Top Quotes from Patches of Grey at Quotations Diary 
Showing posts with label Peyton Manning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Peyton Manning. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Wishful Thinking
Can anything replace Linmania, particularly in New York City, as the biggest story in the history of sports (until the next one comes along, that is)? Certainly. I wouldn't be shocked if Jeremy Lin isn't even the Knicks starting point guard a month from now (minimal regression is allowable with teams now having a full scouting report on him, otherwise Baron Davis may still ascend to the throne as originally planned), but if Lin continues to excel he'd still need to compete for headlines if a certain Manning brother decided to sign with a certain New York football team. Can I picture both Mannings playing their home games in the same stadium? Intellectually I cannot. There are just too many impediments. The Jets can't afford Peyton and Peyton possibly cannot afford to take another big hit. As intrigued as I am by the idea of one of the NFL's greatest quarterbacks being under center for my team (just as I was the last time), this time around I think the Jets may be better off sticking with the cards in hand. Mark Sanchez had a rough junior year campaign but that doesn't mean he can't and won't rebound as a senior and go on to have a great career. New York is an impatient place as the Manning brother with the most amount of Super Bowl rings can attest, so there's temptation for the team with less championship banners to make it Peyton's Place. But sometimes the game plan of the tortoise is superior to that of the hare. Regardless of whether this is one of those times or not, medical reports and Peyton's wishlist will probably be the determining factors rather than any sales pitch the Jets make. So I won't spend much time envisioning what the elder Manning brother would look like in a Jets uniform, especially since thanks to photoshop I don't even need to waste any imagination.
Top Quotes from Patches of Grey at Quotations Diary
Top Quotes from Patches of Grey at Quotations Diary
Monday, February 8, 2010
Lessons Learned From Super Bowl XLIV
Super Bowl XLIV turned out to be a competitive game between two excellent teams, featuring less scoring than one might have expected, and that was far closer than the final score of 31 – 17 indicates. One second it looked like we were headed towards overtime as soon as Peyton Manning engineered another routiine 4th quarter touchdown drive to tie the game, the next second Tracy Porter was racing towards victory for the New Orleans Saints with a game clinching interception securely in hand. Like many I considered the Colts favorites to win, but certainly not by overwhelming odds considering the impressive season enjoyed by the Saints and their remarkably accurate quarterback – Drew Brees. The outcome was a surprise to me, but a relatively mild one. I didn’t have a strong rooting interest in the contest either. Both teams had beaten my beloved New York Jets this season, the Colts most recently and more painfully since their victory knocked the Jets out of the playoffs just one game shy of the Super Bowl, but I can’t say I was really pulling for one team over the other. I simply hoped for an entertaining game, and that’s what I got. I’m happy for the citizens of New Orleans who have literally been through hell, not that a win by a football team will restore homes or lives, but it’s a nice feel good story all the same. Kudos to Drew Brees who has had a roller coaster career and life to date. He seems like a good guy who is deserving of his moment in the sun. As for Peyton Manning who handled himself with less class in defeat than might have been expected from a guy who comes off as ever so charming in his countless number of commercial spots, he has 4 MVP trophies and 1 Super Bowl ring and plenty of touchdown throws left in his career, so no tears are shed for him by yours truly.
In addition to it being a good game, I also found Super Bowl XLIV quite instructive. Metaphors about football are extremely overused, with an onslaught of comparisons to war and other life and death situations rather than simply being described as the boyhood game it is. I get caught up in the emotion as much as anyone else, for professional football is a breathtaking spectacle that exhilarates and inspires perhaps more than any other sporting event. But beyond being a thrilling televised event viewed by more people than had ever watched anything on the boob tube before, there were moments in this particular Super Bowl that offered significant life lessons for those who choose to view them that way.
