Football, luck and life

This article builds upon Stephen Mumford's observations about football and chance in his book Football: The Philosophy Behind the Game. Mumford argues that football strikes a perfect balance between skill and chance. In football, the more skilled team generally wins but not always. Mumford argues that the chanciness of football is a core part of why it is so entertaining. Moreover, it can be a useful source of two important life lessons: that we never have full control over our lives and that victory can be possible even when the odds are stacked against us. In this commentary, I explore the connections between football and chance in more detail by drawing on the work of the experimental British novelist B. S. Johnson. I will argue that Johnson's work suggests three more lessons we can learn about life from attending to the chanciness of football. First, chance may lead events of major significance that may happen to us at any moment. Second, our lives may come to be defined by moments of pure chance over which we had no control. Third, we have a tendency to try to impose meaning on the random chaos of life at times where there is no meaning to be found.