Sports Idioms

I learned today that many FIRST Team Members are unfamiliar with sports idioms because many of them haven't or don't play organized sports, other than FIRST. We need to be aware of this and help bring these idioms and expressions to our teams so Team Members have the same references as their peers as they head off into the work force.

What happened is one of the teams I mentor made it to playoffs and lost their Quarterfinal Matches after putting everything they had into the game. Their last match was a particularly brutal one in which their Alliance left many parts on the field, including a battery, an intake wheel, and a bumper. Back in the pits, I was proudly explaining that the Alliance "left everything on the field." (http://englishidiomsblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/leaving-it-all-on-field.html)

One of the team members kept countering with their own expression. Each time I said they left everything on the field, this individual would reply with their expression. I'll admit that I got annoyed with this counter punching. I couldn't understand why they insisted in overwriting my expression with their own. 

As I contemplated this and many other things from the day, it dawned on me that the idiom "to leave everything on the field" is a sports idiom and this individual probably had never heard it before. Not knowing it's common meaning and not connecting the double meaning of figuratively and literally for our match, it makes sense why they thought their expression was more appropriate.

In preparing this post, I discovered an interesting connection of this expression with Vince Lombardi. It is explained in this YouTube clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCI4jFj5NtE. Not being particularly engaged in athletics, I too don't know the depths or histories of these common idioms.

If you're reading this post, you're likely to encounter a similar situation. Please let this prepare you to open the conversation and allow for a learning moment before you react emotionally.

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