Three yards and a cloud of dust

I figure it's about time I explain the name of my blog.

Sports can so often be analogous to life. "Three yards and a cloud of dust" was how people described the offense Woody Hayes ran while coaching the Ohio State Buckeye football team. He won five national titles in his 28 years at OSU, and he did it mainly on the ground. You need ten yards to get a first down, and you have 4 plays to get there, so theoretically you can run the ball every play if you get three yards. You may have a few fourth down moments where you turn the ball over if you don't get the yardage, but three more yards and you're back in business. Back in the 60's football games weren't played on artificial turf or synthetic "grass", and when real grass on a football field doesn't get a chance to grow because it's being used so often, you get dirt. Mud. Dust. Hence, three yards and a cloud of dust. It could be quite painful for players, and is a difficult, grinding way to move the ball. You may have setbacks. One or two yards instead of three. Maybe a sack. Maybe even a fumble. But the players who played well knew that over the course of an entire game, if you learned from the setbacks, didn’t get discouraged, and kept your eyes on the goal, success would soon follow.

Life can be just this way at times, can it not? Grind it out. Three yards and a cloud of dust. Life isn't always easy, and sometimes day in, day out drudgery can get to even the best of us. Sometimes we're fortunate enough to get to play in the grass, but sometimes we have to get in the mud and the dust. If we keep our eyes on the goal line and keep battling for those three yards, we'll get there. We may have a few fumbles... but the game isn't over yet. We may have a few fourth down moments... but if we get up, dust off, and get three more yards, the goal line will soon meet with us and we can celebrate success.