Play The Game

Watching football reminds me of what the better Hollywood acting schools try to pass along to their actors. There are two teams, both energized by powerful objectives, with life and death stakes. They are there fighting for glory and admiration on a global scale as they do something that they love. And they are also there to have their legacies immortalized in the record books. Each team takes turns either fighting to gain ground, with their quarterback playing the lead role, or fighting to defend their positions. The players give everything they have, leaving it all on the field. There is always urgency (the ticking clock), and we are always aware of who’s ahead and who’s behind.
To wit, in Hollywood acting schools are always trying to get actors to fight for their needs or wants in their scenes, but it’s no easy task. Actors rarely commit to their objectives. It is perhaps not cool to want something so badly, so often we see half efforts and no results. But without the ritual of the sport and the social anointment of that kind of commitment being OK in places other than the playing field, we tend to live vicariously and when our turn comes to give it our all, we respectfully decline, choosing the role of the spectator rather than that of the gladiator fighting for his life.