Mark Gilroy

Bringing Books to Life!

Brett Favre: My Only Criticism

I know, I know … it’s not right to criticize Brett Favre just one day after his retirement on March 5, 2008. After all, in his 17 seasons in the NFL, he set almost every major record for a quarterback: most touchdown passes (442), most yards (61,655), most completions (5,377), and most interceptions (288). Ignore that last one! Oh, he started 253 consecutive games, second most in NFL history behind only Jim Marshall of the Vikings, won a Superbowl, and was three time league MVP and a 9 time Pro Bowl selection. You get the idea. He was pretty good.

Criticizing Favre is like lecturing Albert Einstein on his penmanship (who’s going to take you seriously when they think you wrote S = MC2); or scolding Luciano Pavarotti for packing a few extra pounds that were really noticeable the last time he sang at the Met in tights (and he probably could have stood to lose a few pounds and inches); or suggesting to Lance Armstrong that yellow really isn’t his color (Lance — have you thought of switching to periwinkle bracelets?).

But I’m going to go ahead and barge in where angels dare not tread and criticize Favre. Brett: you threw off your back foot too much and in so doing you were a terrible example to a generation of young quarterbacks.

Many great quarterback coaches leave their pupils’ throwing motions alone. After all, there have been great college and NFL quarterbacks with a variety of throwing motions (hey Titan fans, there’s hope for Vince Young!). However, the great QB coaches always coach footwork. Length of stride — and of course — stepping into the throw; in other words, throwing off the front foot.

It just so happened the Brett Favre possessed one of the strongest arms that the game has ever known and that allowed him to break almost every rule and still deliver an incredibly accurate and well-timed football to his receivers — with velocity. This trait usually didn’t become a problem until the playoffs when the better teams tend to have better and faster defensive backs. To be fair, not all the teams that Favre led into battle would have had a prayer to make the playoffs in the first place had it not been for their gritty and talented starting quarterback. But it was playoff time when throwing off his back foot, maybe to elude a ferocious rush or buy time while a receiver came open — or maybe out of habit — sometimes resulted in painful interceptions for even Favre.

What does that have to do with young quarterbacks? Simple. Favre made everything look so artistic and effortless that it’s only natural thousands of young quarterbacks would rather look like Brett Favre than step into their throws like their coaches beg them to do in practice drills. Throwing off the back foot usually doesn’t work for mere mortals who just have “arms” connected to their shoulders — and not rocket launchers.

But I do have a suggestion on how Brett Favre can atone for his egregious bad example to the youth of American who play the quarterback position.
Here it is. Brett: just come back for one more year and model a new commitment to old school footwork!
Is that too much to ask?

Walking With God in America …

Anyone who doesn’t believe God has blessed America just needs to take a long walk and witness her beauty posits Ken Duncan, a world renowned Australian photographer, who visited all 50 states with his camera and notepad.
In the intro to his book, Walking With God In America, Duncan writes:

It might seem funny that although I am Australian, God has given me a real burden for America. No nation in the world has been more naturally blessed than the United States, and I believe God has done that so people will understand how much He cares for the nation. America’s faith in God is what had made it one of the greatest countries on earth, and faith is a beacon of hope for other struggling nations around the world.

From “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance (the phrase was upheld in 2004 by the Supreme Court 5-4 because Sandra Day O’Connor argued that the phrase is “meaningless” — “any religious freight the words may have been meant to carry has long since been lost”) to removing references to God in textbooks on American history, the place or name of God in America’s public square — literally — is an ongoing political and legal powder keg.

I’ll defer any attempts at an argument that maintaing liberty requires virtue — and virtue requires true religion, to John Adams:

We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

For now, I’ll leave debates on whether or Constitution intends for there to be freedom of religion or freedom from religion and follow Duncan’s simple advice to look for America’s spirit in her beauty!
Acknowledgments: Panographic photographs are (c) Ken Duncan and used by permission; all rights reserved. The quote from Sandra Day O’Connor and John Adams are from Rediscovering God In America by Newt Gingrich (Thomas Nelson).

Finding Your Voice

When Paul Potts, a mobile phone salesman from New South Wales, announced that he was “here to sing opera” on the television show, Britain’s Got Talent – think American Idol with an English accent – it was all that Simon Cowell, his fellow judges, Piers Morgan and Amanda Holden, and the audience could do not to snicker out loud.

Poor guy. Rumpled suit. Gap in his front teeth large enough to drive a red double-decker London tourist bus through. Slouched posture. A near-grimace of self-doubt on his face that was truly painful to behold. An embarrassing moment just head. A car wreck you just couldn’t take your eyes off. So I had to watch.

And then the miracle. A voice suited for the Royal Opera House in London or the Teatro alla Scala in Milan stunningly bursts forth on the opera classic, Nessun Dorma. The loquacious Cowell had no words – Amanda openly wept. Audience members, including some who looked like they were on their way to a U2 or Linkin Park concert and might possibly have never heard of opera, gave Paul one standing ovation after another.

The timid phone salesman found his voice.

Many people seem to simply be going through the motions in life. Too many disappointments. Too many failures. Too little recognition and affirmation.

Of course, it’s possible that some of us have given up dreaming and daring for the simple reason that we have held on to the wrong dreams for too long. We’ve been trying to sing someone else’s song and haven’t found our own calling, our own gifting, our own purpose that transcends gap teeth, rumpled suits, and any other shortcomings real or perceived.

Have you found your voice? When your moment arrives, will you be ready to sing?