Mark Andrew Barrios Estella Balut, Tondo, Manila Westminster High School, Manila Science High School, University of Santo Thomas 5'7" 135 lbs future pastor, and team elite SGW, Councillium Philosophiae Fermi-Kepler-Hertz-Newton Motorsport, Basketball, NFL fanatic Im the greatest, the great one. I have ice water running in my vains, thats why Im ice cold. Have a great one!
How to make a mark
Ingredients:
5 parts mercy
5 parts self-sufficiency
3 parts leadership
Method: Combine in a tall glass half filled with crushed ice. Add a little cocktail umbrella and a dash of fitness
93rd SILLIMAN UNIVERSITY COMMENCEMENT EXERCISES Luce Auditorium Lobby
Descending to the Top Delivered by Mr. Menardo "Butch" G. Jimenez Jr. Senior Vice-President, Retail Business Group PLDT OIC, Wireless Consumer Division, Smart Communications
It is a privilege of mine to be here. In 2003, I was requested to be the commencement speaker for the graduating class of the University of the Philippines- Diliman. And after I gave that address, I said to myself-and this is true-the only other invitation that I will accept after UP Diliman is Silliman University. I have actually been waiting for almost three years. And I would have waited 30 more years to address you. You may be asking, "Why is that?" It is simply because of the Christian roots and the Christian heritage that this university has; the same roots and the same heritage that my great grandmother, my grandmother, and even my mother have tried to instill in my life.
That is why I am here. So thank you very much for the privilege. I am actually quite excited to address all of you.
One of the questions running in your mind today as you graduate and move forward is, "How do I reach the top?" A fair question and one that needs to be answered. And since I now presently handle marketing for both PLDT and Smart, let me share with you some marketing principles that I have learned, that may guide you on your quest to the top.
A battle for the mind
Success in marketing is a battle to be the first in the mind of the consumer. That is the principle proposed in the '80s by two authors, Al Ries and Jack Trout, in their classic book, "Positioning."
Ries and Trout said that success in marketing is a battle to be the first in the mind of the consumer. If you are first in the mind of the consumer, in most cases, you will rise to the top and become the leader or number one. So, the battle is to be the first in the mind.
Let's give a couple of examples. When I say cola, what comes first in your mind? It's Coke. And today, Coke has risen to the top and is number one. When you say beer, the first thing that comes into your mind is San Miguel. They are first in the mind, they are at the top, and they are the leader. When you say toothpaste, in most cases, what comes to mind is Colgate. The same rule holds true. Colgate is at the top of your mind, and they are number one. When you say photocopier, it's Xerox. They are first in the mind, they are the leader, and they have risen to the top. Let's try something more hip for the new generation kids. When you say mp3 player, what's first in your mind. I can actually read your mind. The iPod. They are first in the mind, they are at the top, and today, they are number one.
So, in many instances, the rule actually works. If you want to rise to the top, you have to be the first in the mind.
The second thing that Al Ries and Jack Trout talked about, aside from being the first in the mind of the consumer, is burning an attribute or a characteristic in the minds of the consumers.
For example, Volvo did that. They burned into the mind of the consumer the attribute of safety. If you want a safe car, Volvo is it. iPod, for example, is burning in all our minds the attribute of being cool. They want to drive into our minds that the Ipod is the coolest gadget in the universe today.
So, two concepts we learn from Marketing to reach the top: Be the first in the mind and burn an attribute in the mind. Then, you start rising to the top.
So what does this all mean to you, as you go out into the workplace?
If you guys want to start rising to the top, you have to do the same thing. You have to be the first or the top of mind amongst the people that you work for specially your boss. When the boss needs something done, you have to be the first in his mind. If you're just the third, or the fourth, or the fifth, or the tenth in his mind, you're just like a company that is in third, fourth or fifth position -- far, far away from rising to the top.
Discipline
This leads me to the question, "What attribute should you burn in the minds of the people in today's world?" There are many attributes that I would have wanted to share with you, but in the interest of time, I will focus on two.
The first one is the attribute of discipline. If we want to be able to compete not only with our peers, but with the best in the world, we have no choice. As a person, as a people, and as a country, we have to be disciplined.
Discipline is a very fascinating thing. In the world of competition, you're always competing with somebody else. There is Smart competing with Globe, There is GMA competing with ABS-CBN, there is Sony competing with Samsung, and the list goes on. But when it comes to discipline, you are not competing with anybody else. You are only competing with yourself. And if you lose, guess who actually loses, only you.
A year and a half ago, I went to a leadership conference in Singapore that put together and assembled some of the best speakers in the world. I actually had to pay a huge amount-probably my whole month's salary-just to be able to enter that conference. Al Ries was speaking. Film legend, Francis Ford Coppola was speaking, Rudy Giuliani, who led New York to rise from the 911 crisis, was speaking and Lee Kuan Yew, Prime Minister of Singapore was one of the speakers.
I wanted to listen to Lee Kuan Yew and what he had to say. Lee Kuan Yew shared how he built Singapore from nothing to where it is today. He shared that Singapore, barely a generation ago, was far worse than many of its peers. But today, it is an economic superpower. He narrated that when he first started to lead Singapore, he asked his think tank to visit neighboring countries like the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and figure out what they don't have. He said they all came back with one conclusion: These countries lacked discipline. So to differentiate Singapore from its neighbors, he decided to build his country on discipline. This meant that if Singapore promised something to its people, to its foreign investors, and to other countries, it will be fulfilled. A disciplined country and a disciplined people-that's what he built Singapore on.
Discipline is a very important attribute all of us must have to be able to bring this country up from where it is today. If you want to reach your goals and dreams, you cannot do it without discipline.
One of my good friends is the president of Alaska Milk, Fred Uytengsu. I used to see him on the baseball field when he used to coach his son's team and I was an assistant for my son's team. One day, I saw him wearing a shirt that said, "If you don't have discipline, you don't deserve to dream." No matter how harsh it may seem, the point is true. If you're 350 lbs. overweight and you're dreaming to become the next big hunk, but you don't have the discipline to watch what you eat, to exercise, and to make it happen, it isn't going to happen. Don't even bother dreaming, if you don't have the discipline to make it a reality. You'll just get frustrated. That's how important discipline is in achieving success.
In the world of business, discipline is defined as work ethic. I'd like to share with you an anecdote from a great man who epitomized what work ethic is all about. Thomas Alva Edison. At the age of 82, the President of the United States said it was about time he was honored with an award for his lifetime work. So they put together a huge event in honor of Thomas Alva Edison. Being 82, he felt a bit sick that night and fainted. Good thing they were able to revive him and he was still able to go up on stage. Edison upon accepting the award simply said, "I am tired of all this glory. I want to get back to work." 82 years old, and all he can think of is going back to work.
That is work ethic. That is discipline. And that is one of the attributes we need to burn in people's minds if we are to rise to the top.
Execution
The second attribute we should burn is execution. We need to be able to drive in the minds of the people that we work with that we are the "go-to" guy. That if they want to make something happen, you are the guy to go to, because you are the person who can execute. Execution is one of the attribute that will help you rise to the top.
I'd like to quote one of the greatest mentors of all time who said to his pupil: "Luke, there is no try. There is either do or not do." You know who that is? That is Yoda teaching Luke Skywalker of Star Wars one of the most important lessons in life: execution or making it happen.
