All hail the mighty hawks of the sea! Super Bowl LX is in the books and the Seattle Seahawks exorcised some old ghosts, thrashing New England 29-13 to win this year’s contest for the team’s second championship ring.
Thanks to a crushing defense, an inspired run game, great special teams and a gutsy quarterback who overcame being cast away multiple times in a short career, this was a remarkable playoff run for the Seahawks and their fans. The future is even brighter in Seattle. The head coach is only 38. The roster is filled with deep talent and young stars. The oddsmakers have them as favorites to repeat in 2026. The new dynasty has begun!
But change is unavoidable. Free agency is coming and key players may leave, including the running back who won the game’s MVP. Seattle will feel the heat from its rivals Los Angeles and San Francisco and several other hungry teams. There’s even uncertainty ahead for Seattle. The NFL may require the family trust that owns the Seahawks be dissolved, forcing a sale to one individual owner. That can change an entire culture of the team. This new dynasty might be doomed before it had a chance to truly start.
What I did there is what psychologists call black-and-white thinking. Sometimes called dichotomous or all-or-nothing thinking. It’s the cognitive distortion that all situations are firmly fixed on one extreme or the other, but never in the middle ground, with no nuance, no balanced rationale. Feast or famine, nothing less.
This thinking reminds me in many ways of the debate over the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA). For years, we saw U.S. federal agencies crafting the DGA recommendations to punitively label and diminish beef, red meat and protein. To keep beef viable in school lunches, hospital menus, grocery stores and in U.S. homes, advocates had to play very aggressive defense.
This year’s new DGA release completely reversed the trend. Protein is now the power player. Beef is hugely benefiting from Make America Healthy Again. The enemy is not real meat, grain, vegetables and fruit – it’s now processing and preservatives. There’s literally a rib-eye steak near the top of the inverted food pyramid. Beef advocates can now play offense.
Is this a Super Bowl-sized victory for the beef industry? You bet! Will the victory last long? Probably not. Politics plague the creation of guidelines every five years based on whoever leads in Washington. Beef products can be champions of the food pyramid one year and then relegated as a health threat the next. It can be frustrating and make you lose faith in the DGA altogether.
But again, it’s no time for all-or-nothing thinking. Let’s reaffirm the game plan. Whether you coach the Super Bowl or Little League, you teach players to keep their poise when competition and momentum dramatically shift. Don’t get loud and overconfident when you’re ahead; don’t get sullen or despondent when you’re behind. Keep your head in the game.
Promoting beef and protein to sustain Americans’ health, balance and appetite has paid off wildly in this year’s DGA. Getting ready for the next round of competitive debate is just as critical now as it has been in the past.
