The Ring Is Not The Thing: Maybe this is why Tom Brady has 3 Super Bowl rings and Peyton Manning spends his off-season is cheering meat-cutters and barristas: he's never satisfied. You'd think 3 championships and Bridget Moynihan would be enough to keep Tom happy, but the funny thing about professional sports--they're just games. After winning three of the biggest games one can win, Tom has figured this out. Nothing special about Tom, his comments stand out because most professional athletes never grasp that perspective, whether they've won the big game or not. I'm sure there's probably a few players and even coaches that would rather Tom not share his disappointment publicly. It's hard enough to motivate today's pro athlete. But word of mouth is a dangerous and powerful thing.
If word gets out that winning championships aren't all they're cracked up to be, could you imagine the fallout? Seasoned pros in the twilights of their careers will honor existing contracts or even retire early instead of renting their diminished skills to contenders for a shot at a ring. College players might actually finish their careers at the college level, bypassing the pros and instead opting for a degree in something useful. May as well work for a living if championships are such a Super-letdown. Maybe LeBron James, fresh out of high school, actually goes to college, and doesn't play pro ball at all. Maybe kids don't aspire to be pro athletes because there's no glory in it. There's a thousand ways to get that empty feeling of winning a championship without beating up your body for 18 weeks. If, what it's all about is playing for a championship, and not, say, money.
None of this really matters if you're playing for the money. And many players are content with making that money and never winning a championship. Tom Brady might be the opposite. The guy who, in spite of winning 3 titles, goes to bed at night thinking he didn't earn his million last Sunday. "Easy for him to say", I hear you grumble. Maybe, just maybe, if Tom Brady had it to do all over again, he'd do something else for a living, and would be a total spaz about that too. And you'd be like, "Tom, chill, you sell hardware for a living. It's just hardware. Hammers and two-by-fours. Whaddya gonna do?" Winning 3 Super Bowls did not make Tom Brady restless. That restlessness came pre-equipped.
For many, pro sports are supposed to provide a distraction from reality. Tom Brady's reality is, 3 Super Bowls, or for that matter, another Super Bowl, doesn't get it done, if it ever did. An old flame once asked me, begged me actually, "Why can't you just be happy?". I may have answered something like, "I'll be happy when the Patriots win a Super Bowl", but if you're someone like Tom Brady, that's an impossible question to answer. Not without years of therapy or a few deep bong hits.
So if my team winning 3 Super Bowls makes me happier than the quarterback who actually won them, then who's more dialed into reality here? Me leaping off a couch, or 45 millionaires unwrapping Super Bowl rings, bawling their eyes out when they discover how meaningless it all is?
Better them than me.
Monday 'Choon: Ian Pooley feat. Esthero "Balmes (A Better Life)"
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