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9 Feb 2008 02:29:34 Daniel Hellerstein.

Subject: Sports    
Thoughts a week after the Feb 2008 Superbowl

...So after the Feb '08 Superbowl disaster, I come down with a gagging chest-cold/flu, laid up for 2 days getting no sleep cause my lungs hurt and my brain keeps trying to reinvent the events of the game. Definitely not a good combo.

But now, Friday, my ovearching conclusion is that, odd as it may seem, the Pats could learn two correlated lessons from the Sox

• have fun
• the closer you get to the finish line, the further out you pull the throttle.

B is much easier when A happens -- you got some spirit/passion to draw on.

I think of Oct 2008 Sox Vs Indians ALCS. Sox down 3 to 1. Ortiz calls a team meeting, wherein he says something like "what does it mean to wear this uniform. It means you are a bad ass". And how they just never looked back, putting away Cleveland and then accelerating all the way through Colorado (a miracle team like the Giants were) to end it. Yeah, it helped having Beckett... but he only pitched 2 (or 3) more times!

In comparison, the Pats seem to decide that its good enough to play just enough to win, and it almost works. Would of worked in most years, would of worked if normal rules of luck applied (rules of luck that make Helmet Catches fail).

But that's a crazy crazy strategy to follow.

You have a shot at going going down in history as one of the greatest ever.
YOU DON"T TAKE CHANCES -- YOU PLAY WITH A TOTAL FOCUS TO BUILD A LEAD THAT WILL OVERCOME BAD LUCK. AND SURVIVE INSPIRED OPPONENTS.
And if you don't have bad luck and don't face an inspired opponent, you get to enjoy a blowut.

How can that not be obvious in the deepest possible way?

I come back to the spirit thing -- somehow they lacked the gut desire, the spirit, to do anything but "play just well enough to win". And maybe that's cause somewhere they took their seriousness too far, and lost that particular fun that football players live for.

One last thought -- Brady/Belichik are like Varitek, the mindful prepared stoic. A great core for the team, but not enough. You need the pissed off or reved up or whatever fun/passion, the Oritz or Papelbon or even Millar. Something to get you out of the rut that careful craftsmanship can get stuck in.

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