3 Reasons Why "Overcoming Adversity" in a Football Game Just Doesn't Exist
For years I've been hearing college football announcers say at the beginning, middle, and end of their broadcasts, "[Insert Team Name] will really have to overcome this adversity tonight."A Google search of "college football overcoming adversity" even yields my beloved Ohio State Buckeyes "overcoming adversity" in 2014 by winning the national championship with a third string quarterback. And because I'm only slightly biased, I'll give the team a little bit of credit for adversity.Ohio State lost it's 1st string quarterback a week before the season, it's backup quarterback the last game of the season, so the 3rd stringer, who had never started a game had to lead the team into the Big Ten Championship and first ever College Football Playoff. That, to me (and most people), is a reasonable example of adversity. It's unfavorable fortune or fate; a condition marked by misfortune, calamity, or distress. Losing two quarterbacks in a season is a misfortune.But the most common usage, by announcers, is what I mentioned above: "The Tigers are really going to have to overcome adversity tonight," or, "This is a hostile stadium and this team is really going to have to face this adversity."Here's why that is an absurd statement and why playing a football game at night, in and of itself, does not fit the definition of adversity and why announcers need to stop saying it:
- Football is a game. Keyword = game. There's no adversity in a game. Just don't play it and the "adversity" goes away.
- Doing something you love (that, in theory, most college football players do) is not a calamity.
- Using the phrase "overcoming adversity" belittles people who are in true distress.
To Kirk Herbstreit, and all of the other announcers out there: please change your vocabulary and stop embellishing. If you want to talk about adversity, talk to a Syrian refugee, a single mom working two jobs, or my grandfather who had to dig through trashcans for spare change when he was a kid.