An icon of execution, of course, is Michael Jordan. He is arguably one of the greatest basketball players that ever lived, but not without getting the ball, taking that shot, and executing the play. Can you imagine what would have happened to Michael if all he ever did was to plan on shooting the ball but never did? One of the things you have to remember about execution though is that it doesn't mean you have to be successful every single time. Part of execution is learning how to fail yet rising up again.
Michael Jordan says this, "I missed more than 9,000 shots in my career and lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions, I have been entrusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life, and that's precisely why I succeed."
When you go out to the real world, you will realize that there are many people out there who have great ideas and great plans. And that is good. But like I always tell my team in PLDT, what separates the good from the great is execution. We can spend endless hours and tons of money strategizing, planning, team building, and analyzing to come out with a great plan. But until we execute that plan, that's all it will ever be, a plan.
When something goes wrong in a company, the question the leader or the CEO almost always asks is not, "Who has the best grades?" "Who has a diploma?" "Who has all the awards?" "Who is the summa cum laude?" "Who graduated from an Ivy league school?" The CEO just asks one question: "Who can get the job done?" That, dear graduates is the importance of execution.
Let's learn a lesson from Mickey Mouse. Well, maybe not from Mickey, but from his originator, Walt Disney. Walt had four mantras: dreaming, believing, daring, and then doing. Of the four, "doing" is what turns everything into a reality. Walt said, "Dreaming, believing and daring without doing is just like Dumbo, the elephant, without ears. It just won't fly. ABRAKADABRA will never work." Only execution does.
Descending to the Top
In my UP speech, I talked to them about "what's better than," and I juxtaposed what's better than this versus what's better than that. Now, all of us want to ascend to the top. No doubt about it. And we should. We should plan on ascending all the way to the top. But I will pose the same question I did three years ago: "What's better than ascending to the top?" The answer is DESCENDING to the top.
That may actually baffle a lot of your minds. "What is he talking about?" "How can descending to the top be better than ascending to the top?" It is a biblical principle. The Bible tells us that he who wishes to be the greatest must be the servant of all. That is the concept of descending to the top. What I want to share with you is that as you rise to the top, the more you have to be a servant. The keyword is humility. The more you start rising to the top, the more humility needs to become an important place in who you are and in your life.
I want to share with you what happened to Steve Jobs the founder of Apple computers and now the Ipod. We all know what a great visionary Steve Jobs is. But if we chronicle his career, Steve Jobs, as he was ascending to the top, as he was rising towards greatness, forgot all about humility. While he was hitting his peak, all he thought about was how great he was, how fantastic he was, and how the world and his company revolved around him. That is ascending to the top. The higher you go, the bigger your head.
What happened to Steve Jobs as he hit the peak? He was driven out of his company both in failure and in disgrace. Then after having failed in many other endeavors, he started again and went on to make an indelible mark in the entertainment industry, and with the extraordinary success of the iPod, regained his reputation as the "greatest innovator of the digital age". And so Steve Jobs, after having ascended to the top and then unceremoniously booted out, now gets the chance to lead Apple again. But something was different about the man this time. People started to feel Steve had changed. And so in a big conference at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, there he was, listening to the chants of his people, demanding him to come back and run Apple again. Let me share with you how the new Steve answered the call. No longer ascending to the top, but understanding what descending to the top is all about. And I will quote from the book, "Icon: The greatest second act in business".
For the first time in his public life, there on stage, Steve appeared genuinely touched when the people were starting to ask him to come back and take the CEO position. He wasn't brash or cocky anymore. Maybe his four kids and the complete failure of a company and the near failure of another taught him something. There on stage, he fought back the tears as he mumbled something to make it clear that yes, even Steve Jobs can change.
He had made the transition into a world where feelings and passion could partner with business and technology. Steve Jobs said, "You guys are making me feel funny right now. I get to come to work with the most talented people on the planet at Apple and Pixar. The best job in the world! But these jobs are team sports. I cannot do it alone; I can only do it with a team."
A team sport. Fifteen years ago, it would have been a lie. It would have been all about him and how great he was. But now, everything was different. He now understood that it was really the many others who helped him succeed. He did realize it wasn't all about him. That Apple is a team sport.
That is descending to the top - the higher you fly, the lower the ego.
If you're able to get a copy of Time Magazine's issue where they declared who their Man of the Year was for 20005 you'll see their choice was Bill Gates. But not because of what Bill Gates has done for Microsoft. Not because he revolutionized the computer industry. But because of what Bill Gates has started to do for humanity. If you read that article, Bill realizes that this is probably the generation where if health care were given enough resources, he can actually make a big difference in millions of people's lives. And that has become the man's passion and advocacy, donating billions to uplift the health of poverty stricken nations. This today is what truly defines him; no longer his technological achievements. It is now about serving and helping other people. In other words, descending to the top.
A heart for our Country
Finally, as you rise to the top you should never lose your heart for our country.
I always tell my team in PLDT, that yes, we have a business to run, but let us never forget we also have a country to serve. And that is the same thing I will tell you as you guys rise to the top. You will have businesses to run, you will have your own careers to take care of, and you will have your own dreams to pursue, but never forget you have a country to serve.
You may ask, "How? How do I serve the country?" One way is actually quite simple. I'll give it to you in one word. If you are great, if you are smart, if you are the best, if you have a Silliman education, then, please STAY. Just stay in the country. You would have actually done a great service to our country just by staying.
But if you can't stay, or you don't want to stay, that's fine. If you think you want to make it out there in the world, that's a-ok with me. But I want to ask two things of you.
First, go out there and show the whole world how great the Filipino is. In whatever field you're in, prove to the world how special we Filipinos truly are.
Second, don't just plan to COME back. Plan to GIVE back to the country. If you do that, if every Filipino who goes out there into the world -- and there are millions of us already -- proves to everybody how great the Filipino is, and not only plans to come back, but actually plans to give back to this country, in less than one generation, we will be an even greater nation.
I will end with what I told the UP students in 2003. You must be asking yourselves, "How do I reach my dreams?" or "How far can I go?" I told them this: In the last 42 years of my life, I have realized one thing, "There is no destination beyond the reach of those who walk with God."
So when you go out there in the world, take God's hand and walk with him. Because when you do, whatever destination it is you are hoping to reach, if God walks with you and takes you through, there will be no destination beyond your reach.
To the graduating class of 2006, I will meet you at the top and nowhere else!
- To become a positive person with a positive thinking, acting, doing, and being
- To become an excellent person achieving excellence in life and in my business with God
- To become a great person with great purpose, values, attitude, and character
- To become a loving and lovable person
- To become a Team Elite by 2011
- To become a Millionaire by 25 years old
- To become Executive by this year
- To pass LOI this month
- To become Ruby by graduation
- To achieve all my dreams and goals in life
- To become successful in life and in my business with God.
- To help other people achieve better lives.
- To become a great leader for my organization and group of future Team Elites like me.
- To become a great leader for me and others
- To reach my full potential, become the best, greatest Mark Estella I can be.
- To be a servant of God's Will and achieve excellence for His Glory, and be the best steward of His Business of helping people.
- To be significant and make a difference in this world, especially in the Philippines.
- To be the best Christian I can be, and serve God with His great Will and Purpose.
I will be it, do it, and have it. I will commit, believe and persist to make it happen. I will do whatever it takes to make it happen. Im going to make it happen. It will happen!
There is no if...
