The Super Bowl! The Super Bowl!
Chuck Klosterman has thoughts:
"This morning, I awake to a new hypothesis about human transcendence.
In order to excel at the NFL level, a man needs to possess more than just an abundance of physical gifts; physicality is not unique, and there are countless topflight athletes who never make it to the professional tier. To become a pro football player (and particularly to become a superstar), you need some inherent, ephemeral, wholly intangible quality that makes you unlike conventional civilians. And I think I have deduced what that quality is.
Sensitivity.
If you hope to separate yourself from all the other super-fast manimals within the NFL's hyper-violent bone yard, you need to be more sensitive than Chris Carrabba. You need to be emotively devastated by any sentiment that involves you or anyone you've ever met -- even if the sentiment in question seems borderline affable.
I realized this when I heard why Steelers linebacker Joey Porter is upset with Seattle tight end Jerramy Stevens. Porter is angry because Stevens made this statement about Detroit native Jerome Bettis: "It's a heartwarming story and all that, but it will be a sad day when he leaves [Michigan] without the trophy." In response, Porter has essentially declared a jihad against Stevens (while simultaneously pretending not to know whom the man is or what he does for a living).
Now, I realize Stevens was being a tad snarky, and I realize Porter was simply being Porter -- but isn't this a curious assertion to take offense with? It sounds like Stevens basically said, "Jerome Bettis is a nice guy, but his potential niceness will not impact our ability to win this game." In a sense, Stevens gave Bettis an unnecessary compliment -- he could have just as easily said, "I don't give a damn about any of their guys. I'm confident we're going to win." At his core, I'm sure Stevens probably feels that way; I'm sure every player on both rosters assumes he is going to be a Super Bowl winner by Monday morning. Confidence is a normal (and necessary) component to winning anything.
But confidence is not enough.
At the highest levels of sport, art and business, confidence merely makes you normal.
In order to be exceptionally unstoppable, you also need to be psychologically immature; you need to be like a 12-year-old girl on Myspace. You need fragile feelings. You need to have an ability to find motivating anger within anecdotal conversation. In all likelihood, this is that abstract quality that makes Joey Porter a difference maker, and it's the reason he'll probably shatter Matt Hasselbeck's femur on Sunday night: Joey Porter is crazy enough to care about everything."
"This morning, I awake to a new hypothesis about human transcendence.
In order to excel at the NFL level, a man needs to possess more than just an abundance of physical gifts; physicality is not unique, and there are countless topflight athletes who never make it to the professional tier. To become a pro football player (and particularly to become a superstar), you need some inherent, ephemeral, wholly intangible quality that makes you unlike conventional civilians. And I think I have deduced what that quality is.
Sensitivity.
If you hope to separate yourself from all the other super-fast manimals within the NFL's hyper-violent bone yard, you need to be more sensitive than Chris Carrabba. You need to be emotively devastated by any sentiment that involves you or anyone you've ever met -- even if the sentiment in question seems borderline affable.
I realized this when I heard why Steelers linebacker Joey Porter is upset with Seattle tight end Jerramy Stevens. Porter is angry because Stevens made this statement about Detroit native Jerome Bettis: "It's a heartwarming story and all that, but it will be a sad day when he leaves [Michigan] without the trophy." In response, Porter has essentially declared a jihad against Stevens (while simultaneously pretending not to know whom the man is or what he does for a living).
Now, I realize Stevens was being a tad snarky, and I realize Porter was simply being Porter -- but isn't this a curious assertion to take offense with? It sounds like Stevens basically said, "Jerome Bettis is a nice guy, but his potential niceness will not impact our ability to win this game." In a sense, Stevens gave Bettis an unnecessary compliment -- he could have just as easily said, "I don't give a damn about any of their guys. I'm confident we're going to win." At his core, I'm sure Stevens probably feels that way; I'm sure every player on both rosters assumes he is going to be a Super Bowl winner by Monday morning. Confidence is a normal (and necessary) component to winning anything.
But confidence is not enough.
At the highest levels of sport, art and business, confidence merely makes you normal.
In order to be exceptionally unstoppable, you also need to be psychologically immature; you need to be like a 12-year-old girl on Myspace. You need fragile feelings. You need to have an ability to find motivating anger within anecdotal conversation. In all likelihood, this is that abstract quality that makes Joey Porter a difference maker, and it's the reason he'll probably shatter Matt Hasselbeck's femur on Sunday night: Joey Porter is crazy enough to care about everything."