Pressure. Such a feeble word, yet it leaves its mark on athletes everywhere. The latest victims of pressure were Billy Cundiff and Kyle Williams.
A seemingly routine field goal attempt by Cundiff (Baltimore Ravens’ kicker) becomes a daunting task once the word pressure is thrown into the equation. For Kyle Williams (San Francisco Forty-Niners’ wide receiver), holding onto the football was the equivalent of holding onto Jell-O. What do you know? Pressure strikes again.
Does succumbing to pressure make them any less human than anyone else? Not at all. And it’s not just athletes that submit to pressure, everyone does at one point or another.
Ever taken a test and wonder why your score was lower than anticipated? You know the material like the back of your hand, yet the results did not reflect that. You, my friend, have just fallen victim to pressure and guess what? It’s perfectly normal.
It simply baffles me to see the negative outpour from fans when a player makes a mistake. An athlete shows they’re human, and we as a society lack the human characteristic of empathy.
Billy Cundiff and Kyle Williams may have lost the battle to pressure but so have the rest of us. Remember that.
