Today, I’m thankful for those times when cool heads prevail and we have the courage to correct a prior ill-conceived decision.
We all wish we were in constant possession of a retrospect-o-scope, an imaginary instrument that might allow us to gaze upon a difficult decision to identify the proper solution to a problem before we actually know the result. Although hindsight carries with it perfect 20/20 vision, the fact of the matter is that we never really get a chance to revisit a bad decision. In other words, we tend to ‘reap what we sow’ in every decision we make or every action we take. But, that doesn’t mean you still can’t learn from that decision. Nor does it mean that you must always expect your decision as a fait accompli – there’s always time to change course and set oneself back on the righteous path towards eternal glory.
I thought I might share several relevant historical anecdotes to prove my point.
The Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941 (an event we’ll return to in just a few days’ time) brought the United States to the stark realization that we could no longer tow the line of isolationism. In essence, this single event was the impetus to catapult our young nation into the massive conflagration known as World War II. As the United States declared war on the Axis powers, thousands of active young men readily enlisted for military service over the course of the next 12 months. Among the eligible men were close to 600 players of then young-but-growing National Football League (NFL). In the midst of the war, President Franklin D. Roosevelt encouraged professional sports leagues to ascertain a way to ensure that football (and baseball) would continue to provide wholesome entertainment – if nothing else, as a means to help distract the American public from the horror and gloom of the war. With a depleted repertoire of players, several teams folded or suspended play. Both teams based in my home state of Pennsylvania were also significantly depleted of its players, with only 16 eligible on the Philadelphia Eagles and 6 available on the Pittsburgh Steelers. So, the then-owners of the teams, the venerable Bert Bell and Art Rooney, discussed the possibility of merging the teams’ players to form a competitive squad.
From the onset, the decision was fraught with issues. For one thing, the Eagles and Steelers were bitter, interstate rivals who basically hated each other. In fact, neither of the two head coaches would acquiesce to being the assistant coach, so the team carried both as co-head coaches. The problem is that the two coaches hated each other, argued incessantly with one another, and could never agree on a consistent offensive scheme. Even more so, because both franchises were perpetual losing teams, the players had little or no respect for either of the two men. To make matters worse, the two franchises could never formally agree on a name. They became known officially as the ‘Phil-Pitt Combine.’ Meanwhile, many newspaper writers began mockingly referring to them by the silly moniker, ‘The Steagles.’ Finally, and probably most importantly, the players from these two separate teams never really successfully gelled with one another. Not surprisingly, the 1943 ‘Steagles’ season ended in a disappointing 5-4-1 record. As it became readily apparent that the 1944 season would usher in a sufficient crop of players to reestablish these entities as two separate Pennsylvanian teams (especially as the US War Draft logs became filled with enlisted men), this merged franchise was formally dissolved on this day (Dec 5) in 1943. The Eagles and Steelers have remained bitter in-state rivals of the gridiron for the last 77 seasons – exactly as God had intended it from the beginning of time.
At least one thing did not change during the 1943 season. Alcohol was still served at the NFL games. Such was not the case when the NFL first started out in 1920. You see, the year before (in 1919), the Temperance Movement had secured what it had been lobbying for nearly a century, namely the passage of the 18th Amendment to the US Constitution. The subsequent passage of the Volstead Act provided federal enforcement of the Prohibition Movement – the effective outlawing of any manufacture, distribution, and sale of alcoholic beverages. Now, for full disclosure, alcohol had been a major social problem in the United States, especially in the frontier regions of the country in the 19th Century. Inebriated, abusive men often showered verbal and physical abuse against their wives. Even more so, the anti-immigrant sentiment of the time was directed at the tavern owners – many of who had emigrated from European countries.
However, the effect of Prohibition was not what the founders intended. In fact, the Volstead Act failed to stem the use of alcohol. Although alcohol production initially fell in the early 1920s, the consumption of alcohol gradually returned to pre-Prohibition levels by the end of the Roaring Twenties. Even more so, the illegalization of alcohol simply led to the birth of organized crime, as mobsters like Al Capone began to establish national crime syndicates, often with crooked law enforcement turning a blind eye to the practice (courtesy of bribe money). Even more so, the removal of this commercial enterprise not only removed thousands of jobs from the national employment logs but it also deprived the nation of the revenue readily guaranteed by a federal liquor tax. The cost of fighting the illegal trade practice of ‘alcohol bootlegging’ also came at a steep price.
So, as the nation entered the Great Depression at the end of the third decade of the 20th Century, a sentiment against the illegalization of alcohol began to burgeon. On this day (Dec 5) in 1933, at exactly 5:32 PM ET, Utah became the 36th state to ratify the 21st Amendment, which repealed the prior 18th Amendment. Alcohol began flowing in bars as soon as that same evening. Its passage remains the only time in US history that an amendment was ratified to repeal a prior amendment. So, on this day that we celebrate the dissolution of both the Steagles and the Prohibition movement, I’d suggest you raise a toast to those sage leaders who had enough humility to stand up and acknowledge: “Yeah, we probably had it right the first time.’
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