Example # 1: Towards the end of the first half the Saints were near the goal line and faced with a crucial fourth down decision. They were down 10 – 3 at the time, meaning a touchdown would tie the game, a very short field goal would close the gap to 10 – 6. Many coaches would have taken the sure three points rather than taking the risk of coming up short, remaining behind by a touchdown, and handing momentum over to the Colts. Coach Sean Payton chose to go for the touchdown and the Saints were stopped, seemingly the worst case scenario. At the time I thought it was an awful decision, but in hindsight I see wisdom in it from a football standpoint and beyond. Strategy wise, if the Colts made a goal line stand and got the ball back in the shadow of their own endzone they would need to operate cautiously. Failing to pick up a few first downs from such precarious field position, they would have to punt and the Saints would get the ball back in a much more advantageous location. New Orleans would get a second shot at a field goal if simply able to move the chains a couple times, although a considerably longer attempt than the chip shot they turned down. This is precisely the sequence of events that took place. Had the Saints made a field goal the first opportunity around and then kicked off, the Colts would have had much better starting field position for the ensuing drive and enough time to get into scoring range themselves, thus negating the Saints field goal. The Colts may even have gone on a touchdown drive to end the first half, putting themselves up 17 – 6 and in firm command of the game. Therefore, what looked like a reckless gamble by the Saints was in fact a calculated risk with less chance of backfire than appeared to be the case at first glance.
Example # 2: The Saints decision to go for it on fourth and goal was somewhat risky, but starting off the second half with an onside kick was downright shocking. Typically we only see an onside kick precisely when we expect to, with a game down to its final minutes and the trailing team desperately needing to get the ball back before time runs out on them with their offense on the sidelines. An onside kick is not a common way to start the third quarter of any game, especially not a close one, not even a preseason game when teams are doing all kinds of stuff just to practice it, and definitely not in a Super Bowl. The broadcasters confirmed that there had never before been a non-4th quarter onside kick in a Super Bowl. If it fails, the Saints are practically handing points over to the Colts. As it turned out the plan worked to perfection. The Colts were taken off guard, the Saints recovered the ball and proceeded to take it down the field to score a touchdown and take the lead. All is well that ends well, but why take such an enormous chance? Perhaps because the risk was not as big as it first appeared. Peyton Manning showed when the Colts finally got the ball that he was fully capable and had every intention of leading a touchdown drive to start the second half. This very likely would have been the case if the Saints kicked off conventionally and the Colts had to go 80 yards, or if the Colts recovered the onside kick and had less than 50 yards to go. The only difference between these scenarios would have been that the longer of the two potential drives would have chewed up more clock than the shorter alternative, leaving Drew Brees on the sidelines for a greater period of time. Sean Payton wisely feared that if the Colts began the second half by scoring a touchdown, they would have gotten far enough ahead to remain in the lead for the rest of the game. The key to victory for the Saints was for them to score first in the third quarter, and since it was the Colts turn to get the ball, the Saints needed to somehow get it back from them right away. The probability of a Colts turnover on that drive was much lower than the probability of them failing to recover an offside kick that they had no reason to expect. So with the gift of hindsight I can now see that the seemingly crazy onside kick was actually the more judicious way to go, providing an opportunity for the Saints to be where they wanted to be at that point in the game rather than hopelessly behind.
Super Bowl XLIV was just a football game, not a battle in a war, not the means by which to salvage a city drowned by a hurricane and ineptitude and awful luck. But I didn’t simply enjoy watching, I also learned from it. I learned that often what looks like taking a brave risk is actually the enacting of thoughtful strategy which improves rather than reduces the odds of success. I learned that what looks like traveling the safe route may in fact be a way to guarantee failure. In life if you don’t take chances you often end up just sitting there waiting for opportunity to be handed to you, and it’s never guaranteed that fate will be so kind. Anais Nin once said “There came a time when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” Have truer words ever been stated? Taking a shot and failing to pull it off always hurts considerably less than sitting back and wondering what might have been had you gone full out for glory. There is never a shortage of people who will mock our aspirations and tell us not to bother, because by pursuing them, all we’ll be doing is wasting time. But the way to truly waste time is letting it pass without attempting to realize your ambitions. Surrendering in advance of making an effort may be easy, but it isn’t cautious or conservative so much as it is self-destructive. We usually can rebound from failure, but often we cannot come back from failing to even try. Whatever risk there may be to blossom is worth taking. Playing it safe can be like not really playing at all.