Please help me God. Lets make it happen together. I will do my best, whatever it takes, and I leave the rest to you. I surrender it all to you.
Homily by Fr. Jojo Magadia, SJ, 22 Dec 2006, Church of the Gesù, Ateneo de Manila
… for Misa de Gallo Mass of 23 December 2006
A good definition is a statement that tells us the meaning of some thing. It gives us its essential nature. It tells us how it relates to the world and to people. It sets boundaries and points out the extent which it covers. A good definition must be scientifically precise. But often, the more effective and memorable definitions are more simple and yet direct to the point.
For example, what is a smile? A smile is a curve that can set a lot of things straight. Or what is a committee? A committee is a group of the unwilling, picked from the unfit, to do the unnecessary. Or what is a lecture? A lecture is the confusion of one man multiplied by the number of listeners. Or what is a miser? A miser is person who lives poor so that he can die rich. Or what is a diplomat? A diplomat is a person who tells you to go to hell in such a way that you actually look forward to the trip. Or what is a bad politician? A bad politician is someone with two sides of the brain, a left side with nothing right and a right side with nothing left.
Some years ago, there was this listing of pithy definitions of winners and losers. Winners seek answers to problems, losers see problems in every answer. Winners are people who have plans, losers are people who have excuses. Winners are those who see the difficult as possible, losers are those who see the possible as too difficult. Winners tend to say: "What can I do for you?," losers tend to say: "That is not my job." Winners make mistakes and say: "I was wrong," losers make mistakes and say, "It's not my fault." Winners say "This is good, but there must be something better"; losers say, "This is good because it's the way it's always been done." No single one of the definitions is really a good one, but there is a common theme that runs through them. I suggest that at the heart of all of this, a loser is someone who is stuck, and a winner is someone who is free.
In today's Gospel, we encounter Zechariah, father of John the Baptist, one of the secondary and supporting cast in the drama of the nativity. And the story of Zechariah is the story of a loser, someone who gets stuck. For so long, he and his wife Elizabeth pray and pray for a child. But no child comes, until eventually old age catches up with them, and they give up hope, and they dig into the reality that they would remain childless – a reality that is the source of great shame in the Jewish culture of that time. So when God intervenes in Zechariah's life, and sends the angel Gabriel to announce the birth of a son, Zechariah could not believe it. He doubts in his heart of hearts. He could not shake off the skepticism. He puts to question the will of God, and brushes aside the promise of the very gift, he and Elizabeth have been longing for all along. Zechariah is stuck because he puts God in a box. He has so gotten used to God turning him down, that when God becomes ready to grant him his prayer, he could not believe, he could not absorb, he could not accept.
Zechariah is like most of us. We work and we do our thing and we push ourselves. We take stock of what we can and cannot do. With regularity, we find the various formulae for success – on how to deal with our families, and how to work with our bosses, and how to take things in stride. We develop our habits and routines. Yes, we do make room for God in all this, but in a subtle way, we tend to push God to a little corner of our lives, a corner which we can identify, a corner we run to when we have to, a corner we get comfortable with, a corner where we can read the signs in our lives, and plan out our futures, and carry out our tasks, and it is nice and cozy and familiar. Before we know it, we will already have boxed God in, and we are, in reality, stuck, as Zechariah is stuck – so that when God, with unfathomable and unpredictable goodness moves away from that corner and brings us new gifts and new promises in ways we would never have been able to imagine, we are unable to recognize Him, and it becomes difficult to believe and accept.
We are scared because these unpredictable ways bring us face to face with a God that has a plan, yes, but a plan that we can only know of as it gradually unfolds. And we are asked to take risks, and to have faith. And each step, there always seems to be more challenges. The announcement of the birth of John the Baptist becomes a challenge to Zechariah, and the child born to Zechariah likewise becomes a challenge to the people of Israel, constantly provoking, inciting, prodding, pushing, taunting – precisely because he is missioned to prepare the way for the Son of God who, like his Father, is also always challenging and prodding and pushing.
And that's the way God moves in our lives, isn't it? Just when you think you're done, something else comes up. Just when you feel life is so beautiful, you find out you are dying. Just when everything seems to fall into place, that wild card is thrown in, and your family life is thrown into disarray, or a good friend betrays us, or a relationship turns sour, or our anger gets the better of us, or we find ourselves without a job. Just when you feel that you have found all the answers, the questions are changed. One moment, you feel good; the next moment, you feel a strange emptiness. One moment, you feel relieved that something is over; the next moment, you are back in hot water. There always seems to be something up the road. God constantly challenges and pushes, and tells us that we cannot always stash things away in a neat pile. God reminds us that Christmas is not just about the warm and cozy Belen, but also about the birth of a Messiah that takes on all of the human experience upon himself – a birth that is messy and painful and bloody and discomforting, a birth that is steeped in uncertainty and insecurity.
The reason that John provokes is that he is preparing the way for a Messiah who is likewise provocative, who challenges, who pushes – daring people, testing the limits of what they can do, driving them to the edge of possibilities. I read a comment made by a contemporary writer [ Commonweal magazine, Paul Baumann] who says: "Jesus is a compelling figure to the extent that he is a discomforting figure.... The minute you are comfortable with him, he demands something else, something more, something impossible." One instant you are relieved to be able to give Caesar what is Caesar's, the next moment, you are told to give up everything else that is of the world. One minute, you are told to honor your mother and father, then the next, you are invited to leave them behind. One moment, you are reminded that in the end, the judgment will come unrelentingly, but the next moment, you are also told that God forgives, not seven times, but seventy times seven times. And he says: "It is this prickliness, this demanding, almost imperious solicitude that makes Jesus such an inexhaustible presence."
Yet, even as Zechariah begins as a loser, he is shown in today's Gospel as a winner, one who is "unstucked," one who is freed from his imprisonment, one who is at first struck mute and speechless but now is able to speak and sing God's praises. Zechariah ends up as a winner when he realizes once more that ours is a God of surprises, that ours is a God of the unexpected, whom we can never put in a box and wrap up so neatly with fancy paper and ribbons, and Christmas is precisely the time when this comes across so clearly, when we see the almighty God lying so peacefully in a manger, wrapped in swaddling clothes and so vulnerable. Father Horacio de la Costa once said it so eloquently, that "Christmas is when we celebrate the unexpected; it is the festival of surprise," when "down is up and up is down", when suddenly, "in the very heart of earth, is heaven," and "the stars and the angels look down on the God who made them and God looks up at the things He made." Zechariah becomes a winner, when he allows himself to be awed by the unfathomable will of God, and to believe once more that through all the good times and bad, there is a loving plan for him and for all the world, and how he must simply allow himself to be molded through all the twists and turns of life.
This Christmas season, we are invited to do just that – to sit back and be awed once more by this God of surprises, and let ourselves take part in his loving plan
Back in the Nineties there was a hit film called Awakenings. It starred Robert De Niro and it told the true story of a man who wakes up after being in a coma from a sleeping sickness for over 20 years. We see him rejoice as he experiences the full rush of life, but then the sickness returns. The scene where he is put back to bed, still awake, but knowing he will be returning to a sleeping prison forever is one of the most anguished you'll ever see.
And it's what sprang to mind when Schumacher gave his retirement speech at Monza. I watched this man, responsible for so many unbelievable racing moments, say his farewells, and then that kid Kubica, who'd come third, trotted out one of those inane lift- music-style speeches about his tyres being okay. I think this was the Awakenings moment for me.
