“Play Like” really works

Posted Aug 14, 2011 by TBO.com

Updated Aug 14, 2011 at 12:36 AM

By LINDA MCEWEN

When we were all little - some of us still are - we used to play a game called “Play Like.” You acted like someone you knew or liked, or you just adopted an attitude. It could be anything as long as you “played like” and it wasn’t real.

So now, I think we should play like there is nothing catastrophic happening in the stock market; it is OK. The fights for freedom in the Middle East have settled down and the people have won, the helicopter in Afghan did not go down with our Navy Seals, and on and on.

But in reality, we can celebrate the two headlines of our favorite sports teams today. “Rays blast way to fifth straight win” with a 5-1 victory over the Yankees and the Tampa Bay Bucs had “A Dominant Start” in their first preseason game with a 25-0 victory against the Kansas City Chiefs, up there no less. Whether the scores mean anything or not right now is not important. We need good news, and the sports people took care of that and cheered us up.

Thank God for sports in our country!

Or it could be Dec. 5, 1977, after the Chicago Bears had beaten the Bucs 10-0 for their fifth straight defeat of the 1977 season, coming after the 14 straight defeats in the inaugural season of 1976, Tom said, “Remember, McKay was the coach at that time, and when asked about his team’s execution one Sunday replied, ‘I think it is a good idea’ and he is the one who said his offense ‘could not score against a stiff wind,’ among other painful truths.”

Coach also said, “we needed that extra week off in order to prepare to play so badly. Couldn’t have done it in one week’s practice.”

Tom attributed his gray hair to those early days of writing about our Tampa NFL team. Just laugh a little and go on, things will get better.

Babaloo!