I spent Saturday watching football. That's now not ordinary for me. While I revel in looking the NFL occasionally, I'm commonly doing some thing else and biding time till the golfing starts. Although I turned into working on my pc at the same time as the video games were on, I watched loads extra than standard.
And I best checked in on the Sony Open from time to time. That's VERY uncommon. But this week football may have taught us greater about golfing than GC's broadcast.
For the ones of you who don't hold up with the sport, this weekend is the Divisional Playoffs. This weekend is while the Super Bowl contenders get cut down to four. Next week it is reduce to 2... And people groups will go to the Super Bowl on February 2. My Carolina Panthers are inside the playoffs for the primary time in numerous years. They'll try to get via nowadays.
Saturday night I sat in amazement as quarterback Tom Brady led the New England Patriots to a forty three-22 win in horrific climate over the Indianapolis Colts.
This has been a tough yr for the Pats. They've misplaced a number of key players to harm, and they've had to fill in with a whole lot of newcomers. The Pats have a reasonably complicated system that some players surely can not study. Most of Brady's favorite receivers have both been injured or lured away via other groups. And Brady himself is 36 years antique; many teams would not play a person that vintage. A lot of human beings did not assume the Pats should even make the playoffs.
But right here they are, and they seem to be getting stronger as they cross. The brilliant component is how they are doing it... And that's wherein we are able to analyze.
You see, Brady is one of the satisfactory quarterbacks the sport has ever seen. (I understand there are a variety of Patriot haters accessible -- you realize who you're -- but even you have to concede that point.) He is one of those QBs who can make the large skip underneath strain while it must be made. This season Payton Manning (with the Denver Broncos) broke the report for touchdowns thrown in a single season. That record had been Brady's.
The Pats scored 6 touchdowns in Saturday's recreation. Do you know the way a lot of them had been the end result of Brady's throws?
ZERO. Brady failed to throw a single touchdown pass. He made a few vital passes but, for the most component, became content material at hand the ball to his going for walks backs and allow them to make the massive plays. In fact, he simplest attempted 25 passes whilst the backs ran the ball nearly twice as a good deal -- a very un-Patriotlike performance. In reality, I heard LeGarrette Blount (who ran four of these TDs in) say that in case you had instructed him before the sport that Brady wouldn't have thrown a single TD, he wouldn't have believed you.
But -- and this is what I need you to get from this post -- Brady has stated he does not care about his stats. He cares approximately triumphing games, and that was the way to win this one.
How often have you addressed the ball, understanding that you just needed to hit a fairway wood off the tee... But you pulled out the driving force due to the fact you may hit it so much further? Of direction, you did not. You likely sliced it into the bushes and butchered the hole.
How often have you ever tried to get a flowery approach shot near the hole when all you needed became a easy shot someplace at the inexperienced? Bet you ended up missing the green completely and racking up a big score, failed to you?
How regularly have you ever attempted to ram a putt into the hollow due to the fact you couldn't bear the thought that you might go away a brief faucet-in... And ran the ball ten feet via for a 3-putt?
Here's the big question: How many of those errors did you make simply because you felt like you "weren't trying hard enough" unless you did it the hard way? Or because you didn't want to look weak to your foursome? Or simply because you couldn't bear the thought that you might lose a shot by playing safe? (BTW, not playing safe cost you two shots... or three... or...)
Tom Brady and his team dissected the opposition because they looked at what they could do best and then DID IT. And actually accepting what we can and can't do and then playing that way is often the hardest part of our game. The mental game isn't so much about "gaining a winner's mentality" as it is about accepting our limitations and learning to exploit them so we get the best score we can... and that's way harder than reciting "I can do this" as you stand over a putt.
But taking what the game offers you can be highly rewarding. Just ask Tom Brady.
The photo of Brady came from espn.Go.Com. It's a 2-12 months-old article, but I preferred the image.
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