Posted on February 6, 2010 - by David

Super Bowl XLIV: The American Obsession with Greatness

Winning is not a sometime thing; it’s an all the time thing. You don’t win once in a while; you don’t do things right once in a while; you do them right all the time. Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.

There is no room for second place. There is only one place in my game, and that’s first place. I have finished second twice in my time at Green Bay, and I don’t ever want to finish second again. There is a second place bowl game, but it is a game for losers played by losers. It is and always has been an American zeal to be first in anything we do, and to win, and to win, and to win.

Every time a football player goes to play his trade he’s got to play from the ground up — from the soles of his feet right up to his head. Every inch of him has to play. Some guys play with their heads. That’s O.K. You’ve got to be smart to be number one in any business. But more importantly, you’ve got to play with your heart, with every fiber of your body. If you’re lucky enough to find a guy with a lot of head and a lot of heart, he’s never going to come off the field second.

Running a football team is no different than running any other kind of organization — an army, a political party or a business. The principles are the same. The object is to win — to beat the other guy. Maybe that sounds hard or cruel. I don’t think it is.

It is a reality of life that men are competitive and the most competitive games draw the most competitive men. That’s why they are there — to compete. To know the rules and objectives when they get in the game. The object is to win fairly, squarely, by the rules — but to win.

And in truth, I’ve never known a man worth his salt who in the long run, deep down in his heart, didn’t appreciate the grind, the discipline. There is something in good men that really yearns for discipline and the harsh reality of head to head combat.

“I don’t say these things because I believe in the “brute” nature of man or that men must be brutalized to be combative. I believe in God, and I believe in human decency. But I firmly believe that any man’s finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle — victorious.

-Vince Lombardi

1913-1970

The trophy that bears the legendary coach’s name is up for grabs again this Sunday, when the New Orleans Saints and the Indianapolis Colts meet in Miami for Super Bowl XLIV. As often seems to happen with championship games, much of the media hype has reduced the match-up between the two teams to a match-up between two quarterbacks, Peyton Manning and Drew Brees.

Do a quick google search of “Peyton Manning” and you’ll probably notice two major topics: 1. The record-setting contract he’s expected to sign after the season comes to an end, and 2. Where he ranks among the all time great quarterbacks. Many believe that winning his second Super Bowl this Sunday would solidify his status as the best to ever play his position. Listing all of his achievements here would be a waste of space, but the quick rundown looks something like this:

• Started 192 consecutive games since he was drafted #1 in 1998
• 10 pro bowl appearances in 12 seasons
• 10 seasons with over 4,000 yards passing (NFL record)
• 4 time Most Valuable Player (NFL record)
• 9-8 postseason record
• MVP of Super Bowl XLI

So if there’s one man in the game who, to use Lombardi’s words, seems to “do things right all the time,” it’s Peyton Manning. But with all the talk about Manning’s career, it’s easy to lose sight of the season Drew Brees just had. Despite the fact that Manning took the MVP award, Brees arguably had a better year, throwing more touchdowns with fewer interceptions and setting an NFL record with his 70.6 completion percentage.

If there is one thing America loves more than the consistent greatness that Manning represents, it’s an underdog like Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints. We’re talking about a team that took 20 years to finish a season with a winning record and 33 years to win a playoff game. They played the entire 2005 season away from home due to that Hurricane Katrina did to the Superdome. Now, 42 years after they entered the league as an expansion team, the Saints are playing in their first Super Bowl. Interestingly, before Brees came to town, Peyton Manning’s father Archie was New Orleans’ most memorable quarterback, giving the team 10 hard-fought but losing seasons as a starter from 1971-1981. And who happens to be the quarterbacks coach helping Drew Brees with his gameday decisions? Vince Lombardi’s grandson Joe, who at 28 is younger than Brees and many of the teams veteran players.

But back to Brees. Despite a stellar college career at Purdue where he set a number of Big 10 conference records, he wasn’t picked until the second round of the 2001 draft due to concerns about his size and arm strength, and played in only 1 game in that first season with the San Diego Chargers. He beat out Doug Flutie for starting job in 2002, only to have the Chargers take the football from him and hand it back to a forty year-old Flutie late in 2003. In 2004, the Chargers picked up quarterback Philip Rivers on draft day, casting serious doubt on Brees’ future in San Diego. Rivers’ reluctance to sign a contract before the season started gave Brees another shot, and he made it count, posting his best numbers to that point in his career and making it to the Pro Bowl. But in the last game of the 2005 season, Brees was left lying on the ground with a shredded shoulder, and his time with the Chargers was up. In 2006, he stepped onto the field with the Saints in the newly repaired Superdome and led them all the way to their first NFC championship game, but their season ended one game before the big one due largely to mistakes he made. Since then, Brees has continued to put up very impressive numbers, making the Pro Bowl in 3 of his 4 seasons with the Saints, and in 2008 he became only the second quarterback to throw for over 5,000 yards in a single season. If he’s able to lead the trophy-less Saints to Super Bowl victory tomorrow, Drew Brees could potentially add his name to that list of great QB’s which currently has Peyton Manning hovering near the top.

Of course, as a Philadelphia  fan who has for the past 10 years watched quarterback Donovan McNabb and coach Andy Reid lead the Eagles to 8 winning seasons and 5 NFC championship games, only to come up empty handed each time, I know well that winning the Super Bowl is the only thing that matters. McNabb holds almost every possible Eagles quarterback record, he has the second best TD-interception ratio of all time, (behind Tom Brady), and among active quarterbacks, only Brady and Peyton Manning have a higher win percentage. Statistically, McNabb is unquestionably in elite company, but he can’t seem to shake the accusations that he’s a guy who can’t get the job done when it really counts. Just as it seems that a team’s successes are often reduced to the performance of one individual, McNabb is a perfect example of how a team’s failures often fall squarely on the shoulders of their on-field leader.

I’ve rambled on about football for a while now, and it feels a bit unnatural to shift back to thoughts about national identity, but I’m wondering, with the individualistic nature of American identity, is it even possible for our obsession with greatness and victory to be expressed other than through obsession with individuals? Do we ever think of whole teams as our heroes? How often do we really remember the guy who came in 2nd place? And does the American dream of rags-to-riches explain our love of underdogs?

All I have to say is, Go Saints.