Electrical Tape

The touch football team that i am in, plays in a social competition. I'm sure that expression qualifies as an oxymoron. I seems like a contradiction in terms to have something that is social (ie. enjoying the company of others) and yet a competition (ie. trying to defeat others).

As we continue to be both social and competitive, the challenge is to not be over-competitive at the expense of the social aspect (we're not playing for sheep stations) and i manage this quite well. As the opposition reaches double figures (and our team is still on zero) suddenly it's very easy to believe that the score is not important.

But just the other week, a remarkable thing happened - we were winning a game! During this strange circumstance, the referee told one of the players on the other team to leave the field as his playing shirt was un-numbered (it's the rules). Playing on the wing, I heard one of our subs say to the player "I've got some tape in the car" (a shirt number made out of electrical tape is permissible).

While i didn't say anything, i remember thinking "Shut up, Chris! We're in with a chance of winning here!". Of course, i later regained my perspective. Still don't know if i would have gone and got the guy some tape (if i was in Chris's position) but i hope i would have. One thing i do know is that it's a lot harder to not care about winning when you actually have a chance to.