In addition to it being a good game, I also found Super Bowl XLIV quite instructive. Metaphors about football are extremely overused, with an onslaught of comparisons to war and other life and death situations rather than simply being described as the boyhood game it is. I get caught up in the emotion as much as anyone else, for professional football is a breathtaking spectacle that exhilarates and inspires perhaps more than any other sporting event. But beyond being a thrilling televised event viewed by more people than had ever watched anything on the boob tube before, there were moments in this particular Super Bowl that offered significant life lessons for those who choose to view them that way.
Example # 1: Towards the end of the first half the Saints were near the goal line and faced with a crucial fourth down decision. They were down 10 – 3 at the time, meaning a touchdown would tie the game, a very short field goal would close the gap to 10 – 6. Many coaches would have taken the sure three points rather than taking the risk of coming up short, remaining behind by a touchdown, and handing momentum over to the Colts. Coach Sean Payton chose to go for the touchdown and the Saints were stopped, seemingly the worst case scenario. At the time I thought it was an awful decision, but in hindsight I see wisdom in it from a football standpoint and beyond. Strategy wise, if the Colts made a goal line stand and got the ball back in the shadow of their own endzone they would need to operate cautiously. Failing to pick up a few first downs from such precarious field position, they would have to punt and the Saints would get the ball back in a much more advantageous location. New Orleans would get a second shot at a field goal if simply able to move the chains a couple times, although a considerably longer attempt than the chip shot they turned down. This is precisely the sequence of events that took place. Had the Saints made a field goal the first opportunity around and then kicked off, the Colts would have had much better starting field position for the ensuing drive and enough time to get into scoring range themselves, thus negating the Saints field goal. The Colts may even have gone on a touchdown drive to end the first half, putting themselves up 17 – 6 and in firm command of the game. Therefore, what looked like a reckless gamble by the Saints was in fact a calculated risk with less chance of backfire than appeared to be the case at first glance.
Example # 2: The Saints decision to go for it on fourth and goal was somewhat risky, but starting off the second half with an onside kick was downright shocking. Typically we only see an onside kick precisely when we expect to, with a game down to its final minutes and the trailing team desperately needing to get the ball back before time runs out on them with their offense on the sidelines. An onside kick is not a common way to start the third quarter of any game, especially not a close one, not even a preseason game when teams are doing all kinds of stuff just to practice it, and definitely not in a Super Bowl. The broadcasters confirmed that there had never before been a non-4th quarter onside kick in a Super Bowl. If it fails, the Saints are practically handing points over to the Colts. As it turned out the plan worked to perfection. The Colts were taken off guard, the Saints recovered the ball and proceeded to take it down the field to score a touchdown and take the lead. All is well that ends well, but why take such an enormous chance? Perhaps because the risk was not as big as it first appeared. Peyton Manning showed when the Colts finally got the ball that he was fully capable and had every intention of leading a touchdown drive to start the second half. This very likely would have been the case if the Saints kicked off conventionally and the Colts had to go 80 yards, or if the Colts recovered the onside kick and had less than 50 yards to go. The only difference between these scenarios would have been that the longer of the two potential drives would have chewed up more clock than the shorter alternative, leaving Drew Brees on the sidelines for a greater period of time. Sean Payton wisely feared that if the Colts began the second half by scoring a touchdown, they would have gotten far enough ahead to remain in the lead for the rest of the game. The key to victory for the Saints was for them to score first in the third quarter, and since it was the Colts turn to get the ball, the Saints needed to somehow get it back from them right away. The probability of a Colts turnover on that drive was much lower than the probability of them failing to recover an offside kick that they had no reason to expect. So with the gift of hindsight I can now see that the seemingly crazy onside kick was actually the more judicious way to go, providing an opportunity for the Saints to be where they wanted to be at that point in the game rather than hopelessly behind.
