There is one word that I want you to keep in mind during the game between two great teams this evening. It isn’t a question of whether Taylor Swift will be there or if it is the first meeting of the Swifts and the Kelces. That seems to be getting all the headlines, but there is one word that is not getting enough attention that can make your and my life more ethical and better. It is a word spoken by James Bradberry, a defensive back, for the Eagles. This word has been repeated often enough in his ears by his mother who is a pastor. Bradberry came from humble beginnings and played football at a relatively unknown college and worked his way into being a professional football player.
The word that I want you and me to remember tonight and all our days is the word, ACOUNTABILITY. Bradberry is the defensive back who had a penalty late in last year’s Super Bowl which allowed the Kansas City Chiefs to win at the very end of the game. Everyone who has played or watched sports knows that one play doesn’t stand alone to other plays that were costly. All the blame gets put on that last play. However, if it was a last second touchdown by a player, they would be celebrated forever. “You remember when…”
But Bradberry lives by a guideline that his mother gave him. “Be accountable for what you do.” So, throughout all the press afterwards leading up to tonight he has indicated that, “Yes, I committed that penalty.” He said as well that, “Life is really about accountability. This is how you get to be a better person.” I would say it the way that I have repeated in my blogs. Learn to fail or fail to learn, but to honor Bradberry and his way of life, I would say, “learn to be accountable or fail to become a better person.” I want you to remember this because Americans obviously have not with all of the bad actions of Trump who is tied with Biden in the early polls. He is never been held accountable for anything that he has done that demonstrates the worst in human beings.
The question that is on the minds of people in our nation who see Trump for what he is, “How come when so many people know what he has done can they still say that they will vote for him?” How has he turned the Grand Old Party, the Republicans, into The Party of Trump? The current Speaker of the House calls himself a moral conservative with a covenant marriage. He is bathed in self-righteousness but just supported Trump.
I wonder how those who respond to him can do that particularly after his comments at a Saturday night rally in Iowa over this past weekend. He talked about how a report indicated that he had golden showers with four prostitutes when he was in Russia. He told Melania who was angry that she should know that was not true because he is a germaphobe. He presented this with great laughter as he played to the crowd.
There was one problem. A teacher was there with his students who finally saw Trump for who he is. “How can I talk to my students about that or answer their questions about a golden shower?”
We remember the oft quoted words of Toni Morrison that “If a person shows you who they are, believe them.”
I think that one of the reasons for his high polling is that he has communicated to a nation that it is OK would to be less accountable. We hate to be wrong! Trump has set the standard for getting us off the hook. Remember his words about our troops who died, “They are suckers!”
If Bradberry makes a mistake tonight during the game, I know we will never hear that it wasn’t his mistake, it was the coach putting him the wrong position of the called defense or the ball was underinflated. You get the point. Tonight, let’s think about that word, ACCOUNTABILITY, as much as all the great stuff we will see our team, the Eagles, do.
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