Schumacher is one of that breed of super drivers that sprang up in the '80s and '90s - the Sennas, Prosts, Mansells and Piquets - who thought their own thoughts, spoke their minds and were completely in control of their own actions. When they raced they gave us the full spectrum - passion, fury, villainy, genius, mischief, balls-ups - the lot. They were showmen worth watching and now the last of that breed is about to walk away, and as a result Formula One will become more somnambulant.
It's easy to cast Schumacher as villain. Drivers such as Stirling Moss and Jackie Stewart point to all his low-down unsporting moments - Adelaide '94, Jerez '97, and Monaco this year - as evidence that he can never be ranked with the great champions of the past who had much higher moral standards.
And it's true that generations ago, the racing was more gentlemanly. Moss himself threw away his one chance of being world champion because he wouldn't protest the points tally of his rival, Mike Hawthorn.
Then you had Peter Collins surrendering his car - and his own chance of a world championship - to Fangio mid-race, so that his senior teammate could win the title. They were sportsmen in the purest sense of the word, but you can't compare Schumacher's behaviour to theirs, any more than you can compare the cars of now and then.
Those drivers raced in an era that, like the telly of the time, was black and white. Appearance was everything, emotions were clamped down, and society, rather than the individual, was the dominant force in deciding peoples' conduct.
Today, though, a two-dimensional comic- book hero has no relevance in a society that is much more complex. If a hero is to be relevant, then he or she must be like us - vulnerable, bad and weak one day, virtuous and strong the next.
That is Schumacher times 10, the classic Shakespearean tragic hero, capable of super-human feats and then transgressing to the dark side when his fatal flaw gets the better of him. You can't appreciate good without knowing evil, and likewise you can't appreciate human greatness unless that human has demons to fight.
Schumacher has plummeted to the worst depths in his sport - blatant cheating - and then gathered himself up to make amends with acts of genius. I can relate to him in the same way I can relate to all the best hero-cum-villains in modern cinema.
I met once, in 2000, while filming a BBC series about the science of speed. It took half a year to negotiate an hour of his time, but the man himself was charming and even stayed for a drink after filming wrapped.
In the interview, he confessed that he believed Häkkinen to be easily as fast as him, and then we discussed the Dick Dastardly moment when he tried to punt off Jacques Villeneuve in '97. He admitted how he knew it wasn't right, but how he'd been schooled in the era when Senna rewrote the rules on racing conduct. It was a fair reply, and afterwards we asked Bernie Ecclestone for the footage of the moment when Schumacher turned in on Villeneuve.
Bernie refused, to protect Michael, but then gave us the devil's own solution: he would let us use the footage - as long as Michael gave permission in writing. Schumacher then had the final say over whether his dirtiest laundry should be aired again, and, more to the point, if he said no, nobody would ever know he'd blocked it. A day later, though, we received his written permission. I've never forgotten that.
'Looking back over Schumacher's career, there are many amazing races that qualify him for hero status'
Looking back over his career there are many amazing races that qualify him for hero status. Spain '96, when, in pouring rain, he trounced the field in a dog of a car, is one. Then there was Hungary '98, when he had to drive 20 straight qualifying-speed laps mid-race to compensate for an extra pit stop, and again won.
But the racing moment above all that makes him a hero for me is this year's Hungarian Grand Prix. In the final laps, Schumacher was third, with Alonso out of the race completely. Michael's tyres were shot to bits and it was obvious he would lose places to de la Rosa and Heidfeld. Even so, he'd still come home fifth and bag himself four valuable points, so all he had to do was let the other drivers through.
Schumacher didn't though. He fought de la Rosa and Heidfeld like a wounded wild animal and in the process shagged his car completely and came home with no points.
Schumacher still races every corner, every moment, like his life depends on it. The same passion for winning that exposes him to moments of weakness is also the very passion that makes him gamble everything, going down with all guns blazing, like he did in Hungary.
Note from the Sports Guy: The first version of this column was posted on my old bostonsportsguy.com website (January, 1998), with the second version running right here on ESPN.com (January, 2002) and the third version running last year (January, 2004). So here's "NFL Playoff Manifesto 4.0," which includes the latest updated names/theories from last year's playoffs.
"We've come too far to stop now. For Granny ... for Nate ... [long pause] ... for Caretaker ... let's do it." -- Paul Crewe
Back in 1991, my buddy Geoff and I created The System, a template of gambling rules that rose from the wreckage of a catastrophic NFL playoffs. At the time, we were worried that somebody would pull a Kathy Bates, break our legs and turn us into James Caan from "Misery." Fortunately, we nailed a few "makeup" bets and escaped relatively unscathed. My mom didn't even suspect anything when I asked her for an extra $500 during the second semester of my junior year because I wanted to "join a gym."
Put it this way: You learn the most about yourself when your back is pressed against the wall -- or in this case, when somebody's holding you upside down by your legs over a seventh-floor hotel balcony. Yes, Geoff and I have been to hell and back in the NFL playoffs. There's no doubt about it. As Boomer Esiason once said, "The best adjective that describes these guys is ... is ... resiliency."
Maybe it took a few years, but we finally worked out the kinks. Things peaked during the 2001 Playoffs, as we went 6-1 during the first three rounds and nailed all three Super Bowl bets: The Ravens straight-up, a parlay (Ravens + the over), and even a random "Who will score the first TD?" bet (on "the field," thanks to Brandon Stokely). Everything went our way. And maybe we aren't savvy veterans along the lines of Robert Horry, Mike Timlin and Herschel Savage, but we're getting there. During the 2004 Playoffs, you may remember my picking the winners of all 11 games, running the slate in Round 1 and finishing 8-3 against the spread. And it's all because of the system.
Without further ado, here are 15 timeless gambling rules for the NFL postseason:
RULES TO LIVE (AND DIE) BY
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RULE NO. 1: Never, ever, EVER back a crappy QB on the road More important than every other rule combined. Crappy QBs become infinitely more crappy in the playoffs -- without exceptions -- because their shakiest qualities become magnified against a quality defense and a rowdy playoff crowd. If you need further evidence, harken back to the archives for every one of Scott Mitchell's playoff performances in the mid-'90s, which will be released next month with deleted scenes and director's commentary from Mitchell, Wayne Fontes and Rusty Hilger.
More recent examples from the past few seasons: Jay Fiedler in Oakland, '99; Jon Kitna against Miami, '99; Shawn King in Philly, '00; Vinny Testaverde in Oakland, '01; Elvis Grbac in Pittsburgh, '02; Tommy Maddox in Tennessee, '03; Jake Plummer in Indy, '04; Quincy Carter in Carolina, '04; Anthony Wright against Tennessee, '04 (special exemption here: Wright was home, but the fact that he's Anthony Wright trumped any possible home-field advantage).
RULE NO. 2: When in doubt, seek out the popular opinion and go the other way If the general public could pick games, bookies wouldn't be driving Lexuses around town with giant wreaths on them. When Geoff and I were relative neophytes, our first great gambling moment happened during the '90 playoffs, when we went against the grain and grabbed the underdog Redskins in Philly. Everyone loved the Eagles to win the title that season ... and if Randall Cunningham was as good in real life as he was in Tecmo Bowl, it would have happened. Undaunted, we jumped on the 'Skins ... and they cruised to a 20-6 upset. I still remember the score.
