‘He comes to work every day’
After further review … As the National Football League concludes its 100th season in this disastrous pandemic year with rescheduling and postponements due to COVID -19, we approach Super Bowl LV to be played Feb. 7 with some uncertainty. (Note: The two advancing teams were determined after this article was written.) This is my 60th year of association with the NFL of which 31 of those years was an on-field official. From the get-go, I have always considered it an honor and a privilege.
I believe that every player, some 1,700 to 2,000, hired each year, consider it likewise. Yet only eleven players from each team get to play each play in the game. Those other players sitting on the bench but under some variance of a contract, are their substitutes. How important is each play to them? Are they ready and able to play when needed? Let’s look at some important and vital-position players, who are there but only when needed.
Aaron Rodgers is the starting quarterback for the Green Bay Packers and is considered for MVP honors this 2020 season. Tim Boyle, Rodgers backup, played at Eastern Kentucky and is now in his third year, as a Packer yet, hasn’t played much since Rodgers has been healthy. Rodgers is 37 years old and still able to play every down. There’s an interesting comparison since Rodgers sat on the Packers bench for three years behind Brett Farve who played 16 years for the Packers. However, when Farve was traded, Rodgers kept the Packers alive and well.
Tom Brady is the starting QB for the Tampa
Bay Bucs who played versus the Packers in the
NFC championship battle. Brady has been healthy most of the 2020 season but is 43. His backup is 31year old Blaine Gabbert, who was a first-round pick out of Missouri and now
in his 11th-year.
Josh Allen is the starting QB for the Buffalo Bills from Wyoming University and was drafted in the 10th round in 2018. His backup QB is six-year veteran Matt Barkley from Southern California.
The Kansas City Chiefs who played the Bills in the AFC championship game suffered their most devastating injury to former Super Bowl MVP and starting QB, 25-year-old Patrick
Mahomes, who left that divisional game in the third quarter against Baltimore with a concussion. Entering the game was Mahomes back-up, Chad Henne, a 13year veteran from the University of Michigan.
The challenge for 35-year old Henne was to maintain the Chiefs lead ( 2215) throughout the fourth quarter. And he did! With a third-down scramble and a fourth-down pass completion for a first down. As
one of his teammates commented after the game: “He comes to work every day!”
Will you follow Henne’s example and be prepared to go to work every day?
To contact Jim, go to www. jimtunney.com or email jim@jimtunney.com. Jim’s bobblehead, as well as his books, are available at the above website. His “On the TunneySide of Sports” books contain stories of inspiration like the above.