But together with chance, the accidental, and along with it good luck, occupy a great place in War. B. But on the field, chance becomes a player. When it does, well, anything can happen. Coaches, especially losing coaches, like to point this out, and with good reason. Here s Clausewitz explanation of it.
Good teams are teams that trust themselves, teams that are courageous.
Chance is the element in which courage thrives. There s a reason why the better team usually comes up with the fumble, usually makes the spectacular catch, usually doesn t fall down in the open field. Robert E. Lee remarked, as I recall just before the fateful and awful charge of the Confederate soldiers at Gettysburg, that it is good that war is so terrible, because otherwise we might become too fond of it. But football is not so terrible.