Three good tricks for this one:
A. Follow the movement on the lines from Monday to the weekend. If anything moves substantially -- by a point or more -- that means the majority of gamblers are backing that team. And you know what that means.
B. Watch "Inside the NFL," check out the gambling section in Friday's New York Post, then watch the pregame shows. If everyone seems to be siding with one team, something's probably up. Remember last year's Other Way Game, when Indy destroyed Denver in Round 1? Everyone and their brother loved the Broncos that week.
C. Pick the worst gambler you know, find out who he's taking and go the other way. Never fails.
D. During the second or third round of the playoffs, there's always one team that looked a little TOO good the previous week and nobody can think rationally about them. For example, during the 2005 playoffs, everyone fell in love with the Falcons after they shellacked a shaky Rams team. Don't get sucked in.
RULE NO. 3: Before you select a team, make sure Marty Schottenheimer, Mike Tice, Mike Martz, Mike Sherman or Jim Mora Sr. isn't coaching them Let the record show that I ignored this rule by taking the Chargers -7 over the Jets last season. The lesson, as always ... well, you knew already.
(Along those same lines ...)
RULE NO. 4: When in doubt, check out the coaching matchups An easy rule of thumb: Before you make a selection, imagine you're watching the game and seeing one of those split-screen thingies with both coaches pacing the sidelines. Could you handle knowing that you backed the coach who looks like the overmatched doofus? For instance, six years ago, I took Miami over Buffalo simply because I didn't want to see a spilt-screen shot and know that I gambled on the doofus (Wade Phillips) over the guy who looked like a real coach (Jimmy Johnson). Sounds stupid? It worked. Buffalo doubled Miami's yardage and dominated the time of possession ... yet they still blew the game with four turnovers. Go figure.
RULE NO. 5: Don't bet heavily against Tom Brady and Bill Belichick under any circumstances You might remember Barry Sanders, then Brett Favre owning this rule in their respective primes. Here's what I wrote way back in 1997: "Brett Favre is pure evil. Never, ever, ever load up against the Packers because of him. Just stay away. He's the one player who can single-handedly turn the tables on any team, much like Barry Sanders, John Elway and Dan Marino in their primes. As Scatman Crothers said to Danny Torrance in 'The Shining,' 'You stay away from Room 237 [and Brett Favre]! You hear me? Stay away!'"
Now the torch is passed to Brady and Belichick: A combined 9-0 in the playoffs, something like 345-1 in big games. Wager against them at your own risk.
RULE NO. 6: Ignore final records and concentrate on how the team finished the last five or six games of the season This isn't the NBA, where contenders can coast for a few months and "turn it on" for the playoffs. In the NFL playoffs, you're always better off gravitating toward hot teams and away from hot-and-cold teams (like the 2003 Rams or Broncos), or teams that peaked too early in the season (like the 2003 Chiefs). You can't "turn it on" in the NFL. Doesn't happen. So when you see that the 2005 Bengals have lost their last two games by double digits apiece ... well ...
RULE NO. 7: When in doubt, research special teams and turnovers Sounds dumb? The Patriots won the 2002 AFC Championship Game in Pittsburgh thanks to touchdowns from a punt return and a blocked field goal, as well as Kordell Stewart giving them two huge picks down the stretch. Those things weren't accidents. The Pats had been making plays on special teams all season; Kordell had been killing the Steelers in big games for years. The funny thing is Steelers fans still complain about this game, like the Pats were somehow fortunate to win. Are you kidding me? That game was a microcosm of everything that was right and wrong with those two teams.
So here's what you do: Check out those two stats (special teams and turnovers) and remember that Pats-Steelers game, or even the Panthers-Rams game last January. In the playoffs, Little Things always end up becoming Big Things.
RULE NO. 8: Beware of the Road Favorite If you're wagering on a Road Favorite in the playoffs, you better have a good reason ... and I mean, a really good reason, like "The Giants are heading into Chicago for Round 2, Rex Grossman just broke his ankle in five places while shoveling snow, and Kyle Orton and his 'Hand That Rocks The Cradle' beard is getting the start."
(Hey, that reminds me ... )
RULE NO. 9: Check out the backup QBs ... And ask yourself one question: Are Vinny Testaverde, Tommy Maddox, Quincy Carter, Anthony Wright, Scott Mitchell, Cade McNown, Bubby Brister, Danny Kanell, Gus Frerotte, Mark Rypien, Spergeon Wynn, Stoney Case, the Huard brothers, the Detmer brothers, the McCown brothers, the Sklar Brothers, Dr. Jonathan Quinn, or anyone named "Billy Joe" involved in a "One hard hit to the starting QB, and they're quickly warming up on the sidelines" capacity?
(Note: This is like checking the safety on a gun.)
RULE NO. 10: Only pick an underdog or a road team if you're convinced it has a chance to win the game outright This used to be the paragraph where I rattled off cool gambling stats for the first three rounds, trying to demonstrate how gamblers should gravitate toward home teams except for one underdog pick every round (two if you were really feeling it). Unfortunately, that logic was blown out of the water by Round 2 of the 2004 playoffs, when all four road teams inexplicably covered. So much for stats. In the age of parity, you can't play the percentages like that anymore. But here are two rules of thumb to remember:
A. At least one underdog covers every round. Always. This will never change.
B. If you're picking a road team to cover the spread, you better think it can win outright. For instance, here's what I wrote before talking myself into the Panthers over the Rams in January, 2004: "Don't get suckered into the Panthers on Saturday because you 'think they can keep it close.' You better believe they can knock Bulger around, move the ball with Stephen Davis, get some circus catches from Muhammad and Smith and come out of St. Louis with the Dubya. Or else take the Rams and lay the seven."
RULE NO. 11: Beware of the easy two-team teaser on the same day I created this rule during the 2003 playoffs, after everyone and their brother teased the Jets (home against the Colts) and Packers (home against the Falcons) on the Saturday of Round 1. Well, the Gambling Gods didn't appreciate that ... so Michael Vick ended up having the game of his life in Lambeau. The same situation arose in Round 2 of the 2004 playoffs -- with the Pats (home against the Titans) and the Rams (home against the Panthers) -- and this time, I was ready:
"This Rams-Pats tease is those 'Britney Spears X-Rated Video: Click here!' e-mails. In other words, any time something looks too easy, it usually is. Something weird is gonna happen. And it won't be with the Pats."
What happened? The Rams lost to the Panthers. And a new gambling rule was born.
RULE NO. 12: Never bet heavily against a playoff team that has a coach and an owner whose last names both end in a vowel A friend of a friend named Oaksie created this one three years ago, after San Fran pulled off two bizarre covers against Green Bay and Atlanta in the first two rounds (two games that smelled worse than Vlade Divac). Doesn't apply this season.
RULE NO. 13: Never bet too much money on your own team Especially in the playoffs. If they lose, it's doubly excruciating and the collective devastation almost feels like a quadruple loss. Remember, gambling is supposed to be fun, despite how it turns out for every TV character.
(And I shouldn't need to remind you that you should never, ever, EVER wager against your own team. But I will, just for safety.)
RULE NO. 14: Don't try to be a hero, just try to win money A new addition to the list. When the playoffs roll around, some gamblers have a tendency to get cute and go against the grain -- like with Jake and the Broncos last year-- so they talk themselves into stats like "Did you know the Broncos had the best time of possession mark of any team this season?" and "They could have been 14-2 with a couple of breaks," and suddenly you're going against Manning and the Colts at home like an idiot because you want to be a hero.
