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Just a few random thoughts from stuff that’s going on this week.
FOOTBALL: Terrell Owens complained about not getting the ball enough during the Cowboys loss to the Redskins last Sunday. This is the same kind of crap we’ve heard from him before in San Francisco and Philadelphia. He clarified today that it’s only because he’s a competitor and doesn’t like to lose. I don’t buy it. It sounds to me like he’s just incredibly selfish. If you truly are a team player, yes—you would be upset about losing, but you would focus on what you did well as a team and what you need to keep working on. As a team. Because as good as many players are individually, ain’t nobody ever won a game all by their self. If you made the game-winning catch, good for you—but it’s also good for the quarterback who threw the pass, the linemen and backs who blocked, and the other receivers who ran routes to pull the defenders away from you. If you’re going to relish the spotlight when you’ve had a good game and your team won, then you’ve got be able to stand in that same light when it doesn’t turn out so good. I would hate to be on a team that had a diva like that.
ECONOMY: I’ve tried to read a bit and get a better understanding of just exactly what’s going on with the economy. I’ve learned a little bit, but it’s still kind of vague, like the stock market has always been to me. So this is a total oversimplification, and it could also be incredibly wrong, but it’s my take, and that’s OK, because this is my blog. It seems to me that we as Americans have just gotten caught up in the whirlwind that is life today. We move too fast, we try to do too much, and we overextend ourselves. We want more than we can actually afford right now, so we charge it. We get risky mortgages because they sound good now—we’ll worry about “later” later. Banks and mortgage companies did the same thing. But then an unexpected guest arrives. There’s someone at the front door: Later. It got here quicker than any of us thought it would. And it’s not happy.
As I said, I know I’m completely oversimplifying this; I know many people lost their jobs and couldn’t pay their mortgages, and many banks overextended just like their customers did. And I keep saying “we” because I’m guilty of this myself. Too many times I’ve bought things I really couldn’t pay for now, and I can always justify it somehow. A couple of years ago, I decided that the stress and the weight of trying to pay these off wasn’t worth the instant gratification I got from buying them in the first place, and I’m still working hard to pay them off. I am blessed to have a job that allows me to pay my bills; I know many people are trying, but they’re just having a really hard time right now.
I couldn’t get no satisfaction, so I charged stuff I couldn’t really pay for. Terrell Owens can’t get no satisfaction either. A lot of banks and lenders couldn’t get none either, and now here we are, in a big ole mess. My wish for our country is my wish for myself, and was my grandmother’s philosphy of life: if you ain’t got what you need, make do with what you got.
I went to the Albertville High football game tonight—the first high school game I’ve been to in a long time … maybe since I was in high school, back in the day. There’s a brand new stadium now and tonight was the first game there. It’s built on the site where the city’s first elementary school used to sit. It had long been left behind for a newer, bigger school, so they bulldozed it down. They took great care, however, to protect a huge old oak tree that had been there long before the old elementary school, and it now frames the goal post at one end of the stadium.
I met my sister, brother-in-law and nephew at the public library and we walked the block to the stadium. My nephew is a freshman, so as soon as we’d gotten in the gate, he disappeared so as not to be seen actually walking with his family. Two of my cousins were going in at the same time, and I don’t see them very often, so that was a treat.
The cheerleaders took to the field and led a cheer to get things started, joined by mini-me cheerleaders in their cute little outfits. The ROTC group attended to the flag and the band played the national anthem. Our band is one of the best in the state; they were in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade last year and have been a number of times before.
The sun set, the quarter moon began to glow as the sky turned from lilac to purple to black, and it was so beautiful in a hometown way, I got teary.
The game got underway, and it wasn’t really pretty at first, but the guys hung in there and had the momentum going into halftime. The band played some classic rock: Queen, the Rolling Stones, even a little Chuck Berry. Wow, it was great. Click here for a clip of the Macy’s parade last year.
I had chill bumps the whole time, and it was 80 degrees out.
Then in the second half of the game, the team rallied, led by the running of a kid whose last name is Hubbard and who looked like he might be 4′8″. We won 28-20. Go us! Go hometown! Go America! It was awesome.
