No Smooshing! (From
book No Smooshing!) Gary E. Anderson www.abciowa.comHigh school football is in full swing, and it’s fun to sit in stands on a crisp autumn night and watch our kids play. It can also be source of some pretty funny comments by fans, especially mothers who may be watching only football games they’ll ever witness—or care to witness, for that matter.
For instance, during one recent game, our cheerleaders were standing with their backs to field, leading a cheer of “hold ‘em, hold ‘em!” when one of fathers in stands yelled out, “Girls! I think that’s illegal!”
He was right, of course, since our team happened to be on offense at time.
But real gem of that night was an observation made by halfback’s mother. After watching her son trying to run off-tackle twice in a row, only to get caught up in a tangled pile of bodies at line of scrimmage, she said, “You know, it seems to me they’d do a lot better if they wouldn’t all just smoosh together like that.”
Although her comment brought gales of laughter from everyone around her, and rest of night was punctuated by various people yelling “no smooshing!” toward players on field, I had to admit—the lady was right. Our plays would have gone better if everyone just stopped smooshing.
All next week, that “no smooshing” comment kept playing through my mind, and more I thought about it, more I realized that life itself is like that football game. The key to success often lies in our ability to avoid getting caught up in tangle of everyday problems and to break into open field—in other words, to avoid smooshing.
