I’m with Ramesh on this one.

I understand sports metaphors are overdone, but I think there’s a lot to be said for the way the Giants played against the Patriots the last game of the regular season. Ostensibly, they had nothing to play for, and they had a million reasons not to compete: post-season seeding was already settled, they couldn’t affect it whether they won or lost, and when you play there’s always a chance important players will get injured and thus be unavailable or below par when the playoffs come and the games start to count. But the Giants said: “You know, the point of playing is to try to be the best and this is the team we have to beat to be the best; everyone in America will be watching the game [I believe I heard it turned out to be the most-watched regular season football game ever]; and that means we have a chance to prove to them and to ourselves what we’re made of.” They not only showed up. They rose to the occasion, played their best game of the season, and damn near beat the Patiots and ruined their perfect season. It gave the Giants a swagger they’d never had all year, and I think it’s largely responsible for how well they played since. I’m betting there’s a number of teams the Patriots would rather be playing two weeks from now.

I was really bummed when Bill Parcells left the Jets for two big reasons. First, when he took over, the Jets had been 1-15 the year before, but they were blathering about how they’d lost a bunch of games by 7 or fewer points and rationalizing that this meant they were better than met the eye. Parcells would have none of it, saying, “Don’t tell me about coulda, shoulda, woulda — you are what you’re record says you are” — and then he got rid of the guys who were 1-15.

Second, he always pooh-poohed that stuff about how some games are just exhibitions and some games are against non-conference opponents and some games are in bad weather and, in short, some games just don’t count that much. He used to say, “If they’re keeping score, I want to win.”

I think there’s a lot of value in understanding that, if you decide to play, it’s important to compete, especially when the people who make the rules think the games are important. If you don’t compete, and you get drubbed, people are not going to remember that you didn’t play that hard; they’re gonna remember that you got drubbed. It’s doubly important to understand that competing is what makes you better, which is what you have to be to win.