MSG Me. I'm ready and willing.
Athletes: Stop Avoiding the Question
by Jeff
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January 30, 2000. Super Bowl XXXIV in Atlanta, Georgia: The two best teams in the National Football League had been trading blows for 58 minutes and Al Del Greco pulled the Tennessee Titans even with a 43 yard field goal. With the game poised to become the first ever Super Bowl to go into overtime, the St. Louis Rams called on their MVP player, Kurt Warner. On the first play of the drive, Warner threw a bomb down the right sideline to a seemingly covered Issac Bruce for a 73 yard touchdown pass. Two minutes later, a final Titans drive fell an inch short giving the Rams their first ever Super Bowl victory. After the game, reporters swamped the Super Bowl MVP Kurt Warner, who threw for a record 414 yards against one of the league's best defenses, to ask him about his record performance, current feelings of joy, and the final pass to Bruce which everyone thought was going to be intercepted. Everyone except Kurt Warner… The question was something along the lines of "how in the hell did you complete that pass to Bruce", but the exact wording is irrelevant. The answer to the question is what sticks out in my mind. With millions of people around the world looking on, football experts in complete awe, everyone baffled at how this man, who was stocking groceries two years ago, could achieve so much in his first year as a starting quarterback in the most competitive football league in the world, Kurt Warner would now speak. "All the credit goes to Jesus Christ, my savior" ....cough. Does anyone else feel gypped?!? I mean this man who nobody had every heard of just butt fucked the entire NFL and to everyone who is trying to figure out how the hell he did he leaves "God" as the reason for it?!? Come on man!!!! I want to hear football strategies, practice techniques, and hard work as the answer, not God. Let's try and imagine for a second that God was the answer, but we also have Jason Sehorn who is a devoted Christian but was watching the game from home because his New York Giants won only 5 games that year. That doesn't lead me to believe that God is the answer to great football. Also, if he did control football, I don't think that murderer Ray Lewis would be winning Defensive Player of the Year and Super Bowl MVP with his Baltimore Ravens and their endless array of criminals and lowlifes. So I guess God doesn't control football. Now the only thing left to ask is why would Warner give all credit to God when it's obvious that he didn't have anything to do with it? Was it because he doesn't have any fucking clue how he plays the way he does and the whole season was just luck? Not likely, since the following year, Warner would have broken Dan Marino's record for most passing yards in a season had he not been injured for 5 games. Was it because he didn't want to give away the Rams offensive secrets? Not likely, since the Rams run a simple variation on Bill Walsh's "West Coast Offense" which half the league uses now. If Warner had answered the question with "First of all, I'd like to thank God. Now what I was thinking on this play was…" that would acceptable. He would have thanked God but answered the question at the same time. Normally I would blow off Kurt Warner as a quack but Jason Sehorn, Reggie White, and Lawrence Taylor (as ridiculous as that is) have all avoided the question by giving all the credit to God and not giving us one shred of insight into the strategy of sports. Don't think I'm saying that you shouldn't thank God, but don't give God as the answer to every question about sports. And let's face, it Jesus isn't the one throwing miraculous 73 yard bombs to receivers who are covered. So with this, I have one thing to say to all athletes: Stop avoiding the question. |
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