Category: Learning

TB12, S13mian, and the Inequality of Job Opportunity: A tale of two quarterbacks

relevanceneverforgetsLeave a comment

“Failure will not ruin Tom Brady’s Legacy”

-Colin Cowherd

I have problems with Tom Brady’s legacy. I have problems with everyone giving the Quarterback position too much credit. I do not mean to say that Tom Brady is not a good player nor that he isn’t great. There are almost nothing but upsides to having Tom Brady on your team; you are not just given hundreds of touchdowns and passing yards in the NFL. But, I believe Tom Brady is wrongly being given Bill Belichick’s legacy. I believe the head coach has done much more for Brady’s legacy than Brady for Belichick’s. But that goes unnoticed because of the spotlight placement.

But this is not just about football. I take offense to this statement because it is true. Failure in Tampa Bay will not damage Tom Brady’s legacy. People will be angry but those people are already angry because Tom Brady keeps winning and they don’t like him. Tom Brady has been part of and an asset to a winning culture for too long, so much that any failure will not hurt him, he’ll always be given another chance, there are too many good things. This failure may expose how he struggles with consistent pressure and it may show any quarterback can struggle with a weaker offensive line or a struggling organization. But he’ll continue to have opportunities and success because he brings in money and increases the chance to win a super bowl at a cheaper price because he was basically rent-controlled in New England.

My offense from Cowherd’s quote comes in support of all the people that do not get an opportunity to fail and have a chance for future success. For every Tom Brady, there are at least 31 others fighting for the same position who do not get a proper chance because no one wants to wait for someone to be successful. This goes beyond the NFL. Cowherd’s focus is on success and aggression but he overlooks opportunity. There are waves of other people who do not have opportunity, they’re not given any semblance of a chance to attain the same success. This is where I take offense. Someone like me who continually fails is never (has not yet) been given a proper chance to take over a starting position, so I have to sit, wait, and plug away at my less-than-ideal situation. I take offense to the fact that failure will not tarnish Brady’s legacy because he has been in a successful environment (from what I understand) for a very long time. I don’t mean to limit his success, I just mean that there is a semblance of luck and inequality across all people; no one has the same opportunity and some paths are unfortunately more difficult.

For reference, I want to compare the path of my last favorite Quarterback who was not given the best opportunity to succeed (from what I understand). While I don’t know the whole story — the operations, the conversations, the clubhouse entanglement — there is a lot of film on tape. As a fan of the Denver Broncos, I see as much of every game as possible and fill-in gaps with highlights and news. After Super Bowl 50, Peyton Manning and Brock Osweiler left and Trevor Siemian won the starting position for the upcoming season. The problem for him was that he is not Peyton Manning. The problem was that HE finished 9 and 7 after the TEAM had won a Super Bowl, the previous year. What people overlook is that Peyton Manning struggled. The offensive line wasn’t great, the Defense were the drivers of the team as they won major battles in last-minute situations [if there would ever be a moment where I would have a heart attack, it would have been like 6 or 7 of those games that season]. Manning was injured, Osweiler performed as a back-up in the best way possible but when he struggled, Manning got his job back. The Super Bowl 50 Denver Broncos season is the epitome of a team win.

This sucked for Siemian because he had to be the solution to all the problems that got overlooked. Siemian played 14 games but got injured, his head coach left at the end of the season, he had to fight for his position against a promising rookie and any other available option. No one attributes Siemian’s lost opportunity to an offensive line that wasn’t improved (it wasn’t bad, just not great) nor that some major departures from a championship defense left or faced other adversity. Peyton Manning was sacked 16 times in that championship season, where he played 9 games [not counting the post-season (9)], Brock Osweiler was sacked 23 times in the 8 games he played. Trevor Siemian was sacked 31 seasons, as a starter, the following season [in 2015 Tom Brady was sacked 38 times, not a Super Bowl winner. In 2016, he was sacked 15 times; Super Bowl winner]. There were a lot of times where I saw Siemian on-screen, get hit hard but get up and continue to push through for the success of the team and as a leader for the others, until he couldn’t because he got injured. I don’t blame the offensive line but the quarterback needs to be protected. Still, this did not translate to enough success or support for people to give his failures a pass when they seemingly became a problem. More importantly, 9 and 7 is a winning record and should not be recognized as a failure.

People are supposed to realize that sometimes they only have one opportunity, as Tom Brady did in New England. He was placed in a difficult situation and he has seemingly worked every day since to continually make sure that he proves people were wrong about him under-performing or not being a great draft pick. He has still faced similar situations with Jimmy Garoppolo and now with Tampa Bay. But he made his “big moment” count, when he replaced the injured Drew Bledsoe. Trevor Siemian was not as immediately successful so he was not given a chance to continue winning and, soon after, was let go. Owners and managers need to be more realistic about the lives they are playing with and the organizations they control. Higher-ups need to give people a realistic chance to fight for their position and not just cast them off after they find a scapegoat for failure.

People should actually realize that the opportunity that gets seen (Tom Brady’s first start) is not the one opportunity you have to find success. The one opportunity is the whole of your life. People have created an environment of unequal opportunity but the one chance you have is not limited to one moment.

References

Pro Football Reference. (2020). Tom Brady; Peyton Manning; 2015 NFL Standings; Brock Osweiler. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/

Werner, B. (2016). Tom Brady made his first start for the Patriots 15 years ago today. FOX Sports. https://www.foxsports.com/nfl/story/tom-brady-made-his-first-start-for-the-patriots-15-years-ago-today-093016

Wikipedia. (2020). Trevor Siemian; 2015 Denver Broncos season; 2016 Denver Broncos Season. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Competition and Camaraderie

relevanceneverforgets1 Comment

If people are to improve and the world is to become a better place it is necessary to learn from each other and develop ideas. The current problem is at least twofold. One: that generations experience constant change, which I won’t get into here. Two: that there is not a strong sense of communication. There is a disconnect between people and the rifts that we have seen happen between others and throughout history have made us focus on our own lives and be disinterested in how others may help us. But I believe everything we’re doing is a team sport.

