The Detroit Lions and Us

[TouchdownHusky]

Admittedly, my thread title is a little click-baity but there is a connection.

Buddhist perception doesn't look at an object as a stand alone entity, but as a product of all the causes that contribute to the object's being. i.e. you are not seeing a tree unless you also "see" the sunlight, the dirt, the nutrients, the rain, etc. that is necessary for the tree to be.

Sports teams, pro and college, aren't just stand alone entities. There is: leadership, ownership, front office, back office, families, culture, philosophy, facilities, donors, academics, etc. No program can reach these heights without alot of these things coming together.

This is why in the NFL it's so hard to get to where the Lions are today. Coach Campbell said as much in his post game pep talk: they didnt just show up this year out of the blue, this took years to build. It's soooo tentative. You have to maintain those pieces to continue this high level of success.

Now to Uconn: it's not just hurleys recruiting, and the staff. Or NIL.
It's every uconn president, every CT Governor, the unique geography of the state, Geno's Italian heritage, p.j. and Seton Hall, Perno, sister catherine, our insane fan base, @temery and @HuskyNan, the d'amelios, steph castle's parents. Etc.

These things come together to produce the improbable success this program has reached. Everybody else is trying to do this. All the other hundreds of college and pro teams. To have continued success like ours is a huge effort. I think we have to reflect on how lucky we are to be where we are and just how improbable this all is.

Dramatic? Don't forget 15 years of bad football. And Calhoun's Irish heritage and his Isreali pipeline.

 

[6Nattys4Us]

I didn't find it click-baity but then again I'm a Lions fan.

The similarity is the coach: Campbell vs Hurley and you find players that want to play for them. A lot of players go on the record saying as much for both.

Also similar is the "next man up" philosophy that I would say the Lions enjoy with more success than the Huskies - but football is such a specialized skill game so an offensive tackle from the bench is more likely someone playing offensive tackle for many years. In bk, especially college bk, the next man off the bench for a player does not usually have the same skill or experience. (e.g., If AK needs a breather, and Stewart comes in, one 4 is not the same as the other).