A Man of Greatness
Philip Rivers is undoubtedly a man with extreme talent. An NFL quarterback who is underestimated and underrated. Neither Philip Rivers nor the Chargers have received a Super Bowl win; should that take away from the countless awards and records he has broken? Does a Super Bowl make or break a player’s true status? {THESIS}
The History of Philip Rivers
Philip Rivers was born on December 8, 1981 in Decatur, Alabama. A small town on the outskirts of Birmingham, Alabama. Philip’s parents, Steve and Joan Philips, had two more children following Philip when he was in his teens. His brother and sister, Stephen and Anna. Philip was into sports since the age of two; He loved football and basketball. His competitive edge came from his mother, while the athletic ability that Philip shows on the field was instilled in him by his father. Philip was so confidant in his athletic ability that at the age of eleven he turned in a Sports Illustrated cover page with his face plastered on it for a school project. Not only did Philip believe in his abilities but so did his parents. They were so confident that Philip would receive a full ride scholarship thru college that they chose not to put money aside. Philip skipped throwing a youth-sized football around and jumped right to a college-sized football. He had already established his unique throwing action that would continue to be talked about for years to come.(Kennedy)
Philip followed in his father’s footsteps, who was once a linebacker for Mississippi State in the 1970’s and moved on to be the head coach for Athen’s High School, where Philip attended. Philip would play his first official game in 1996 and not see a bench until he was a rookie in the NFL. It was then that his...
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... plays making it a 69-yard touchdown drive. Unfortunately, following that touchdown it all fell apart. He threw his first interception, was sacked three times and ended up fumbling the ball in his own end-zone.
Sports Illustrated
Work Cited
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Trotter, Jim. “The Curious Case of Philip Rivers.” Sports Illustrated (2012): 46-49.
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Kennedy, Mike, and Ron Jaffe. "JockBio: Philip Rivers Biography." JockBio: Philip Rivers Biography. Ed.
Mark Stewart. Black Book Partners, n.d. Web. 10 Oct. 2013
Reiter, Ben. “Philip Rivers.” Sports Illustrated 106.2 (2007): 33-35.
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In 1972, he had a Passer Rating of 157.5 in a game. A rare perfect rating would be 158.3. In 1973, he had an amazing season where he brought the Broncos to their first ever winning season. That season he earned a First Team All-AFC, led the AFC in touchdown passes, and earned the Broncos offensive MVP. In 1974, he led the NFL in yards per pass attempt with 8.1 yards. In 1975, he played his final season and retired. He became the Broncos quarterback coach for the 1976 season, then retired from that right after. In 1977, the Broncos went to their first super bowl, the year after Charley Johnson retired. He ranks 7th in most touchdowns by a Broncos quarterback, and 9th in most yards. In 1986, Charley Johnson was inducted into the Broncos Ring of Fame.
Therefore, he joined the team, and was dubbed too sensitive for the game, and later quit the team. However, when Barnes entered high school, he was put on a bodybuilding program, by the high schools weight lifting coach, Mr. Tucker, who showed a genuine interest in Barnes’ drawings. Through Mr. Tucker’s constant encouragement, Barnes was able to reinvent himself, graduating from high school with twenty-six football scholarships, as well as the respect of the community (Artist Vitae, 1999).
Brett Favre grew up idolizing a pair of Southern quarterbacks, the Saints' Archie Manning and the Cowboys' Staubach. He grew up in Kiln, Mississippi and went to high school in there. His high school, Hancock North Central, honored him this past May by re-naming the field, 'Brett Favre Field,' and unveiling a life-sized statue of the quarterback at the stadium's entrance. The school previously had retired his jersey, Number 10, in 1993. He stayed in the south to go to college where he went to Southern Miss. He became the starter at Southern Miss in his third game of his freshman season. Favre majored in special education. He led his Southern Mississippi team to 29 victories, including two bowl victories, during his four varsity seasons, 1987-90, and climaxed his collegiate career by earning a MVP award in the East-West Shrine game featuring the nation's best seniors. Favre set school records for passing yards (8,193), pass attempts (1,234), completions (656), completion percentage (53.2), touchdowns (55), and with only 35 interceptions. His production included five 300-yard passing games and five 3-TD performances, while his 7,695 regular-season passing yards ranked him among the top 30 of all-time NCAA passers. His 1.57 interception ratio in 1988 was the lowest among the 50 top-ranked passers in the nation, and his 2.9 interception rate for his four-year career also ranks as one of the best in NCAA history. Also he was the MVP of the All-American Bowl at the conclusion of his senior year. All those records and stats and that was only in college!!!
