When Winning Means Not Scoring
Patriots up 21-16. 1:43 left in the game. 2nd and 9.
Running back TreVeyon Henderson breaks through Tampa Bay’s defense for a 69-yard run, wide open, clear path to the end zone. But instead of taking the easy touchdown, he glances over at the sideline, essentially asking: “Should I score, or should I go down?”
Tony Romo, calling the game, said it perfectly: “I have never seen this before.”
And he’s right. You don’t see that. Most players score without thinking twice. But Henderson wasn’t thinking about his stats. He was thinking about his team winning.
If he scores, he puts six more points on the board, but he also gives Tampa Bay the ball back with over a minute left and fair amount of time to score and go for two points. If he goes down after securing the first down, the Patriots run out the clock and guarantee the win.
He was willing to go down but his coaches gave him the go-ahead signal to score. The Patriots won the game.
Why This Matters
That moment isn’t just good football IQ. It’s alignment in business, sports, and life, understanding the actual goal and being willing to sacrifice personal glory for team success.
Most people, in sports, in business, in life, optimize for the wrong thing. They chase the highlight. The stat line. The thing that looks like winning, even if it puts the real win at risk.
But Henderson understood something deeper: sometimes the best move is restraint. Sometimes winning means resisting the easy points and playing the long game.
I see this all the time in business. Marketing teams chasing lead volume instead of lead quality. Sales teams closing deals that churn in 90 days. Founders celebrating vanity metrics while the fundamentals crack underneath.
Real success, the kind that compounds, the kind that lasts, comes from alignment in business. From knowing what you’re actually trying to accomplish and having the discipline to make decisions that serve that goal, not your ego.
The Connective Tissue
Here’s the other thing that stood out to me in that game: Stefon Diggs wasn’t just playing offense. He was on special teams too, recovering a crucial onside kick that helped seal the win.
Special teams doesn’t get the glory. It’s not offense or defense. It’s the transition. The coordination point. The thing that keeps momentum or flips field position when it matters most.
In business, that’s your systems. Your infrastructure. The connective tissue that makes alignment in business possible and prevents things from falling through the cracks.
Without it, you’ve got talented people working hard in silos, hoping things line up. With it, you’ve got a unified operation where everyone knows the goal and the systems support them in getting there.
Just Lifing
Going back to playing pickup games in the street or 8th grade football at Wellesley Middle School, I’ve always loved playing and watching football. But it took me a few years to truly understand that it’s not just about talent. It’s about alignment, systems, and clarity under pressure. The best teams aren’t always the most talented, they’re the most cohesive.
Same with business. Same with life.
The Patriots aren’t supposed to be 8-2 right now. But they are, because they’ve built something that works. Not perfectly, but cohesively. And that makes all the difference.
Now I can’t wait to see the Patriots give it to the Jets tomorrow night. Lets goooo!
If you’re curious about how this kind of thinking shows up in what I build, check out my Projects or learn more about my work at MarketingAndSalesHelp.com.
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