by J. Scott Moore
Luck is often dismissed in sports. Derisively by the losers. Players and teams characterized as lucky are
not often characterized as good, as well.
Surely the elite have their share of luck on occasion? Perhaps it’s overshadowed by the skill and
the execution?
For the Broncos, and more specifically, Tim Tebow, the run
of luck is bordering on the unbelievable.
Take week 14, the Broncos won in very unlikely fashion
against the Chicago Bears when Marion Barber made not one critical mistake but
two. Running out of bounds and then
fumbling the ball in OT.
This sort of improbable story line is often unbelievable and
trite in literary fiction. A literary situation
that many have addressed, but not quite like JRR Tolkien. You may be familiar with Tolkien and his Lord
of the Rings books that were adapted into the movies. In his prequel The Hobbit, Tolkien uses
luck as a pivot in his iconic novel.
JRR Tolkien seems to be writing the script for the Denver
Broncos.
But Tolkien took simple luck to a new level and coined the
term "Eucatastrophe" to describe the happy ending of
"fairy-stories." He describes
it as the "…sudden happy turn in a story which pierces you with a joy that
brings tears..." If that isn't this
Bronco season I don't know what is.
The situation that Tolkien calls the Eucatastrophe is exactly
what we enjoy the most about sports. It’s
in fact the very essence of what is going on right now with the Tim Tebow mania. On a seemingly regular basis Tebow has faced
certain defeat at the hands of his opponent and yet some unlikely turn of
fortune ends up benefiting the Broncos and enabling their victory.
This week it wasn’t enough that the Broncos were facing the
mighty Steelers. A late fumble by the
Broncos’ McGahee seemed to spell doom, and yet the Broncos survived. The Denver Broncos aren’t the only ones that
have benefitted from Eucatastrophe. Go
to any rabid fan in any town and ask about their favorite sports team pulling
their ass out of the proverbial fire.
They will have a story. It’s the
classic game that everyone remembers.
I like equating fairy tales with sports. People often point out that those boys aren't
in the real world anyway. And sports do
function as the ultimate story-time for many of the world's adults. All of us that think we are all grown up and
jaded and aren't affected by unbelievable happy endings and implausible heroes,
better take a second look at that.
Because sports is all about fiction becoming fact. It's just that we don't write the story; it
unfolds before us on Sunday afternoons.
When the Broncos wrapped the season with three straight
losses you wonder, where's that luck in that?
Well they still made the playoffs.
If you've ever read The Hobbit, you might have noticed that
Bilbo, the "hero" of the story was nothing, if not lucky. Then again, you may not have noticed it due
to Tolkien's style of pointing out just how lucky Bilbo was time and
again. He managed to draw your attention
away from how ridiculously lucky his main character was by pointing it out
repeatedly. At the end of the book, even
Bilbo ponders the happy ending of his story.
Gandalf chuckles and says, "You don’t really
suppose…that all your adventures and escapes were managed by mere luck, just
for your sole benefit? …you are only
quite a little fellow in a wide world after all." In other words this isn’t just for the
benefit of Mr. Tebow, it’s for everyone’s benefit.
But to extrapolate on Gandalf’s point, someone other than
Bilbo might not have been the perfect companion for this quest, the lucky
number as he was dubbed. Gandalf takes
all the credit for picking the right companion for the quest. Corollary: Tim Tebow seems to be the right
guy for this quest.
Divine intervention, fate or faith? Sometimes people are lucky. Tolkien framed it as prophesy in his
writings. How about that old saying
about the harder you work the luckier you get?
Call it what you want.
Tebow's got it in spades. The
question now is; is there any left for this Saturday? I'm bettin' yeah, there's more where that
came from. Tune in Saturday for story
time!!