Here's a good rule of thumb: Take a deep breath and ask yourself one question: "If my life depended on this pick, would I still be making this bet?"
RULE NO. 15: Before you make your decisions, take one last look at the quarterbacks again (Note: I update this ending with every version of the column. In version 1.0, we used Jon Kitna and the Seahawks. In version 2.0, we used Elvis Grbac and the Ravens. In version 3.0, we used Jake the Snake and the Broncos. This year? Chris Simms.
Imagine taking the Bucs in Chicago for Round 2:
They're down by seven points, there's 11 minutes left in the game, the Bucs are at their own 12-yard-line, the Bears fans are going crazy, it's 2 degrees with a minus-35 wind chill ... and Chris Simms is bending over center. He's 9-for-26 for 121 yards and three INTs, including one that Nathan Vasher brought back for a TD. You're PRAYING for Simms to hand off every down. And yet he's dropping back to pass again, and he's looking for Joey Galloway over the middle, but he has to rush the throw ...
Editor's Note: The following excerpt from "Moving the Chains: Tom Brady and the Pursuit of Everything" examines how Tom Brady is able to maintain a successful balance of humility and stardom while being one of the fiercest competitors in the NFL. Reprinted from "Moving the Chains: Tom Brady and the Pursuit of Everything" by Charles P. Pierce with permission of the publisher, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC. All rights reserved.
Each chain is precisely ten yards long. There's an upright at either end. There is also a third upright with numbers on it. The uprights are called the "sticks." The officials who keep the uprights that are connected by a chain are called the "rod men." The official who keeps the other upright, which is called the "down indicator box," is called the "box man." Across the field are auxiliary chains and sticks, and auxiliary rod men and box men, so that players can look at either sideline and determine the state of play.
When a football team makes a first down, one rod man plants his stick in the ground parallel to where the ball has been placed. The other rod man extends the chain to indicate to the team (and the spectators) how far they have to go to another first down. Once a team passes that second stick, it gains a first down and the chains move. The object of any offense is to keep the chains moving.
It's within the movement of the chains that football finds its soul. It's within the movement of the chains that football players see most clearly how they are bound together. When an offense is moving the chains, it keeps its defense off the field, rested and ready, while exhausting the defense of the other team. When an offense is moving the chains, its success is easily defined in calibrated achievements, ten yards at a time, one after another after another again. Each player gains confidence -- in himself and in what comes to be seen as an inexorable whole. This confidence can become an almost physical force -- something Newtonian, like gravity or inertia: "An offense in motion tends to stay in motion, except when acted upon by an equal or opposite force, which is usually a linebacker with blood in his eye." In fact, an offense relentlessly moving the chains is often said to be going "downhill." The constant progress shortens the game. "Time of possession" is one of the most beloved statistics among football coaches. Moving the chains bends time itself to a team's will.
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Tom Brady moves the chains. It's the first thing the New England Patriots and their coaches saw in him, back in 2000, when he was a sixth-round draft pick -- and a fourth-string quarterback -- directing the scout team with players who hadn't been around long enough yet to be considered castoffs. The scout team's job is to simulate the offense of the upcoming opponent. However, after practice, Brady and the scout team would practice the New England offense. He led, and they went with him. "They'd go through the plays, and, if somebody got something wrong, he'd correct them," recalls Belichick. "You could see them getting better. They moved on you."
Almost two years later, in the Superdome in New Orleans, playing with the starters in the biggest game of his life, at the end of a very strange football season, Tom Brady moved all the chains, literally and figuratively, transforming the Patriots and changing his life. By the end of the day, he had produced a remarkable upset that had marked a beleaguered franchise with an entirely new identity, one that resonated deeply with a country still freshly wounded, and Brady instantly personified all the change he'd helped to engineer. Along with his team, he stepped into strange new territory.
In the early evening of February 2, 2002, the Patriots were sitting on their own 17-yard line, tied at 17–17 with the heavily favored St. Louis Rams with 1:21 left in regulation time. Their defense, which had smacked the velocity out of the Ram offense all evening, was literally on its last legs, having just surrendered a touchdown on which at least one pursuing New England defender simply collapsed as though the air had gone out of him.
The smart play was to let the clock run and take a chance on winning in overtime. In fact, John Madden was recommending that very thing on national television while Brady, Belichick, and the offensive coordinator, Charlie Weis, huddled on the sideline. "It was a ten-second conversation," Weis recalls. "What we said is we would start the drive, and, if anything bad happened, we'd just run out the clock."
Belichick and Weis agreed that the Patriots should try to win the game immediately -- in part because of the exhausted state of their defense, but mainly because they knew that, even if he didn't get the team a chance to win, Brady was not likely to make a mistake that would cost them the game.
The bare-bones play-by-play does not do justice to what happened next. Consider the play described as: "2-10 NE 41 (:29) T. Brady pass to T. Brown ran OB at SL 36 for 23 yards (D. McCleon, Little) Pass 14, Run 9." Brady hit receiver Troy Brown with a pass that Brown carried twenty-three yards down to the St. Louis 36-yard line before being forced out of bounds.
What's missing is the moment on the previous play that made this one possible. Brady read a blitz by a St. Louis linebacker and threw the ball away. ("T. Brady pass incomplete," says the official record.) What's missing is the fact that Brady noticed that St. Louis had rushed only three of their defensive linemen, dropping a defensive tackle into pass coverage, the way he'd seen them do it on all that film with which he'd seared his eyeballs over the previous week. What's missing is how he bought enough time for Brown to "clear" the unwieldy defensive tackle and get free, how Brady took a tiny, instinctive step up in the pocket to avoid an onrushing lineman whom he felt more than he saw, enabling him to find Brown for the completion.
"There are a lot of little things that go into it," says Bill Belichick, whose occasionally terse commentary can make the official play-by-play read like Finnegans Wake.
The movement is missing. There's no sense of constant forward motion, or of the burgeoning confidence that was its primary accelerant. Two plays later, with seven seconds left, Brady "spiked" the ball, deliberately tossing it to the ground in order to stop the clock so that New England would have time to kick the winning field goal. In this situation, most quarterbacks simply slam the ball to the turf and walk off the field.
However, on this occasion, Brady bounced the ball gently, caught it, and handed it to the official. ("T. Brady pass incomplete" reads the play-by-play sheet again.) Up in the luxury suites, Robert Kraft, the owner of the Patriots and the man who had redeemed the franchise from its history as one of the greatest screwball comedy acts in the history of professional sports, was stunned by the coolness of the gesture. On the next play, Adam Vinatieri came on and won the game for New England with a 48-yard field goal.
Two years later, in Reliant Stadium, deep in the industrial savanna outside Houston, Brady established himself permanently in the place where the win in New Orleans had brought him. The Patriots were favored this time, and this time Caro-lina could be said to have tied them, 29–29, on a late touchdown pass. However, New England was gifted with a bizarre kickoff that went out of bounds on their 18-yard line, giving them a minute and eight seconds to travel only about thirty-seven yards to get into position for another field goal try. The measure of the distance that Brady had come is the fact that, this time, almost everybody watching the game expected him to do it
This time, the pivotal play came with fourteen seconds left, a third-down-and-three situation from the Carolina 40-yard line. Again, Weis and Belichick worked on a vulnerability they'd spotted earlier in the week. Carolina would play man-to-man coverage near the line of scrimmage while sending two defensive backs deep, what the coaches called "Cover Five." At the line of scrimmage, Brady read the defense and intuited the consequence: receiver Deion Branch would be open underneath the deep coverage.
