When Sports Takes a Back Seat to Life

I've learned a hard lesson over the last few days, a lesson that I should always have in my mind. Unfortunately, it took a tragedy to remind me what's really important in life.

So often we turn to sports to get away from whatever is going on in our lives, but there are also times where we hold sports as something more important than those around us.

We watch college games, we watch pro games, taking up most of our weekends sitting in front of the television rooting on our favorite team. Most of the time, we have our closest friends around us for the fun.

I'm no stranger to this routine, often spending at least one day of the weekend watching football with my fiance and some close friends. I'm usually rooting on my hometown Fresno State Bulldogs or the Dallas Cowboys, my fiance's favorite team.

Unfortunately, this past weekend made me really start thinking about what was important, and it took a tragedy to start this train of thought. It took a close friend and his family going through unspeakable pain for me to really sit and put things in perspective.

As my fiance and I were sitting in church, a very close friend motioned to us to follow him. We walked outside the sanctuary, and what we heard next has played like a VCR in my mind over the last 72 hours. His best friend, his brother, had taken his own life.

We were shocked, stunned beyond belief. There were no words to describe the moment, and there still aren't. The family is healing, little by little, but the questions will continue—and some may never be answered.

But after taking a few days to think about it, to ask several questions of why this sort of thing happens to someone, other questions have emerged.

Are sports really as important as we hold them? Do we take our family and friends for granted, thinking we can see them any time? Do we tell the people we love how much we care, or do we just say to ourselves, "I'll call them tomorrow."

For one of my best friends, there is no tomorrow. He didn't even get a chance to tell his brother, "happy birthday."

The lessons I've learned through this have been life-altering. I just wish that it didn't take a tragedy befalling a good family for me to realize it.

As you enjoy football games on the weekend with good friends or family, take time to realize just how grateful you are to have good people around you. You never know when the time will come when you won't have that chance.

Sports will always be there for us to turn to, always constant and never-ending. But rooting for a team only lasts a few hours—family and friends last the rest of our lives.