Seeing Red

"You know why the Yankees always win?...it's cause the other teams can't stop staring at the pinstripes" - Christopher Walken - Catch Me If You Can

Michigan vs. Ohio State in The Big House. It was 1991. I was seven, watching one of the biggest rivalries in sports, forming the basis of my opinions on sports, and one of the great college players of all time locked me in as a football fanatic for a lifetime. Desmond Howard, on his own 8 yard line, received a punt and scampered down the sideline for what would be the longest punt return in Michigan history. Accentuated by Keith Jackson's always memorable commentary, Howard, a front runner in the Heisman Trophy race, struck a pose in the end zone and marked his place not only in history, but in the ever growing list of sports moments that I saw live and will never forget. "Hellooooo Heisman!!!"

Big players make big plays in big games. This frequently used statement is an acknowledgement that typically with an important game on the line, a team's most talented player steps up to make the difference. However, what this statement fails to capture about competition is that it isn't always necessarily going to be a team's most talented or best physical specimen that makes the game deciding impact.

Desmond Howard happens to be a terrific example of this. Following a phenomenal college career, Howard was drafted by 4th overall by the Washington Redskins. Unfortunately, although he dominated at the college level, lack of true receiver size and strength limited his options for success in the pros, and did not live up to his expectations as a wide receiver. After bouncing around the NFL, Howard once again found himself on a big stage alongside Brett Favre as a Green Bay Packer. With Super Bowl XXXI hanging in the balance following a Patriots TD late in the 3rd quarter, once again distinguished himself as a big game performer. With a Super Bowl record 99-yard kickoff return, Howard was named the Super Bowl MVP.

Howard was hardly the best player on the '96 Packers. Favre is a future Hall of Famer for sure, and Howard could be found near the bottom of the Packer's depth chart at wide receiver, the position he graced with such dominance as a college player. But in one of those funny twists of fate, he was given an opportunity to make an important contribution on the game's biggest stage, and he grabbed it with both hands.

What is it about Desmond Howard that made him such a, as we say in the sports world, gamer? Fortunately, I took a course in Sports Psychology, so I am very qualified to answer this. Although his size basically guaranteed a mediocre career as an NFL wideout, a unique combination of big game experience, practice that included specificity and worked to achieve automaticity (not a word, but bare with me), and being particularly intrinsically motivated put him in a position to respond well when the chips were down.

In other words, you really can't coach the kind of achievement that Desmond Howard brought to the game of football (notably, only 3 other Heisman Trophy Winners, Staubach, Plunkett, and Allen, went on to win the Super Bowl MVP).

What brought this, and the accompanying Christopher Walken quote, on? Saturday morning, Steven Gerrard, Liverpool skipper, found the back of the net for a game winner four minutes into extra time in a game on Saturday against Middlesbrough, a game that should easily have been won. In my efforts to look on the bright side of what has been a fairly discouraging opening to the season despite a winning their first two games, I realized two things of importance.

First, Gerrard, like Howard, not a stranger to late game heroics, was again showing the innate ability to change a game. Yes, he has exceptional ability, but what is most important and most valued is what you can do in the final minutes. By all measures, he had a fairly mediocre game, and by his own admission he is not yet 100% following a preseason injury, but there he was just outside the box with seconds to play. He found the ball on his foot with just enough room, and with ease found the back of the net.

As Gilbert Arenas showed in healthier times, players who compete with a "you can start this, but I'm going to finish it" mentality tend to make a habit of it. Certainly, this is not Gerrard's first rodeo, and after his performance at "70% match fitness" the Reds-faithful must be encouraged that it will not be his last.

Second, and perhaps more important, is the effect that having wins of this nature has on the rest of the league. As Christoper Walken's character pointed out in the beginning of Catch Me If You Can, it wasn't so much that the 60's Yankees had the best players, but going into the House That Ruth Built to play a team that had such a psychological advantage was exceedingly difficult. Although you build your own confidence escaping poor results, which is important, other teams that are unable to put Liverpool away early in the match begin to wait for the other shoe to drop, much as I did in the 90's watching my Orioles battle their pinstriped adversaries in the Boogie Down Bronx.

As Yogi Berra once pointed out, 50% of the game is 90% mental. With that in mind, consistently having the psychological advantage over your opponent is a key to having a successful season. By building confidence in themselves now and sewing the seeds of doubt in the challengers to come, Liverpool can only be said to be positioning themselves to reap the rewards as the season continues.

With more goals like this, maybe Red will be the new pinstripe.

PS. Also, Arabic(I'm guessing that's what was going on there) could be the new Spanish for watching soccer in a foreign language. I can't even pretend to know what that guy was saying, but he sounds about as ecstatic as John Bobbitt when he found out he could parlay his misfortunes into a lucrative "acting" career.