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Michael Cianchette is a Navy reservist who served in Afghanistan. He is in-house counsel to a number of businesses in southern Maine and was a chief counsel to former Gov. Paul LePage.
New England sports fans are spoiled.
Since 2000, the hometown teams — Red Sox, Bruins, Celtics, and Patriots — have collectively made 20 trips to their respective league’s championship competitions. Thirteen times they have brought the trophy home.
“Cue the duckboats” has become a meme.
The Boston Celtics’ decisive win on Monday was simply the latest in this remarkable string of victories. What’s the secret?
There isn’t one. That was driven home last week at Gillette Stadium and the induction of Tom Brady into the Patriots’ Hall of Fame.
By acclamation, Brady is heralded as the football GOAT — the Greatest Of All Time. Some commentators have claimed he was the “secret” weapon, the reason for the Patriots’ historic run this century. Others say it was Coach Bill Belichick’s genius that led the way.
Brady disagreed.
He made his feelings plain at the induction ceremony. Speaking to his former coach, he said “it wasn’t me. It wasn’t you. It was us.” Great take.
A similar sentiment was shared after the Celtics raised banner number 18. Finals MVP Jaylen Brown gave credit to his teammates, including fellow superstar Jayson Tatum.
Brown distilled it down to the most basic: “we did it together as a team, and that was the most important thing.”
There are a lot of great lessons in sports. That holds particularly true with team games. Even transcendent players — Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky — can’t do it by themselves. Jordan only owns six NBA championship rings; Gretzky’s name appears just four times on Lord Stanley’s Cup.
It takes teamwork.
Meanwhile, Tom Brady credited hard work for his success. Most athletes do. That’s a lesson as well.
Some naysayers scoff at paeans to “hard work.” After all, Brady was blessed with countless natural gifts, including height and intellect, born into a strong, stable family in the United States. None of that came from “hard work.”
That is undoubtedly true.
Yet all those gifts would be for naught without the hard work. Michelangelo’s David is an awe-inspiring piece of sculpture. He could not have made it without a spectacular block of marble to work from. But without the work, David might have been nothing more than a collection of pretty floor tiles in some church.
Hard work and teamwork. One is wholly within our control; the other relies on others. Together, they build character. And when you have them both, you can achieve really great things.
These principles are applicable more broadly. As we get into the height of campaign season, lots of local candidates will be passing palm cards with their ideas and policies. Ask them their thoughts on work.
Hard work is part of the political job. It isn’t back breaking labor or troublesome tomato aversions; it is diving into the nitty gritty of a problem and balancing the myriad pros and cons that come with hard decisions.
Teamwork is part of it, too. Parties are easy to fall back on, but some issues don’t break neatly along partisan lines. Building a coalition — a team — to enact some type of change is a critical skill.
As we look forward to the next iteration of the Patriots, the “run it back” Celtics, the “almost there” Bruins, and middling Red Sox, we can celebrate the remarkable run over the past 24 years. And we can take the lessons they have helped teach us and apply them elsewhere.
Hopefully trophy number 14 — and good public policy — aren’t far away.