Super Bowl XLIV was just a football game, not a battle in a war, not the means by which to salvage a city drowned by a hurricane and ineptitude and awful luck. But I didn’t simply enjoy watching, I also learned from it. I learned that often what looks like taking a brave risk is actually the enacting of thoughtful strategy which improves rather than reduces the odds of success. I learned that what looks like traveling the safe route may in fact be a way to guarantee failure. In life if you don’t take chances you often end up just sitting there waiting for opportunity to be handed to you, and it’s never guaranteed that fate will be so kind. Anais Nin once said “There came a time when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” Have truer words ever been stated? Taking a shot and failing to pull it off always hurts considerably less than sitting back and wondering what might have been had you gone full out for glory. There is never a shortage of people who will mock our aspirations and tell us not to bother, because by pursuing them, all we’ll be doing is wasting time. But the way to truly waste time is letting it pass without attempting to realize your ambitions. Surrendering in advance of making an effort may be easy, but it isn’t cautious or conservative so much as it is self-destructive. We usually can rebound from failure, but often we cannot come back from failing to even try. Whatever risk there may be to blossom is worth taking. Playing it safe can be like not really playing at all.
I took one more life lesson from the Saints road to Super Bowl victory. Never underestimate the value of surprise. When your adversary has a pretty good idea what’s coming, such as Terry Porter’s suspicion that Peyton Manning would come back to his tried and true quick pass to Reggie Wayne on a slant pattern for a third down conversion attempt, then he/she is in good position to thwart it. But when you do the very last thing your adversary is expecting, rather than reckless it’s often plain smart. So I resolve after watching one hell of a football game to pattern my life much like the Saints’ game plan. I will take the risks that are most worth taking, err when I do on the side of confidence rather than caution, and never let them see me coming.
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Tuesday, July 24, 2007
The Dog Eat Dog World of Michael Vick
Michael Vick of the Atlanta Falcons once seemed to be the most potential rich athlete in the NFL, if not perhaps all of professional sports. Although not that easily impressed, I was moved enough by his skill set to gush about him in an article for Suite101.com that can now be accessed at the end of this post at A Line A Day: Vick Still Slick?
That was then, this is now. On the field Vick has not quite lived up to his potential the way you can say someone like Lebron James has somehow managed to equal his hype, but the greatness of Vick's athleticism is undeniable and has led to many spectacular moments from end zone to end zone. His career is still in a relatively early stage, his team is no doubt better with him on the field than off, so what he lacks in playoff victories he has more than made up for in endorsements thanks to his being a pretty decent quarterback trapped in Eric Dickerson's body - the NFL's ultimate double threat. The sky has continued to be his limit even though other players at his position such as Tom Brady and Peyton Manning have managed to achieve more tangible success with their physical gifts than Vick has with his highlight reel theatrics. To put it most mildly, when your turn comes up to play against Michael Vick (once known as the smarter of the Vick brothers which isn't saying much when your brother has the track record of Marcus Vick), you don't neglect to keep Michael's skill set in mind when concocting your defensive game plan.
If one has the proverbial whole world in his hands and opts to throw it away, hopefully the reasoning will be sound and heart true to self. Or in the case of Ricky Williams, you better at least have an excellent supplier of your favorite muscle relaxer (Isn't the brain a muscle? If not, it oughta be). The world of professional sports is full to overflowing with stories of superstars who screwed up their near magical careers, threw away the ridiculously wonderful opportunity to be paid a fortune to play a game they naturally excel at. The culprits tend to be repeat offenders - addictions to alcohol, to drugs, to whoring, to gambling, and combo packages of all of the above.
Michael Vick has certainly upped the ante when it comes to being a screw up. His vices fall within the genre of gambling, but they did not lead him to typical destinations such as the casinos of Las Vegas or Atlantic City. To the best of my knowledge he does not run in the same circles as Pete Rose or any NBA refs. Rather than falling under the spell of the blackjack table, Vick has managed to jeopardize his endorsements, his career, his reputation, and his liberty (not to mention safety from the wrath of PETA members and other friends to canines) by allegedly running an illegal dog fighting operation (not that there is any such thing as a legal one).
