I had a friend in high school that had aspirations of being a professional tennis player.
He had no interest in spending time playing me on the court because he was looking to be challenged by someone better than him so he could improve his game. Actually drove to a nearby college campus to pick up matches against some of the kids playing on the college tennis team.
A tennis game against me was a waste of his time, my skills didn’t challenge him and he was bent on getting better over beating me whatever to love.
I have followed a similar route in looking to improve my professional goals. I really don’t care what a sports announcer thinks about an upcoming game or what a coach says of his team’s chances.
I look to the guys setting the point spreads and are skilled at separating the public from their money. I have also respected two National Football League head coaches that seem more in tune to what really matters. They are Bill Parcells and Bill Belichick.
When Parcells was coaching the New York Giants to Super Bowls, he was up against a seemingly overmatched Washington Redskins team late in the season. I had the Redskins plus what seemed to be a depressed point spread, an indicator that the guys setting the lines agreed with my underdog play.
That day, the books and myself were wrong, the Giants won and covered the point spread which the game announcers took as obvious. But, when the game ended and the Giants won, Parcells didn’t walk off the field with a stoic gate like he expected to win; at the game conclusion he threw up his right fist in a celebration befitting John Madden’s exultation at the end of Super Bowl XI.
It showed me what I had long suspected, Parcells knew when the circumstances were against his talent, while most coaches only focus on their talent and game plan. Parcells knew he won one that wasn’t as easy as the announcers thought it would be or played out on the field.
In 2006, the Tennessee Titans had a chance to earn a Wild Card berth on the final day of the regular season if they beat the New England Patriots and the Jacksonville Jaguars, Cincinnati Bengals and Denver Broncos all lost. New England had already clinched a playoff berth and the top seed was out of reach with the San Diego Chargers two games ahead and assured of the AFC top spot.
The books took this into consideration by making the Titans, who were on a magical run of six consecutive wins and looking to become the first team in NFL history to earn a postseason berth after opening the season with five straight losses, the favorite over New England. All week, announcers and sports writers were focused on the game meaning something only to the Titans.
I took the Titans thinking New England would rest Tom Brady and not match the intensity of Tennessee at home.
Brady started, and had the Patriots up 19-3 in the second quarter, when Paul and I looked at each other and questioned what we had missed? It was Paul who realized that even though the Patriots couldn’t get the number one seed, if they won here and beat the Chargers and played the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC Championship Game, and the Colts lost to the Miami Dolphins on the same day the Patriots were in Tennessee, then New England would host the title game.
Belichick knew it, and even though he was at press conferences that week where the media and me were oblivious to that fact, he took questions as if his playoff spot was locked in and this game didn’t matter.
It did.
In the fourth quarter, with New England leading Tennessee, the result from Indianapolis came in with Peyton Manning guiding Indianapolis to a 27-22 win over the Miami Dolphins. As soon as that score was known, Belichick told Vinny Testaverde to warm up. The veteran quarterback had been signed by New England to back-up Brady in November, and he threw his only touchdown of his career with New England that afternoon to cap the Patriots 40-23 win.
In the postgame press conference, Belichick told reporters he thought Testaverde deserved a chance to play because of all the hard work he had put in for the team. The media gobbled it up like Belichick was doing something special for the veteran on the verge of retirement, when actually, Testaverde was inserted only after the game became meaningless based on the Colts victory over Miami.
As it turned out, the Patriots did beat the Chargers in their playoff game and meet the Colts in the AFC Championship Game which, because the Colts had won their last game, was played in Indianapolis. In that game, the Patriots bolted to a 21-3 second quarter lead before Manning and company ran them down for a 38-34 triumph. That victory sent the Colts into Super Bowl XLI, which was Manning’s only Super Bowl win of his career in Indianapolis, a 29-17 decision over the Chicago Bears.
One more fact about Belichick, in 2003, his Patriots lost on opening day to the Buffalo Bills, 31-0. That same year, they closed out the regular season against each other, and New England reversed the score with a 31-0 victory. Belichick likes revenge games, and this week he is in Miami to meet a Dolphins team that downed the Patriots on opening day in Foxboro.
The Dolphins had their seven game win streak and postseason dreams ended last week with a lopsided loss in Tennessee. Who do you think is going to win this Sunday at Hard Rock Stadium?
Me too.
Qoxhi Picks: New England Patriots (-7) over Miami Dolphins
PS: My high school friend did earn a college scholarship for his tennis skills, but never played professionally and instead became a salesperson for a radio station.