Greatness…Can’t Take My Eyes Away From It
If you’re not a football fan, I apologize. But I’ll try to set the stage. Last week, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, playing the New York Jets, get the ball back down four points with just under two minutes left and no timeouts, 94 yards away from their end zone. The only way Tampa Bay could win was to score a touchdown. A field goal wouldn’t help. Mathematical probabilities gave the Buccaneers less than a 5% chance of winning.
If you’re a football fan, you know what happened. The greatest player in the history of football, Tom Brady and his seven Super Bowl rings, took the field and drove the team to score a touchdown with just 15 seconds left. For those who don’t follow football, to go 94 yards without a time out is incredible, if not nearly impossible, to do. But not for Tom Brady.
I watched it in my living room. I told my eight-year-old son, my five-year-old daughter, and my wife to please be a little quieter so I could watch it. My wife chuckled about my “man-crush” on Tom Brady. I looked at her and said, “I’ve learned too many times to count him out and I’m not going to do it again.” Turned out I might’ve been right in this case.
I’ve written about this before. Even talked about it on the podcast. I love greatness. It doesn’t make a difference in what field or even if I understand it. It just happens to come along so infrequently. When someone’s just simply the best at what they do I start asking questions. How do they get there? What is it they’re willing to sacrifice? What’s their thought process? How do they calm themselves in situations to make rational, logical decisions? All of those answers fascinate me.
That’s why I watch Tom Brady. At 45 years old, ancient and almost decrepit for almost any other football player, especially quarterbacks, he still remains the best. If you can find greatness and learn one or two things from their achievements, and from the person, it makes you better at your chosen pursuit. And I believe there is always room for improvement in life.