If guilty, and the evidence certainly does seem to be overwhelming, only one word comes to mine. ASSHOLE. Whatever interpretation you personally take from this description, chances are it applies. Unlike many, I don't expect or insist that the athletes I admire strictly for their athletic skill be perfect role models. I understand that like everyone else in the world they are imperfect, and therefore subject to temptation from all ten of the commandments and each of the seven deadly sins. Throw in tax evasion to either of those lists. I shake my head whenever these stories make front and back page news, but by no means am I shocked beyond belief or unwilling to forgive if they seek it sincerely. Child molestation is probably the one horrific act that I find completely beyond redemption, but it tends to be the result of serious mental/emotional issues that one can at least try to empathize with. But pitting dogs to fight each other to the death (not to mention killing pooches who aren't good enough at it by other sick means) to make a few bucks but primarily for the perverse thrill of it is about as low as the depths of hell gets. I've combed through my dictionary, thesaurus and extensive vocabulary of ebonics and a lone word of description keeps jumping to the top of the list.
ASSHOLE.
Here's the indictment for those who may find the specifics of the alleged heinous acts of interest: http://msn.foxsports.com/id/7035302_37_1.pdf
Consider this article the exclusive opinion of Roy L. Pickering Jr. (Author of Feeding the Squirrels)
- Roy Pickering (author of FEEDING THE SQUIRRLS: A Novella)
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
This Super Bowl Sunday Is No Ordinary Day
The first Sunday of February 2007, aka Black History Month 2007, is fast approaching. Super Bowl XLI will be played on that day, not your average run of the mill Super Bowl, but one of historic proportions. No, I’m not saying this because Prince will be performing at half time, though I do find that to be pretty cool. The reason I’m excited about 2/4/07, even though it will be one more Super Bowl Sunday that does not feature my beloved New York Jets, is because African-American men will be patrolling both sidelines as the respective head coaches of this year’s participants – the Indianapolis Colts and the Chicago Bears.
Black men are certainly not in short supply on NFL fields of play, in fact, they constitute the vast majority of those in pads and uniforms. But when it comes to the skin tone of their bosses, there has been shockingly little rise in melanin count from the league’s earliest days when Vince Lombardi and his pack ruled supreme. One could reasonably cite racism as the cause of such a slow rate of progression. How else to explain the rationale behind Richie Kotite being hired to run more than one team over his career while a large number of qualified African-American head coach wannabes have had to wait and wait and wait for their shot?
The 2006 season began with 7 Black head coaches in a league of 32 teams. Two of them have since been fired and one team (the Pittsburgh Steelers) recently hired an African-American to be the man in charge of the troops, bringing the current total to 6. Two of those six, Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith, will face off against one another in this year’s Super Bowl. The odds of this happening were probably better than the odds of someone named Lovie ever being a professional football coach, but still, it makes for quite the story, an even bigger one than the castaways (This is not a Survivor reference, sports is my reality television) finally getting off of Gilligan’s Island.
Tony Dungy has clearly paid his dues, overcoming what would seem to be debilitating personal tragedy with the suicide of his son and fielding a football team that was finally able to get over the hump and make it to the big show. For this reason, coupled with the fact that Peyton Manning slings the rock with precision abandon and shoots some pretty funny television commercials, my rooting interest is swayed towards the Colts, especially since this season’s version of the Da Bears is no where near as entertaining as the last team they sent to the Super Bowl back in 1985 (has it really been 22 years since America experienced its love affair with William “The Refrigerator” Perry and I was pledging Delta Phi during my freshman year at NYU?). If I was a betting man, I’d gamble that years of getting so close without grabbing the cigar is enough to give Indy the advantage over Chi-town, even if the latter is my kind of town, Chicago is.
