend the game they play.
And one of the few things that I have learned in this third of my life backstage is simply this…you judge those who play the game more by what they do back here away from the eyes of the fans, away from the eyes of the sponsors, away from the number on their back, the name on their jersey.
This photo little Britt is for you, happy 16th birthday, print it out and hang it on your wall.
This photo is “Sportsmanship” caught in 1/250th of a second.
This photo, is of your dad proving that the value of sports may have nothing to do with what takes place on the field of play.
“Sportsmanship is making sure you have respect for the guy you’re playing across from.”
~Warren Moon
Little Britt let me explain this photo to you, here it is as it happened.
Your father Britt was standing pretty much alone backstage with his fish in the tubs, Brett Hite walked up with his bag of fish and was waiting for the fish to be bumped and then move on down the line.
At the moment this photo was shot your dad was the leader in the tournament, Brett was charging hard at him, not one fish had been weighed yet.
I was standing backstage as your dad moved over towards Brett and put out his hand.
It was a privilege to take this photo, in 1/250th of a second it shows the value of why we play games:
Brett Hite: “When I compete I wish the best of luck for him, and I know he does for me, to play the game the way it is supposed to be played I don’t wish anything bad on those I compete against.”
Britt Myers: “When all is said and done we are friends, sure we compete against each other, sure I want to beat him, but I want to play the game as a good sport.”
“…it’s not a question but a lesson learned in time…”
Little Britt, as I begin the close out of this third of a lifetime covering games I know that, in the end, the least important thing about why we play games…is the final score.
As I write this at 4:06 a.m. on Championship Sunday of the South Carolina tournament, I have no idea who will win this event. I hope, for you and your family, it is your dad, but if it is not, young man it is not the end of the world.
Sure, the final score is very important, but this game, any game is not about numbers, but is about the men and the women who make those numbers.
I know too that yesterday YOU competed in your own fishing tournament, a high school gig with your high school buddy, Tanner Maness, yeah, your mom snuck me this photo:
In life it is not what you are holding there that’s important, it’s the person standing next to you that matters.
The value of the third of my life is not that I got to change the world, but that the world I got to meet…changed me.
Your father, changed me for the better.
Many of the Elites have changed me for the better.
Many of the athletes I’ve written about have changed me for the better.
And none of it, not one damn change in me came from what I saw them do on the field of play.
Every change in me came from what I saw backstage.
And I’ll prove it to you.
“…it’s something unpredictable but in the end it’s right…”
Your dad and I were standing away from the crowd backstage, he had just finished doing a bunch of interviews, he had just dropped from first place in the tournament to third.
We were talking about you.
In one of the best tournaments of his life he was thinking about you, thinking about how your high school tournament was going, thinking about your 16th birthday and how your mom, Missy, had laid out all a whole bunch of photos of you growing up…
“…you know db he’s 16 years old now, becoming a man, I can’t believe it…”
And as your dad said that, a tear rolled down his check.
In the thousands of moments I’ve had in the backstage areas all over the world, that moment with your father is one that I will never forget.
“…I hope little Britt knows how special it is now for him and Tanner, how soon as they grow up and go their separate ways, how important each time they fish together is, it’s something they both will remember the rest of their lives.”
Little Britt, it is not how the sport makes you, it is how you make the sport.
And the same is true for backstage, because backstage my young buddy, is the real world.
Play no games in real life, little Britt.
For you, for this, I want the last words to be those of your dad, a dad who in the biggest game of his life…thought about you.
Listen:
“What, if you could, would you tell little Britt now?”
“db, I would tell him that as big as the sport of bass fishing is in my life, in his life, that in fact, life is bigger than the game, than the sport, when all is said and done it has to be about the friends you make, the family you love, and the sportsmanship you showed while you played the game.”
“…I hope you had the time of your life.”
The Time Of Your Life
Green Day
db
“What you are as a person is far more important than what you are as a basketball player.”
– John Wooden
A picture epilogue:
I photographed the Myers family during the Sunday weigh-in and caught their excitement as Britt won.
As Britt takes the stage, the family holds hands.
The exact moment of the win.
Little Britt looking for me right after the win.