In David Foster Wallace’s essay, “How Tracy Austin Broke My Heart,” he argues that the true talent of star athletes is to completely engross themselves in playing the game. While worshipping the “abstractions like power and grace and control” of Tracy Austin, he notes the contradicting quality, her inability to articulate such abstracts (143). He continues by writing, as people’s expectation while reading the autobiography of a successful athlete is to take a peek at the secrets of their god given gifts, whereas the expectations are rarely met, making spectators, such as himself, disappointed. As a matter of fact, Wallace suspects that the exceptional talent of athletes may be brought out by their apathetic and ignorant nature when it
Throughout the history of America’s pastime, baseball has continually battled scandals and controversies. From the 1919 “Black Sox” scandal to the current steroid debate, baseball has lived in a century of turmoil. While many of these scandals affected multiple players and brought shame to teams, none have affected a single player more than the 1980’s Pete Rose betting scandal. Aside from the public humiliation he brought his family and the Cincinnati Reds, nothing has done more to hurt Pete Rose than his lifetime ban from baseball making him ineligible for hall of fame. While many are for and against putting Pete Rose in the hall of fame, the four ethical theories, Kantianism, Utilitarianism, Egoism, and Ethical Realism, each have their own unique answer to the question. Through Kantianism Pete Rose should be inducted into the hall of fame, while Egoism, Utilitarianism and Ethical Realism all support the lifetime ban.
In 1996 when he was playing for the Cowboys and Reds he felt miserable, he said, ”After scoring touchdowns and dancing in the end zone, after a stadium full of cheering fans had finally gone home, I was still empty inside.” Nothing was making him happy, he tried money, women, and just about everything.
Pete Maravich was one of the greatest basketball players of all time. His spectacular moves and awesome footwork helped him to get better everyday. His incredible passes and being able to control the court caused his teammates to like him even more. “His playground moves, circus shots, and hotdog passes were considered outrageous during his era” (NBA Encyclopedia Playoff Edition). His love for basketball was instilled by his father Peter “Press” Maravich.
Paul Bryant was born on September 11, 1913, near Fordyce, Arkansas. Paul Bryant was the son of William Monroe and Dora Ida Kilgore and was the eleventh of twelve children. Bryant grew to six foot one at the age of thirteen. Bryant earned the nickname “Bear” for agreeing to wrestle a bear. At Fordyce High School he was an offensive lineman and defensive end and earned all-state honors for the 1931 Arkansas High School State Championship. When Bryant accepted a scholarship to the University of Alabama, he elected to leave high school before graduating, so he had to enroll in Tuscaloosa high school to finish his diploma. Bryant played end for Alabama opposite to the big star, Don Hutson, a Pro Football Hall of Famer. Bryant was also a participant in the school's 1934 National Championship team. Paul was third team all conference in 1933 and 1935, and was second team All-SEC in 1934. With a partially broken leg, Bryant played against Tennessee in 1935. “Bryant pledged the Sigma Nu Social fraternity, and as a senior, he married Mary Harmon,” said Joe Marcin. Bryant was in the 1936 NFL Draft and
Wertheim, L. (1998). A Curious Career Phil Jackson Has Gone From Cloistered Child to Free- Spirited Player to Championship Coach. Somehow it all Seems to Fit. Sports Illustrated, 36.
Rick Reilly, in his ESPN column (2007), contends that sports competitions are more than simple games, instead, they are events capable of bringing people together in unique ways. He reinforces his contention by integrating inspirational anecdotal evidence, bold syntax, and unvarnished diction. Reilly’s purpose is to point out the importance and humanity of sports in order to convince a college professor and readers of sports magazines that sports writing is indeed an advanced and valuable profession. He assumes a humorous tone (“...most important- sports is the place where beer tastes best”) for an audience of sports magazine readers, but more specifically, a professor that told him that he was “better than sports.”
