This past week the Georgia Bulldogs football team won a national championship in stunning fashion. They beat the Texas Christian University Horned Frogs 65-7. That 58 point differential was the largest margin of victory ever in a college football national championship game.
The way they dominated TCU on the field was truly a sight to behold!
For me, though, the best moment came after the game, away from the stadium lights and cameras and the huge national audience. We wouldn’t even know about it except that Georgia’s head football coach, Kirby Smart, told us about it.
After the game Coach Smart went into the office provided for him in the stadium only to find his 10-year-old son, Andrew, crying. I say “crying”, actually, Coach Smart said he was “bawling”.
He thought, “Oh no. I bet someone got excited and pushed him down or maybe someone said something and hurt him or someone’s done something to him.”
He said, “Son, what’s wrong? Why are you crying?”
Andrew said, “Stetson is leaving. He's going to go.”
Stetson Bennett was Georgia’s starting quarterback the past two seasons.
Coach Smart paused for a moment. That wasn’t the response he was expecting.
“Stetson is leaving!” Andrew said again.
“Son, he’s got to go,” Coach Smart replied.
Why, Daddy?”
“Because he’s 25 years old! He’s got to go.”
Coach Smart shared this tender moment in a press conference later that evening. The part I like was when Coach said, “When I saw my son crying, I went into dad mode.”
That’s pretty cool.
On the biggest night of his life, when his Georgia Bulldogs had just won back-to-back national championships and became the kings of college football, Kirby Smart set all that aside and went into “dad mode”. He put his son and his needs first.
I can’t tell you how impressed I am by that.
If you have a son or daughter, you know how he feels. Our kids are our heart. We love them more than words can say.
We change their diapers. We tend to their boo boos. We hang out with them playing video games we don’t half understand. We cuddle up together on the couch watching silly cartoons. We toss around a football in the back yard or kick around a soccer ball or maybe play a game of 1 on 1 showing off our non-existent basketball skills. We play house. We bake cookies together. We wake up early on Saturday morning to make pancakes because we know they love them so much.
We chart milestones like their first steps, their first words, their first day at school, their first date, their last night with us before leaving for college.
We whisper sweet things in their ear as we hug them or sit beside them as they drift off to sleep.
Like, “If my love for you had a color, it would be the whole rainbow.”
Or, “I love you stronger than iron and softer than feathers.”
Or, “From the moment you were born, you became the sun to my planet.”
(Kate Miller-Wilson, https://family.lovetoknow.com)
We never stop loving them. We never stop worrying about them. We never cease to be their parents.
Once you have children, “dad mode” or “mom mode” is pretty much the default mode for us as long as we live.
Let’s make sure, then, that we do not fail to do the most important thing any parent can or will ever do for their child: introduce them to Jesus Christ.
That’s more important than saving for college or teaching them how to drive or helping them keep the best GPA.
Kelly Stigliano has written:
“As hard as it is for us to comprehend, God loves our children even more than we do. He desires that they have a relationship with Him through His Son, Jesus. The most important introduction I’ve ever made is the one that led my children to Christ. Showing them Christ in my everyday life was essential to them making this decision.” (focusonthefamily.com)
Congratulations, Coach Smart, on back-to-back national championships! But I have to say, you get an award that’s even bigger: Father of the Year.