The 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing have been exciting and inspiring so far. While there have been several athletes, teams and moments that have been inspirational for me (one is listed below), I’ve also thought of stories from past competitions. Everybody has their own favorites, but these are a few of mine:
• Derek Redmond, competing for the UK, 1992, Track & Field: After training for years, focusing all of his attention on preparing for the Olympics, suffering through eight surgeries, Derek thought he was finally ready. He’d had to withdraw from the 1988 games just before they started because of injuries. Finally, the games in Spain began, and he hoped to put all those struggles behind him. Yet in the first semi-final heat of the 400 meter race, Derek tore his hamstring early in the race and fell to the track in pain. He was determined to finish the race, so he tried to get up but was having trouble. “That’s when it happened,” said pastor Tony Evans. Derek’s father came down from the stands, passed the security guards who tried to stop him, and helped his son to his feet. Together, they walked toward the finish line. The crowd noise changed from sympathetic gasps to amazed cheers. The winners had long since finished the race by the time Derek crossed the finish line, but he finished nonetheless. He didn’t win a medal, but he finished the race set before him, helped by the love and support of his father, cheered on by many supporters.
• Gabrielle Anderson-Scheiss, competing for Switzerland, 1984, Track & Field: The marathon for the Los Angeles games finished in the Coliseum, where runners ran from a tunnel out onto the track to the cheers of a huge crowd. The day of the women’s marathon, the Southern California heat was intense. Water stations were located throughout the course, and every one was important. As Gabrielle neared the end of the race, she felt OK, so she decided to skip the last water station. She approached the Coliseum, ran through the dark coolness of the tunnel, and then burst into the hot sunshine to complete the final leg of the race by running one lap around the track. All of a sudden, it was like her body fell apart. Heat exhaustion had kicked in. She staggered and lurched around the track, accompanied by medical staff who wanted to let her finish the race if at all possible. Almost 6 minutes after entering the Coliseum (a lifetime for a marathoner), she finally fell across the finish line, completely exhausted. Gabrielle didn’t win a medal either—she finished in 37th place out of 50 runners—yet she finished the race set before her. Six of those 50 runners did not finish.
• Rau’Shee Warren, competing for the USA, 2008, Boxing: Rau’Shee is the first two-time American boxing Olympian in 30 years. At the 2004 Olympics, he lost his first fight and was out of the competition. Discouraged at his early exit, he decided to remain an amateur rather than turning pro, so that he could go back to the Olympics—he wanted to win a gold medal for his mom. This week, at the ‘08 games, his first fight was against Lee Ok-Sung from South Korea. Though the fight was fairly close, Rau’Shee thought he had the lead, so as the fight neared the end, he took a more evasive, defensive stance, trying to avoid getting hit. As the crowd cheered, he thought they were saying “Move!” as in, keep moving, you’ve got the lead, don’t get punched. Instead, they were cheering him on to make a move, because he didn’t have the lead after all and time was ticking. As the last bell clanged, he finally threw a punch that could have tied the match if he’d gotten it in on time, but it was too late and didn’t count. Like Derek and Gabrielle, Rau’Shee wanted to finish his race, but rather than pushing as hard as he could like they did, he tried to coast to the end, and he lost.
Each of these competitors has agony on their face, but not necessarily for the same reason. As Randy Pausch said, “The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough.”
Not that this will be my last post about him (I’m pretty sure it won’t be), but at least there’s some closure and ESPN, Sports Illustrated, Fox and everybody else can get back to covering the rest of the sports world, like, oh, maybe that little event called the Olympics, for example.
The question, and one they’re discussing on NFL Live as I write, is who benefited the most from this deal—the Packers or the Jets? I say the Jets, and my reason is that adding such an experienced, talented quarterback, such a key position, along with the other additions the Jets have made, strengthens their team more than adding a younger, inexperienced quarterback helps the Packers, even if they do have most of the same players they had last year when they were so close to going to the Super Bowl. I guess we’ll see just what a difference it makes, not having Favre on their team anymore. Could Aaron Rogers have any more pressure on him? Yikes. I hope he does well, and I hope people will give him some slack. You don’t go from Brett Favre to Aaron Rogers without a little bit of a letdown.
I just think that Brett’s drive, enthusiasm, experience and commitment to win will automatically lift his teammates. They know what he’s capable of doing, and I think they’ll be ready and willing to hitch their wagons to him and follow along. With the Packers, it’s like the whole rest of the team needs to uplift Aaron Rogers, and having the skills isn’t the same as knowing how to win, and I think their challenge is greater than the Jets.
Yet Aaron also has great possibilities, not just pressure. He’s probably putting more pressure on himself than anyone, because don’t you know he’d love to have a fantastic season and prove the Packers right in choosing him as their new guy.
With Brett, if he has a great or even a good season, people will probably say he was right to come back. If the Jets don’t do well, then of course he should have retired. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens. Anything could happen, and that, as they say, is why they play the games.