Branch lined up in the slot between another wide receiver and the line of scrimmage. The cornerback was playing him to take away the middle of the field, so Branch broke out and down and away, toward the near sideline, and Brady hit him for seven-teen yards and a first down. The chains moved. Vinatieri kicked another game winner. A year later, in Jacksonville, Florida, Brady and the Patriots beat the Philadelphia Eagles to win their third Super Bowl in four seasons.
The territory that had been so new in New Orleans was now the place in which he would live out the rest of his life. Brady would forever be discussed in the same conversation with the greatest quarterbacks who'd ever played. He would be held up as the ideal player on an exemplary team and, while the velocity of his life had increased exponentially, it would be assumed by others that its trajectory would remain straight and true. In the minds of many people, he could live the rest of his life on automatic pilot. He didn't have to move another step. His life could be complete if he wanted it to be.
And this is the oddest irony about moving the chains -- the quarterback is the only player anywhere on the football field whose job specifically requires him to stand still. Even the most mobile quarterback usually has to stop to throw the ball. This means that the quarterback has to perform a task made up of a half dozen finely jeweled movements while a thousand pounds of hostile beef is running around him with its hair on fire.
"Think about it," says Steve Nelson, a former Patriot linebacker. "The quarterback's the only player on the field that has to worry about his elbow pointing the right way to do his job." And the final irony is that it's what the quarterback does when he's standing still that gets the chains to move.
Ultimately, moving the chains can add up to a journey. By resisting easy summation, Tom Brady commits himself to that journey on his own terms. He declines to be defined by the limits of his profession. He declines to be the vessel for anyone else's virtue. Somehow, he has struck and kept the balance that Elwood Reid noticed in that classroom full of knuckleheads. He will live life -- and be successful -- on his own terms and, at the same time, he will not be culled from the herd. He will be a star and he will be a teammate. He will be smart and handsome and rich and popular and he will be one of the guys, too. He will move the chains in his life, constantly, so that he will determine its ultimate definition.
In this, he sets himself up for a journey through public life that's fueled by formidable contradiction. He will live a normal life, albeit one that includes a movie-star girlfriend and a condominium that priced out last year at $4 million. In this, he is the perfectly consonant face of the mythology that his performance has helped the New England Patriots create and market about themselves -- that, in a day of stylized individualism, the Patriots and their quarterback are a team with red-state family values playing in the bluest state of all.
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Can anyone be humble if he talks about being humble on 60 Minutes?
Can anyone be a teammate when the team's success works at the same time to exalt him individually?
How can any football team be a family when a great deal of the family's success depends on grinding up some of the children and tossing them away?
There are material rewards, certainly, to football, but they come with the realization that physical destruction is as central to the sport as it ever was to boxing. (Which is why so many of the pious calls to ban the latter ring so hollow when they come from people who glorify the former.) That basic fact can lead to a soul-killing destruction, in which the player commodifies himself until the essential parts of the person grate together the way the bones in a knee will when the cartilage is removed.
Success is an anodyne. Adulation is a powerful anesthetic. It deadens the pain of that moment when the physical destruction of the sport darkens the heart and bleeds the soul. The key is to keep the adulation under control in such a way that the essential person is not lost. The key is to keep moving. Resist everything that slows you down, whether it's physical pain or the petrifi-cation of celebrity. Keep moving. Keep moving. Keep the team moving, even when you're standing still. Keep your life moving, even when you're frozen in the fondest memories of the people who watch you play.
This is the journey Tom Brady has taken on. It began in a family wherein the spirit and documents of the Second Vatican Council mean as much to his development as any playbook. It moved along to college, where the whims of incompetent coaching nearly brought it to an end. It proceeded into the NFL, where it benefited by a brutal injury to another quarterback and where it has arrived, finally, at the opening game of the 2005 season. A Thursday night at home, September 8, 2005, against the Oakland Raiders.
In its game presentation, the NFL is what the Roman Empire would have been had it invented the bass guitar and the thirty-pack. To be in the middle of it is to be deaf to many things, including irony. For example, there has to be an academic slumming out there somewhere who's willing to undertake the study of the phenomenon of sockless males -- public heterosexuality and testosterone at flood tide -- howling along to "YMCA" and "Rock and Roll, Part Two," the only hit for Gary Glitter, a kiddie-porn aficionado who, at the very moment his song is blasting away across Gillette Stadium, is on his way to a couple of decades in a Vietnamese prison for having transferred himself and his hobby to Southeast Asia.
Tonight, the NFL's in full voice. The rapper Kanye West was dropped at the last minute because he'd said unkind things about President George Bush's reaction to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, but he was replaced by Santana and the Rolling Stones, and we have indeed arrived at that dark day in which the Stones are the safe play. There are fighter jets and fireworks. The teams come out onto the field as completely obscured by smoke as Cemetery Ridge was on the last day at Gettysburg.
Outside the press box at Gillette Stadium hang a series of television monitors. These enable the sportswriters to follow the action, especially the slow-motion replays, since the height and funky corner location of the press box make watching the actual play on the field problematic. One screen carries the actual television broadcast seen in people's homes. Another carries the raw feed. At this moment, Tom Brady is on both of them.
On the broadcast monitor, dressed in a knife-sharp suit, he's sitting at a table in what appears to be a high-toned restaurant, surrounded by his actual offensive linemen, who are in full uniform. It's a commercial for Visa credit cards, and the linemen are metaphors for the various forms of consumer protection offered by the card. They read their lines, straight credit-card cant, no chaser. They cut their eyes at one another from behind their facemasks, which, oddly, emphasize every change in expression rather than obscuring them, as though the cages bring their features into clearer focus. The funniest thing, of course, is that here in the restaurant, full to the gunwales with Armani and attitude, it's the offensive linemen who have individual identities, even if only as "Fraud Protection" or "Zero Liability." These are roles with greater range than those of, say, "Left Tackle" or "Right Guard," which can be the football equivalent of those movie roles identified in the closing credits as "Second Man in Elevator" or "Dead Soldier No. 3." Here, Brady's just another guy in an expensive suit, and he's the straight man.
Presented with the check for the meal, Brady delivers his one-liner: "Do metaphors pay?"
"Ha, ha," the linemen laugh in reply. "No."
On the monitor next to this one, there is a low-angle shot of Brady live on the New England sideline, with fireworks exploding far above his head. It's the kind of hero shot in which the NFL specializes. It's hard to tear your eyes away to look all the way down to the sideline at the actual person, slapping high-fives with his teammates, his face a bright burst of joy that you don't need a television to see.
This is where the journey truly happens, down on the field. Everything else is side trips and diversions -- roadside amusements and reptile farms. Tom Brady fought hard to begin the journey, and he will fight just as hard to determine its direction. Ultimately, he'll determine its end. After all, in some ways, his career is already complete. He's won three Super Bowls, more than any other professional quarterback except Joe Montana. He's rich. He's famous. He will be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, even if he gives the whole thing up tomorrow and joins the Carthusians. But he won't stand still, except for those moments when he has to in order to move the chains.
