Letter to the President #521: 'Ten hours of tennis, anyone?'

Tom Foreman | BIO
AC360° Correspondent

[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i.cdn.turner.com/si/2010/writers/bruce_jenkins/06/23/isner.mahut.react/isner-mahut-getty.jpg caption="France's Nicolas Mahut (left) and American John Isner (right) have already competed for 10 hours in the first-round match." width=292 height=320]

Reporter's Note: President Obama is a sports fan. And hopefully he is also a fan of these letters, since I am continuing my marathon effort to write to him every single day.

Dear Mr. President,

Ok, so I know that you replaced your top general in Afghanistan, I know that the oil spill continues to eat up the headlines, and I know Canada had a little earthquake (although I’ve never really thought about them having tremors up there… go figure.) But to be honest I don’t really care to talk about any of that, or for that matter anything else heavy in the news today. I want to talk about the tennis match!

As I rolled up and down the coast today, even hopping into a scalloping boat for a few hours, the single most exciting bit of news I heard trickling through my BlackBerry and the various folks I ran into, was about this amazing, mind-blowing, nearly superhuman tennis match at Wimbledon.

Now, I’ve played a little tennis in my day and while it was fun I’ve never been a big tennis watcher. But trust me, I would have been glued to this action if I’d had the chance.

Just think about it: Two world-class athletes dueling it out for more than 10 hours (10 HOURS!) and neither one able to get enough of an edge to snag the victory. Just epic!

Can we even comprehend the effort, the aches, and the exhaustion that they must be experiencing? I suspect not.

You know that I frequently rail here about people taking the easy way out; politicians, business folks, and even regular citizens just showing a kind of general, spineless weakness when it comes to adversity. And I know that this is just a game, but jeesh, it is inspiring. If we had more leaders willing to stand up and fight for the good of Americans which such energy, I suspect we’d find ourselves in a whole new game!

Speaking of which, and keeping with the sports theme, did you see the latest U.S. victory in the World Cup? Most excellent! Not getting to write nearly as much as I’d like during this road trip to Florida. But hopefully I can remedy that soon. BTW, I’m largely beyond the oil zone right now and I saw a sea urchin and a sea turtle today… you should have been there!

Regards,
Tom

Follow Tom on Twitter @tomforemancnn.

Find more of the Foreman Letters here.