The Bench Is Where Humility Was Learned
The legend Dan Soder in the building today for KFC Radio! He brought up some sports career lows of his like getting boat raced 116-0 in Pop Warner, taking a fastball to the chest for the first time, and just generally looking awkward out on the field or court. The general consensus coming out of this was that it gives you a certain level of humility early on in life that you wouldn’t get if you were the man out there…so it’s actually sort of cool in a way to suck.
I personally don’t think that benchwarmers get enough praise for the difficult situations that they’re put in on a daily basis. I mean from practices, to games, to just being in the classroom, you’ve gotta come equipped with that humility early on or you’re not gonna survive.
In practices you were facing one of two fates as a benchwarmer, you were either gonna get your teeth kicked in by the starters (the hardos) or you were just gonna be chilling on the sidelines. Aka doing nothing all practice at best, or filling up the waters at worst.
The games were pretty fickle. If you played for a legit good team it wasn’t a bad gig. You played dress up a couple times a week and got a front row seat to some quality play. In most cases though, you were suffering through some HORRENDOUS ball. Blowout city game after game, which would mean a lot of burn for you, but I never got why that was. If my team is getting blown out, let the starters wallow in the mess they created instead of subjecting me to it too. Now you’ve got me playing a game of hot potato with the ball on the court because I don’t want to take a shot, possibly make it, then get treated like some charity case by the parents section giving me a pity clap for making a jumper.
The hits you take as a human victory cigar on the bench early on in your life are simply priceless for later on. It's something that those starters who got all the girls would never get. That wasn't even that cool anyway. It was far better to follow the way of our brothers in arms from Monmouth basketball.
Today's episode was great. Dan Soder was the guest...need I say more? The guy is no doubt first ballot hall of fame in the Podcast Hall of Fame.