so lately our world has been overtaken by little scribbles of x's and o's and phrases like "waggle right" and "charlie tango austin." after years of mindlessly watching football--mostly chatting on the sidelines and cheering when someone makes a touchdown--i asked the husband to explain his top secret playbook to me.

wow. i am impressed that a group of 5th and 6th grade boys can carry off elaborate plans like this. not only that, but apparently there is something called an audible. if they make a plan in the huddle and then see that the defense has lined up in a different way, the quarterback calls an audible at the line and they change their plan. it's all done with code words and signals. this weekend, they scored a touchdown on an audible.

impressed again.

the husband's team--the one big j plays for--is undefeated and no one has even scored a touchdown against them. most of this is due to some stellar talent but i see how much of it comes from experienced coaching and kids who are smart enough to read the field, communicate the plays and work as a team. the husband says this is a fun group of boys because they are all so smart but also because they want to make those plays work. every boy does his part, even if it isn't a glory role.

little j's team has two coaches who don't know much about the game. they are volunteers, and God bless 'em, but it's hard to watch. the husband watches when he can and kind of winces, but he never says a word. the team hasn't won a  game yet and i am surprised because there are some really good little athletes out there. then it dawned on me. they don't have any plays. they just run around without a plan. everything is chaos. they won't win because they aren't communicating any kind of strategy, and every boy is just out there running around with his own agenda.

i had an aha moment right there on the sidelines. none of us can really be very effective on our own, running on our own agenda. we need a playbook. we need to huddle up together and all go in the same direction, with the same goals in mind. without that playbook, and more importantly, without our Coach and our Playbook...we are not at all effective, no matter how smart, athletic or gifted we are.

see? i AM paying attention at the football games.