If you have become your own category in the crawl at the bottom of the ESPN screen, you know you’re a certified drama, and the Brett Favre saga is just that. As I read the updates and watch the pieces on TV, I’m starting to feel the way I did when I watched OJ Simpson heading down the freeway in that white Bronco. I didn’t know what was going to happen when it stopped, but I just had a feeling it wasn’t going to be good.
I understand him wanting to play again. I understand the Packers hesitation to let him come back. I understand their attempts at trying to encourage him to stay retired and to protect his legacy as a Packer legend (not just a football legend). But if he wants to play somewhere else, they need to let him go. If Aaron is your man, you’ve got to go with him.
Just please, somebody make a decision so we can move on.
I know this is obscure, but I’m posting it anyway. I’m a pretty big golf fan, as you may or may not know, and I watch it often on TV. Tonight they were showing highlights from some of the past British Open championships, and I saw bits from the 2005 Open, which was won by Tiger Woods. Colin Montgomerie from Scotland came in second. I’ve always thought this, but seeing him in the highlights tonight just reminded me of it: he looks like Wallace of Wallace and Gromit. Am I not right?
My senior year of high school, I was given the Sportsmanship Award. I had no idea I was gonna get it, and still am not quite sure how it happened, but I was very excited and proud. I’m as competitive as anybody, but if someone beats me fair and square, I’ll be the first to congratulate them.
Having seen some of the parents’ actions at my nephew’s baseball games recently, I was thinking sportsmanship had been kicked to the curb in favor of being number 1, so when I heard about this video from youtube about a softball game between Western Oregon and Central Washington, I was touched and encouraged. Check it out:
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I love it when the underdog wins. Like the Giants who just won the Super Bowl. And I love the stories that are pulled from that victory like colorful threads.
One story is the amazing play of Eli Manning at the end of the season. The Giants lost their first two games, then won six in a row. Next, they lost a big game to Dallas, won against Detroit and then got creamed by the Vikings. With one game left in the regular season, they were 10-5 and headed to the playoffs. Not an outstanding season, but not too shabby either–it’s never shabby to make it to the playoffs.
They played the Patriots in their last game of the season. There was a lot of talk about whether or not Coach Coughlin would play the starters. Since they were already in the playoffs, this game really didn’t matter in that regard, so some people questioned whether the team would risk injury to their top players going against the top team in the league, who needed just one more win to complete a perfect regular season.
The Giants didn’t just play their starters–those starters played to win. To me, it was the best game of the whole season. Very much like David and Goliath. They were pesky, those David-ey Giants. They played with heart, but unfortunately their stone fell just a bit short, and they lost.
But they came so close, and it was like they realized in that loss just how good they actually were. They played strong, determined and unified throughout the playoffs, and earned a trip to the Super Bowl to face Goliath one more time. That last time, their stone hit the target, and they felled Goliath.
Back in November, when the Minnesota Vikings beat the Giants 41-17, things were not looking so good for the Giants or for their quarterback, Eli Manning. It was the worst game of the season for him; he threw four interceptions, and the Vikings converted all four into touchdowns. One fan questioned not just his play, but his entire vocation:
“Is it me, or does it look to anyone else like Eli Manning just HATES football altogether? The poor kid always looks miserable, never happy with a play whether good or bad, has zero passion and looks like he just has no personality whatsoever. I think he could be amazing if he would just get out of his own way and start having FUN, but frankly, I think he is only an NFL quarterback because that’s the thing to do when your dad is Archie and your brother is Peyton.”
This was in Peter King’s “Monday Morning Quarterback” column on www.si.com. I like the Mannings, but I agreed with this fan. Eli just seemed indifferent. And then came that last regular-season game against the Patriots, and he was like a different player and maybe even a different person.
Makes me wonder what brought about such a change. Was it the competition or something else about that game that showed him how to tap into his superpowers? Inquiring minds want to know.
One other amazing turnaround on the Giants team this year: Michael Strahan, one of their veterans. Late last summer, he was showing up on DIY Network, building sports structures or play areas in people’s back yards, while his teammates were sweating it out in training camp. Then he decided he wasn’t quite ready to retire, so he comes back to play. Next thing you know, ole Jed’s a millionaire and Michael Strahan has one of the best seasons in his 15 years in the league. He anchored the defense with his leadership and experience, and they snuffed out the Patriots high-powered offense all game long in the Super Bowl.
At the beginning of the season, no one was really sure if Strahan still wanted to play. And toward the end of the regular season, people questioned if Eli really wanted to play too. Now at the end of it all, they won the biggest game in their sport and were cheered by thousands of people in New York City today. And it just goes to show ya, you just never know how things are going to turn out.