"Is there a perfect game out there?" Brady muses. "It's got to be at the highest stakes. It has to be a game that means a lot, and it has to come down to the end, probably a game where you have to keep digging and digging. You don't remember the ones you win 35–17. You remember the ones you win 38–35. A two-minute drive. They score. You score. Those are the ones that are memorable. Who wants everything to come easy?"
Taong 2005 at isang ordinaryong middle class pinoy si Noah. Nagpakita sa kanya ang Diyos at sinabing "Pagkataposng isang taon ay bubuhos ang ulan at babahain ang buong kapuluan ng Pilipinas. Gusto kong gumawa ka ng isang malaking arko at isakay mo rito ang pares-pares na mga hayop at mga mag-asawang pilipino sa iba't ibang kapuluan." Ibinigay kay Noah ang specsng Arko at taos puso nitong tinanggap ang responsibilidad na sagipin ang sambayanang Pilipino sa napipintong pagbaha. Lumipas ang taon, muling nagpakita ang Diyos kay Noah. Walang arkongnagawa si Noah at galit na galit siyang tinanong ng Diyos, "Nasaan ang arko na ipinagawa ko sa iyo?" Tumugon si Noah, "Patawarin po ninyo ako kung di ponatupad ang utos ninyo! Nagkaroon po ng malaking problema sa plano po ninyo."
At inilahad ni Noah ang mga sagabal na nakaharap niya sa pag-gawa ng arko. Humingi siya ng Mayor's permit pero papayag lang daw si Mayor kung ang gagawa ng arko ay ang construction firm ng kanyang pamangkin. Tumungo siya sa Congressman pero papayag lang daw si Congressman kung may matatanggap siyang 30% commission. Nagtayo ng unyon ang mga kinuha niyang manggagawa at nag-strike. Natunugan ng mga left-leaning groups ang kanyang balak at ang mga ito ay nag-rally dahil daw sa hindi makatarungang pagpili ng mga taong sasakay sa arko (mga taong naniniwala lang sa Diyos ang pwedeng sumakay). Nakisali sa rally ang mga bakla at tomboy dahil bias daw na normal na mag-asawa lang ang pwedeng sumakay.
Ang civil society group ay nakisali na rin sa gulo dahil napag-alaman daw nila na ang pondong gagamitin sa paggawa ng arko ay galing sa donasyon ng mga gambling lords at katas ng weteng.
Sa kaguluhang ito ay napilitang magpatawag ng hearing ang senado "in aid of legislation". Sinubukan ni Noah na gamitin ang EO 464 para makaiwas sa hearing pero dahil hindi sya executive official, napilitan siyang tumistigo. Nang malaman ng senado na utos ng Diyos ang pagpapagawa ng arko, dineklara nila itong unconstitutional dahil hindi raw nito iginalang ang separation ng church at state . Nakialam na rin ang NBI at PNP at sinabi nilang meron silang impormasyon na ang barko raw na ito ay gagamitin ni Erap sa kanyang pagtakas. Sinabi naman ng ISAFP at DOJ na ito raw ay gagamitin ng grupong Magdalo sa binabalak nilang coup laban kay Arroyo. Nilapitan ni Noah si Mike Defensor para makipag-usap kay GMA. Payag daw si GMA na ituloy ang arko kung ipapaskil daw sa arko ang malaking mukha ni Arroyo na may slogan "Towards a Strong Republic"."Hindi po ako pumayag kaya hanggang ngayon po ay may TRO ang pag-gawa ng arko. Sa palagay ko po kailangan ko pa ng 10 taon para matapos ang inyong proyekto." Ang huling wika ni Noah.
Napa-iling ang Diyos at sinabing, "Di ko na kailangang wasakin pa ang bansang ito. Hayaan ko na lang kayong sumira nito."
Ross Brawn on Michael Schumacher regarding Hungary 98
"The whole thing was pointing in another direction. It just wouldn't turn. He was flicking it right, left, straight. Our Goodyear's were not as good as those Bridgestone's on the Mclaren. We had a car that was a full second and a half slower than our rivals. But there he was, forcing it to turn, dragging it by the neck. The hair on the back of my neck stood up. The car was suffering from massive understeer, I was so sure that he would have gone off, atleast thrice in that one lap. But despite all this, he was inside on sectors 1,2 and 3. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I felt pulverised. Sometimes, Michael goes further beyond the boundaries of sheer genius. He put that car on pole. I knew that day, I witnessed something truly brilliant and I will never forget that lap. He's just that bloody good"
Ross Brawn on MS after witnessing his quali laps in Hungary -1998 (Provisional pole)
Im gonna be a Dlue Diamond and Team Elite no matter what happens. I will do whatever it takes to become a Blue Diamond and Team Elite by 2011. Please help me God on the BE-DO-HAVE on this and lets do this together.
A friend of mine asked me the question - If a tree falls, does it fall exist even nobody perceived it?
I answered yes, because sa question na nga nanggaling na the tree fell. The tree fell, its fall existed. Its just that nobody perceived it, it only means nobody perceived its existence. I dont agree with Berkleys maxim of - To be perceived is to exist. A being exists even if no one perceives its existence. If I live in a cave all my life, I exist, even if nobody saw me live.
Then I told him about the Spiderman arguement. Peter Parker is Spiderman, he exists as Spiderman at some point in time. Nobody knows about that. Does it mean he is not Spiderman, he does not exist as Spiderman? No, he is still Spiderman, its just that nobody knows it.
Another Spiderman arguement. Mary Jane is sometimes angry at Peter Parker for not always being there. Hence, sometimes she thinks of Peter in a bad light. But she does not know that Peter is not always there for her because he has to save the world. She thinks Peter is bad because he is not always there for her. But in truth, Peter is good because he is saving others and fighting for the greater good. She just does not know it.
That is similar to God. We are like Mary Jane, we are sometimes frustrated, sad, disappointed, and even angry at God for not always answering our prayers or for misfortunes and sufferings comming our wy. But we dont know that there is a greater reason for this that we can't understand. We dont know why it is happening to us, or why it has happened to us. But the truth is, God made those things happen for a great reason and for greater good. God is good, His works are good in nature, but we just dont see the good in all those works and we dont know why He did those works because we cannot grasp His infinite wisdom using our finite reason and senses.
Whatever position we are now in ourlives, be it successful or not, winning or losing, happy or sad, always remember that the position we are in is the best position possible, otherwise God would not put us there. We dont understand, we will understand it later perhaps. But what is important is that we believe Him, we believe in Him, we trust him, and we keep and share the faith, that this is the best position in our lives right now and that better and greater things will happen if we pray and work for it. Lets focus on achieving our goals, and God's Will and Glory, and not be worried by problems and negatives, instead we should overcome problems and turn the negatives into positives.
We should believe, even if we dont understand it at all, we should believe even if we dont understand it first, and eventually we will understand.
As St. Augustine said, "Seek not to understand so that you may believe, but believe so that you may understand." In life, you dont need to know it all, you dont need to understand it all. Sometimes that belief is the key to knowledge and wisdom. How do we achieve our dreams? It all starts with a belief that it will happen, then comes the vision that you see yourself with your dreams. Then that is where you set your goals in achieving your dreams and make an action plan. But you will never set the goals that you never believed in, and you will never make an action plan of something you dont believe you cant achieve.
