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BELIEVE: The Jimmy Glass Story

2024-11-12 · story · John · 5:10 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Sports · mode: Personal essay · tags: self promotion

John tells the 1999 story of Jimmy Glass, a journeyman backup goalkeeper on loan to Carlisle United, who left his goal in the final seconds and scored from a corner to keep the club in the Football League, and argues that hope, the belief in an unlikely and temporary reprieve, both kills and saves.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Greeting; the 1999 goal and Jimmy Glass, journeyman backup goalkeeper

  • ★★ John says Jimmy Glass was a journeyman goalkeeper who played for 16 teams in a 15-year career, mostly as a backup. — 00:00:00

00:00:29 — Why we play; Glass loaned to Carlisle United; promotion and relegation and its dangers

  • ★★ John says we don't play football or write novels to be remembered forever, not least because there is no forever. — 00:00:29
  • ★★ Near the end of that season, Swindon's backup goalkeeper Glass was loaned to Carlisle United, a proud old club struggling at the very bottom of the English Football League. — 00:00:58
  • ★★ John explains that in European football the best teams are promoted and the worst relegated, so in theory Manchester United is only four seasons from no longer being a professional team. — 00:00:58
  • ★ John jokes that rooting for Manchester United's fall would be negative rooting, which they don't do, despite the temptation, though sometimes they do. (playful) — 00:01:27
  • ★★ Carlisle had been in the Football League for more than 70 years and was on the verge of relegation out of it into the semi-pro ranks. — 00:01:27
  • ★★ John says relegation out of the Football League can be devastating: relegated clubs not uncommonly go bankrupt and cease to exist, and Wikipedia's football history, e.g. Hereford United, is full of past tense. — 00:01:27 · Wikipedia

00:01:56 — Good Store holiday plug (unpaid mid-roll)

  • ★★ In a mid-roll Good Store did not pay for, John recommends Good Store, which gives all its profit to charity, for holiday gifts: boxes of tea, coffee, socks and soap. — 00:01:56 · Good Store

00:02:26 — The last game: tied, a final-seconds corner, Glass leaves his goal and scores; Carlisle survives

  • ★★ Glass played only three games for Carlisle; in the last, only a win would keep them in the Football League. — 00:02:26
  • ★★ Glass let in one goal and Carlisle scored one, so the game was tied when Carlisle won a corner in the final seconds. — 00:02:26
  • ★★ When John needs encouragement he looks at the Carlisle crowd at the moment the corner was won: they believe. — 00:02:55
  • ★★ John says there is about a 3% chance of scoring from a corner kick. (hedged) — 00:02:55
  • ★★★ Glass did what a goalkeeper never should, abandoning his goal and running into the opponent's box as an extra attacker for the corner, and scored. — 00:02:55
  • ★★ Carlisle United survived and are still in the Football League this year (2024); they played AFC Wimbledon a couple of weeks ago. — 00:03:40 · AFC Wimbledon
  • ★★ No goalkeeper in Football League history had ever scored from a corner kick until that moment. — 00:03:40
  • ★★ Asked after the game whether he had thought he had any chance of scoring, Glass answered that he always did. — 00:03:40

00:04:17 — Hope as belief in an unlikely, temporary reprieve; the hope that kills and saves; Glass's later life; sign-off

  • ★★★ John defines hope as the belief in an unlikely and inevitably temporary reprieve: every victory is fleeting, every reprieve temporary. — 00:04:17 · hope

    “Hope is the belief in an unlikely and inevitably temporary reprieve.”

  • ★★★ John says the Carlisle fans were right to hope they could score from the corner, and Glass was right to abandon his goal and become a striker. — 00:04:17 · hope

  • ★★★ John grants the old saying that it is the hope that kills you, but says hope also saves you, and in his experience the two are not mutually exclusive. — 00:04:38 · hope, It's the hope that kills you

    “it is also the hope that saves you”

  • ★★ Glass went on to other careers, selling IT equipment, driving a cab and working in football, and is remembered as a legend at a club he played three games for. — 00:04:38

  • ★★ John says Glass is remembered for doing what goalkeepers aren't supposed to do, but has made a life for himself, as we all do and must. — 00:04:38

In the description and comments

  • ★ In a channel comment, John says he will livestream his signing for much of the day. — creator comment

Threads in this video

Mentioned

Central: Carlisle United F.C. · hope · Jimmy Glass

Also: Projects: Good Store

Organizations: AFC Wimbledon · English Football League · Hereford United F.C. · Manchester United F.C. · Swindon Town FC · Wikipedia

Concepts: promotion and relegation

Places: England · Swindon

Memes: It's the hope that kills you

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