Life’s real highlights aren’t on highlight reel
In all the hoo-ha leading up to yesterday’s Super Bowl, so gushing with insufferable hyperbole, there was one sterling moment when what matters most was briefly showcased ahead of what matters least.
That moment came from Tom Brady and didn’t have a thing to do with football.
It was instead a moment of spontaneous vulnerability when he revealed his mother is in the grips of a health crisis.
At that moment he was no longer a great quarterback who had an ailing parent, but a great son who happened to be a quarterback. They’re quite different. When you’re focused on sports, politics or entertainment, it’s so easy to look at someone in the spotlight and confuse what they do with who they are.
Years ago, the Patriots had a magnificent young cornerback named Mike Haynes who later played for the Raiders on his way to the Hall of Fame.
One day when Mike was 28, a collapsed lung landed him in Carney Hospital where, as he recuperated, it collapsed again.
He would later be assured that was no cause for panic.
“But at that moment,” he confided, “I got scared. Fame and money meant nothing at all. My family wasn’t in the room and I began thinking, ‘Had I told them I loved them? Would I ever be able to tell them?’
“Those are the only things that matter at a time like that because I actually started to think about dying.”
Bob Stanley, the longtime Red Sox relief ace, had a similar moment of clarified priorities.
Fairly or not, the Steamer is still remembered for that wild pitch — regarded here as a passed ball — he threw in the 10th inning of Game 6 in the 1986 World Series, paving the way for a heartbreaking Mets victory.
Upon retiring three years later his world was rocked when his son Kyle, 9, was diagnosed with cancer. Kyle would eventually experience a wonderful recovery, but not before his dad endured terrifying anxiety.
“I used to imagine being on the mound in the winning moments of a World Series game,” Stanley later reflected. “And now there I was, praying God would let it happen, but He didn’t answer that prayer.
“He had a different prayer He planned on answering for me; when I asked Him to make my boy well, He did.
“So you can throw out that World Series. It doesn’t bother me anymore because I know what really matters now.” Clearly, so does Brady. What a great reminder he gave us all.