Underrated: Forfeiting At Halftime

In sports, we talk a lot about “overrated,” such as: overrated teams, overrated stats, or Tony Romo. But that begs the ultimate question, what about the most underrated and under appreciated facet of sports: forfeiting at halftime?

Now I know a lot of you are reading this thinking, “Forfeiting, that sounds a lot like quitting,” but nothing could be farther from the truth. Forfeiting is not quitting. Forfeiting is the ability to recognize your limitations and having the courage to gracefully concede. It is truly the honorable course of action.

Think of it like chess, competitive players do not play to checkmate. They resign when it becomes obvious the checkmate is coming. That is all this is, million-dollar athletes resigning to the fact that if the game were completed, the only possible path is defeat. 

This would save fans and players from having to endure awful blowouts—spare us all from having to watch bench players act as if they belong in the game. Even if it’s a close game, do you really want to sit around for an entire extra half just to lose on a last second play? All athletes would agree that is worse than being blown out.    

Let’s all save some time, and move onto our next activity.