Von Miller is a name that is helping to change that reflex that people have: to focus on the skills and abilities they have and not to ask for help from another. A linebacker for the Denver Broncos, Miller has held a “Pass Rush Summit” for the last two years. The idea is to bring players from different teams to share ideas and improve their game which will ultimately lead into more Quarterback Sacks. This is something that benefits pass-rushing in the NFL but the publicity shows that people from different teams can work together.

More important than sacks, Miller’s summit will have an effect on the game of football, which is all about timing and 4-second bursts between teams. The pass rush is one small part of a football game but it creates a domino effect that leads to a re-imagining in all aspects of the game: preparation, pre-snap, play, and review. Just by improving the level of play in 1 of 22 on the field at a time, the other 21 players will have to respond and adjust in the same kind of way. There is something special about this summit coming from Miller, it’s not something that would have the same effect if it were done by someone else or at any other time. His name, his career, and his success as a pass rusher have given him credibility that shows other players that they should not be afraid in sharing information or giving another team or player the edge in any game.

There is a general understanding, a sort of natural thought, to keep secrets from other people because you want to do anything to keep other people from getting to the top. This could be out of premature jealousy or fierce competition; either way, it limits the way players can improve and the competition of a game. In bringing together high-performance players to talk, teach, and learn from each other, Miller has taken away the idea that you have to work alone to be the best, which doesn’t make that much sense in a team sport. It’s starting to have an effect in other team sports, where Lebron James, Kawhi Leonard, and Kevin Durant of the NBA were recently practicing together, with a group of their own.

This type of interaction has happened before but not in the same way or to the same effect. Maybe it’s just the timing or the powerful public persona that Von Miller has, either way, his Pass Rush Summit is important to the original idea of competition.

To be the best you have to beat the best, consistently. It can stop at one win but there is also a powerful factor in longevity and winning repeatedly. Now that I say this, I think of another instance shown on film. I’m not entirely familiar with the actual story but I know enough about the rivalry between two Formula 1 Drivers (Niki Lauda and James Hunt) who were the premise of the 2013 film directed by Ron Howard, Rush. In the movie, as I remember Lauda was shown as the bad guy and Hunt was the playful personality with a chip on his shoulder. Basically, we can compare this relationship to the most recent Super Bowl between the New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles where one team has been a consistent Champion while the other played extremely well for one season. I’m not trying to take anything from these Eagles or James Hunt (Lauda is known to respect Hunt’s skill and that Wentz Magic was pretty unbelievable) but it is an element of any sport and it’s a mindset that each player, team, etc. has to consider. You have to ask questions like “Why am I playing?”, “Why do I want to win?”, “What do I want to show?” Any game or sport deserves respect from the people that play. People like Miller and Lauda understand the need for competition and how to challenge each other as a part of the game that is played. Other people want to win and prove a point. Still, they need to have talent and build the skills to do so. We can’t take anything away from Championship winners because if anything, for one season, game, race, or match they were the best and they were not beaten.

Von Miller is reminding people about the importance of communication and competition. It’s not like he’s giving away secrets. The conversations on that summit are about what works and how the game can change between players, not what corners to cut but how to be better. Each person still  has a choice in accepting or refusing to use new or different information. 

We need more summits, more interactions, more joint practices because to improve individually and together is to inherently change.

There’s Always More to Learn

relevanceneverforgets2 Comments

I should challenge more people directly. I should have challenged more people in past instances of my life. But I didn’t. I held back. Because people are fragile. It’s not that they don’t want to be challenged, only that they want to do it on their terms. If I challenged everyone when I should have it may have led to an influence towards change but, the chances of that happening now are lower than the chances of a person just getting mad, responding emotionally, and not realizing what I was challenging and how that could make them better. 

It’s not only that people are fragile, but also that once they understand another person, they expect certain things. People don’t expect a challenge from me. At least not all people and if they do it’s in a very specific place. When you do something people don’t expect from you it throws them off but if you act normally — however that may be — then everything is fine. I don’t blame other people for my lack of involvement, I understand that I have to also be active. But I do blame people — at least human nature — for not being more open to a consistent change in their environment. People don’t like thinking about their problems all the time, or complex ideas, so I often stay quiet or tailor my input to the conversation.

But in an academic environment, people are a bit more prepared for challenge. Still, in the current state (in the USA and to some degree, other countries), those challenges aren’t well-coordinated. Curriculum, public funding, and the lack of preparation that teachers are given do not account for the constant change and variety of thought that exists in a classroom. Students aren’t given the option to learn and their individual skills and interests aren’t properly addressed. Teachers give lessons and assignments that work for the a percentage of a classroom, but even a clock is right twice a day. Students are told they need to pay attention but they’re learning blindly, they have no direction.

People are protective of themselves and of others. Growing is hard, questioning your own beliefs and ideas: moreso. Having everything you understand about the world around you deconstructed by an other people is not something people willingly look for. But these things are necessary for progress. People are afraid of being mistaken and they don’t like admitting to being wrong but the way I understand the world around me is that we don’t actually know what is actually correct so I keep looking for new questions.

You have to think about creating change in terms of revolt and societal understandings. It has to be timed well, you have to know how to challenge so people learn and apply those lessons in real life. Education is hypothetical and people need to learn more to connect those ideas to the physical reality. I believe my role is to do challenge others to become better but I’m still working on how exactly to do that.