If only this could encourage me when it comes to dating.
In honor of Peter King’s “Monday Morning Quarterback” on si.com, here are 10 things I think I think following the Super Bowl:
1. This was a great game. Sometimes Super Bowl games end up being a bit one-sided, as the team that’s been the strongest, or is perceived to be the strongest, comes out strong and the underdog just can’t ever get it together. I’m not sure if tonight’s game was better than the final season game these two teams played a month or so ago, but it was still a really good game.
2. Howie Long just said on Fox that Eli Manning just matured right before our eyes. I disagree; I think that happened when the Giants played the Pats in the last regular season game. Even though the Giants lost that game, it still felt like they won because they played the Pats so well and came so close. The Giants came into that game on a roll, and even though they lost, they knew how close they’d come, and that given the chance to play them again, they could probably pull off a victory over the Patriots.
3. Michael Strahan–what a season out of the blue! The guy missed training camp because he wasn’t sure he was even going to play this year. While the other Giants were sweating it out in training camp, he was layin’ out on the beach. He decided he’d come back and play, and he had an incredible season and played a fantastic game tonight.
4. They named Eli the MVP, which I agree with, but I think he edged out the entire defense by a hair. They were all over Tom Brady all night long. They were the MVP for the first three quarters; Eli and the offense finally caught up with them in the fourth quarter.
5. The play of the game to me was on the final drive when Eli looked like he was locked up in the arms of at least two or three Patriots players, and somehow he pulls out of the pile and makes a huge throw to David Tyree, who makes an amazing catch that moves them down the field and keeps the drive alive.
6. The Patriots only had one drive where they looked like the Patriots we’ve seen all season, where Tom Brady was in a rhythm and had the confidence that they were going to drive down the field and score. This drive came when there was about six minutes left in the game. They did drive down field and score, putting them ahead 14-10, with less than 3 minutes left.
7. Wes Welker is an incredible athlete and team player.
8. Why did Bill Belichick go for it on 4th and 13 on the Giants 31? They could have kicked a field goal and gotten some points, but instead, they hand the ball to the Giants. I know the Giants weren’t able to score on the drive after that, but still … points are points.
9. I think all the pressure was on the Patriots, and maybe that gave the Giants a teeny edge. Winning the Super Bowl is pressure enough, I imagine, but then add to that the pressure of winning one more game to complete a perfect season and go 19-0; it must have just been huge. The Giants came in as underdogs, and if they’d lost, it would’ve been what most people expected, so it would be disappointing but not shocking. I also wonder if the success of the Patriots’ season finally caught up to them, and they–not the Giants–got caught up in all the hoopla. The Pats just seemed flat.
10. The word I’d use to describe the Giants’ play tonight: scrappy. They just refused to give up, and they stood in there and fought and scrapped and played as a team till the clock ran out. Literally. After the Patriots failed to score on their last drive, there was 2 seconds on the clock. One ticked off, and Coach Belichick trotted onto the field to congratulate Tom Coughlin. Then everybody ran onto the field, and the officials had to push everyone back to the sidelines so they could complete the game. Eli and the Giants ran onto the field to take one more snap, and Belichick was heading into the tunnel.
They were scrappy, and they played with heart, and now the Giants are the Super Bowl champions. Speaking of playing with heart, I’ve heard that Coach Coughlin opened his heart and his office door to his players a little more this year, and it looks like it made a huge difference. Good for him. Good for Eli, Tyree, Strahan, Osi, Tuck, Boss, Plaxico and all the Giants. I love it when the underdog comes through.
Bill Belichick was disappointed, I’m sure, and I know he did meet Tom Coughlin at midfield to congratulate him when there was still one second on the clock, so I guess he thought he didn’t need to stay on the field for the Giants’ last play, but that was pretty poor sportsmanship to just run off the field before the game was actually over.
Who knows what the whole story is about spygate. I doubt the Patriots are the only team to ever try to get an edge by taping other teams when they aren’t supposed to, but to me it cast a big shadow over them, and I still think that needs to be investigated further.
It’s hard to tell if the Patriots are just in shock or what, but they don’t seem nearly as disappointed as I thought they’d be. Brady and Belichick both said basically that the Giants just made a few more plays than we did. That’s it? You just lost the Super Bowl, AND lost your chance to have a perfect season, and that’s all you’ve got? Maybe it’s been so long since they were outplayed, they just don’t know what to say.
All I can say is congratulations, Giants. I love it when the underdog wins.