In March of 1946, a man named Kenny Washington made a very important contribution for the NFL (Britannica). Kenny Washington became the first African American to ever play in a professional sports league (Amaral). Since he was colored in the 1940 draft class, none of the teams wanted to draft him (Bowen). Even though Kenny was doubted and treated differently than others, he was able to play on a smaller league team near the Pacific coast (Bowen). Then the day finally came when Kenny was allowed to play in the NFL after World War II had ended. This essay will discuss the story of Kenny Washington’s life before he became the first African American football player, what he went through to get there, and why he is important to the NFL.
As a child, Almond was so in love with football until the accident that took place in 1978, doing the pre-season game, when the wide receiver for the New England Patriots name Stingley lost his balance, while lunging for a pass and got hit by Tatum, an Oakland Raiders. After getting hit really hard Stingley fell on the field. This whole scene was sad and it causes the audience to respond emotionally. For Example, when the team doctors rush on the field to rescue Darryl Stingley, he was not able to shake or move his body. Those who came to his rescue, begin to use reflex hammers on his knees while he lying down on the field. The longer Stingley lay on the ground the more embarrassed and guilty shame Tatum fan made of him. Even the fan knew that the interest or pleasure of American football was all about the feeling and excited of such hurt, damage transactions of football. On the other hand, Jack Tatum and his fan were happy and satisfy that he had caused damage and harm to Stingley while protecting the area or space to central his mystique position. His feeling and commitment to such played was flashy with
Months before, a white football fan in a dusty little town watched #35 as he sprinted down the field; the fan did not really see some black kid, they saw a Mojo running back. Just like so many other fans, they cheer for the black and white jersey, not particularly caring about the color of the body it’s on. The fans saw #35 as the future of their much-exalted football team; the color of his skin seemed irrelevant. As long as he wore the jersey and performed every week like he should, they celebrated him as the Great Black Hope of the 1988 season. Now, injury has taken him from the game that he devoted his life to, and he is no longer #35. Instead, he is just another useless black kid who will never amount to anything in the rigid society that
Bissinger creates empathy in the reader by narrating the lives of once Permian heros. Charlie Billingsley, a Permian football player, “was somewhere at the top” while he was playing. It was hard for the football town of Odessa to forget “how that son of a bitch played the game in the late sixties”(80). While in Odessa, Permian players receive praise unmatched by even professional football. This unmatchable praise becomes something Permian players like Billingsley become accustomed to, and when he “found out that...you were a lot more expendable in college(80). This lack of appreciation that is equivalent to the one that they have received their whole life makes them go from “a hero one day to a broken down nobody the next”(81). With the realization of this reality, Billingsley becomes one of the many to spend life as a wastrel, living in his memory of playing for the Permian Panthers. The reader becomes empathetic towards how the once likely to succeed Billingsley, becomes another Odessan wastrel due to the over emphasis and extreme praise the Odessan football team receives. Bissinger does not stop with a classic riches to rags story to spur the reader’s empathy but talks about the effect the Odessan attitude toward football has on the health of its players. Just like in many parts of the world, in Odessa, sports equates to manliness and manliness equates to not showing signs of pain. Philip, an eighth grade boy aspiring to one day be a Permian Panther is lauded by his stepfather as he “broke his arm during the first demonstrative series of a game ...[but] managed to set it back in” and continued playing for the rest of the game. It is noted that Philip’s arm “swelled considerably, to the point the forearm pads...had to be cut off”(43). By adding details such as these, Bissinger
In the book entitled Out of Their League, David Meggyesy describes his life as a football player from high school through his days with the St. Louis Cardinals of the National Football League (NFL). Born in 1941, Meggyesy was raised in a low-income household in Solon, Ohio. Like many athletes from impoverished backgrounds, he was able to use the game of football to better himself though both a full scholarship to Syracuse University and financial stability with the Cardinals. During his career, however, Meggyesy became increasingly disillusioned with the game of football and how its athletes were subject to tremendous physical and psychological turmoil from those in power—namely the coaches and the NFL team owners. He began to see the game of football from a conflict theorist point of view. This is the belief that sport is an opiate used to benefit those in power through the exploitation of athletes which enables those such as coaches and team owners to maintain their power and privilege in society. (Coakley, 1998) Meggyesy's growing disenchantment with football and adoption of a conflict theorist point of view led him to retire from the Cardinals in 1969.