Abbe’s Ruminations March 2026
Sport Winners, Losers, and MRN
I’ve never been known to relish the combative nature of team sports and for the most part the tensions are too intense for me to watch. I’m also a wimp when it comes to gory movies or when a drama includes unnecessary fear elements.
I realize I don’t enjoy the degradation of players. The idea that anything goes to be a winner. Watching my grand-girls play soccer, basketball, swimming, and volleyball, I see the sports with a new perspective. The truly great players are those that live by honor and skill. Their coaches instill in them a sense of pride in seeing the moves, of being aware of each player, their own teammates and their competitors. They teach the difference between aggressive play and that of decisive play. Defense and offense become common sense, one where the individual player takes advantage of an opening or another inhibits advancement.
Nothing in the manual of great teams talks of aggression. The teams that win with skill and a sense of team spirit advance through strategy not against another player. There is an etiquette in protecting territory. I watch when the team loses, they analyze their moves, their knowledge of plays, they don’t blame.
I think of my father when he told us not to be MRN. Mean, Rotten, and Nasty. One of my grandkids analyzed a team’s play on a close game. Her summary of the game was that the team had skilled players, but they lacked integrity and played by bullying. Instead of working together with their plays, they became Mean and Aggressive. Her final comment said it all. They’ll win some games, but they won’t advance.
My hope is in their simple wisdom of knowing the value of true wins. Where learning is the goal, skill and fairness rule and that those that bully lose even if they win. There is no place for MRN.
I’d love to hear your thoughts about sportsmanship and how that effects us all. You can find me athttp://www.abberolnick.com