History in the making by a couple of class acts on the sidelines, the purple reign of Prince at halftime, at least one television commercial featuring the “talents” of Kevin Federline (who has somehow ended up looking like the classier half of his televised marriage to Britney “no need to put my baby in a car seat cuz I’m country” Spears), and a great offensive team going up against a great defensive one should make for quite a game. Since the NFL is famous for being a copycat league, perhaps numerous teams will go in search of a qualified black guy to be their head coach, much like many of them tried to copy the success of the west coast offense or the 3-4 defense in years past. Or will the NFL prove itself to only be a copycat league when the cat is a white feline rather than one who evokes fear simply by crossing your path? We’ll see soon enough.
My hope if not quite my prediction is that the appearance of Tony Dungy and Lovie “the millionaire’s wife” Smith will lead to social progress. If the Rooney Rule required any vindication, consider this year's Super Bowl to be it. Perhaps in the not too distant future the number of African American head coaches will reach double digits. Or maybe the impact will be even bigger than that. This historic Super Bowl may actually have enough impact to finally convince the powers that be to move the celebration of Black History to a month with more than 28-29 days.
Black men are certainly not in short supply on NFL fields of play, in fact, they constitute the vast majority of those in pads and uniforms. But when it comes to the skin tone of their bosses, there has been shockingly little rise in melanin count from the league’s earliest days when Vince Lombardi and his pack ruled supreme. One could reasonably cite racism as the cause of such a slow rate of progression. How else to explain the rationale behind Richie Kotite being hired to run more than one team over his career while a large number of qualified African-American head coach wannabes have had to wait and wait and wait for their shot?
The 2006 season began with 7 Black head coaches in a league of 32 teams. Two of them have since been fired and one team (the Pittsburgh Steelers) recently hired an African-American to be the man in charge of the troops, bringing the current total to 6. Two of those six, Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith, will face off against one another in this year’s Super Bowl. The odds of this happening were probably better than the odds of someone named Lovie ever being a professional football coach, but still, it makes for quite the story, an even bigger one than the castaways (This is not a Survivor reference, sports is my reality television) finally getting off of Gilligan’s Island.
Tony Dungy has clearly paid his dues, overcoming what would seem to be debilitating personal tragedy with the suicide of his son and fielding a football team that was finally able to get over the hump and make it to the big show. For this reason, coupled with the fact that Peyton Manning slings the rock with precision abandon and shoots some pretty funny television commercials, my rooting interest is swayed towards the Colts, especially since this season’s version of the Da Bears is no where near as entertaining as the last team they sent to the Super Bowl back in 1985 (has it really been 22 years since America experienced its love affair with William “The Refrigerator” Perry and I was pledging Delta Phi during my freshman year at NYU?). If I was a betting man, I’d gamble that years of getting so close without grabbing the cigar is enough to give Indy the advantage over Chi-town, even if the latter is my kind of town, Chicago is.
History in the making by a couple of class acts on the sidelines, the purple reign of Prince at halftime, at least one television commercial featuring the “talents” of Kevin Federline (who has somehow ended up looking like the classier half of his televised marriage to Britney “no need to put my baby in a car seat cuz I’m country” Spears), and a great offensive team going up against a great defensive one should make for quite a game. Since the NFL is famous for being a copycat league, perhaps numerous teams will go in search of a qualified black guy to be their head coach, much like many of them tried to copy the success of the west coast offense or the 3-4 defense in years past. Or will the NFL prove itself to only be a copycat league when the cat is a white feline rather than one who evokes fear simply by crossing your path? We’ll see soon enough.
My hope if not quite my prediction is that the appearance of Tony Dungy and Lovie “the millionaire’s wife” Smith will lead to social progress. If the Rooney Rule required any vindication, consider this year's Super Bowl to be it. Perhaps in the not too distant future the number of African American head coaches will reach double digits. Or maybe the impact will be even bigger than that. This historic Super Bowl may actually have enough impact to finally convince the powers that be to move the celebration of Black History to a month with more than 28-29 days.
- Roy L. Pickering Jr.
P.S. - Being that Dungy and Smith are such classy guys, some might find them a bit on the boring side. So visit the link below if you wish to see a head coach demonstrating that he epitomizes the last three letters of class.
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