(The earliest draft of this never-published piece was written several years, ago, but most of 2025, I’ve pondered what I with pent-up energy that grows with each encounter with a news headline, )
I’ve noticed that nearly all promotional, motivational and political content, that is based on sports metaphors, is….offensive.
That is, they refer to things like home runs, touchdowns, knockout punches, or other terms that are about scoring points.
Rarely do you hear defense-oriented phrases about catching a fly ball at the outfield wall before it leaves the park, stopping a running back short of the goal line, or dodging a haymaker in the boxing ring.
However, sports teams, businesses and constituents are reliant on defense as well as offense. You play more defense in your work and life than you probably realize.
Why haven’t defensive sports metaphors permeated the vocabulary of business and political clichés?
A few of my college friends have been using one for decades. We frequently played pickup basketball a few blocks from our apartment building. On the court’s western edge, the concrete was bordered by a 6-ft fence. In the wooded area behind that there was a small trickle of flowing water.
Depot Avenue Courts, Gainesville, Florida
Whenever a player attempted a shot, somebody on defense would issue this call to action:
“Knock that shit in the creek.”
During a game, if a player blocked a shot with authority, their teammates would shout, “He knocked that shit in the creek!”
If a player dribbled toward the basket, a defender would yell, “C’mon, bring it this way and I’ll knock that shit in the creek!”
In the years since my friends and I have constantly used variation of that phrase to describe our responses to (depending on our professions): a business challenge, a news interview, or a dissertation defense…
As you write a response to a request-for-proposal, or field challenging question from an audience, or draft a letter to your US Representative or Senator, you are not in a position for a metaphorical slam dunk, though visualize knocking that shit in the creek.
