Favre – Romo…Showdown
Out in old Texas there have been many showdowns through the years. The names change, but the story remains the same. There is the Old Gun. He’s been minding things in town for years cleaning up messes. His respect has been earned, bit by bit from the townsfolk through blood, through sweat, through doing things other people couldn’t….or wouldn’t. Man builds himself a reputation. Old Gun’s name is Favre. Has a posse that likes to wear green and gold, and they’ll follow him to the ends of the earth.
Favre’s had his share of showdowns before. Never shied away from one yet. Hell, he kind of likes ‘em. How else a man going to test his mettle? Calls the Mid-West home but he’s been through Dallas before. Had his share of fights out West too, even as far as San Francisco back yonder. Nothing intimidates this Old Gun. Seen too much. Been too many places for such tomfoolery. He’s tested. Battle-scarred, Favre, always watchful…..peering out from under his hat. Looking into the horizon. Waiting for the next young gun to take his chances.
There’s always another one coming. Some are pretenders to an Old Gun’s legacy. They ride into town looking for Favre. “Over at Lambeau”, a storekeeper might say to the ruffian looking for action. “Be careful what you wish for” the keeper thinks, as the young tough rides away towards the storied stadium. Somewhere, an old ghost named Lombardi is laughing. History is filled with these pretenders shot down in the heat of battle by Favre and others of his ilk.
Sometimes, like this week, Favre hears of trouble outside of town. Favre rouses his posse, packs up his gear and heads on out. They’ve smoked out these kinds of commotions lots of times. Never bothered the old hand before. In fact, he likes taking his crew and riding down Southwest way. The trouble this time is coming out of Dallas. Big town, Dallas. Young buck there Favre has heard about looking to make a name for himself. Favre has seen his kind before though. Good-looking kid, likes the ladies. Maybe a little too much. Maybe it will mess with his concentration. Favre may have been that way back when. This is how he knows.
This young buck’s name is Romo. Lots about him in the papers. Prides himself on being a gunslinger, just like Favre. Something about that kind of rubs Favre the wrong way. Maybe he sees himself in The Kid, the way he was when the weight of the world was not pressing so severely. Both came up hard. No one gave either a chance to make it. Even more the reason why maybe he wants to teach The Kid a lesson.
This Romo is looking to make his bones on Favre’s back. These showdowns, if an old gun is not careful, have a way of the young gun sometimes slipping into the saddle and taking an Old Gun’s place. Favre knows this but will take his chances anyhow.
The wind is whipping as Favre heads toward Dallas with his crew. The sun hangs an orange glow over the horizon, painting a shadow as it disappears. Romo waits, itching for Favre’s appearance. Two men….showdown of the year.
Patriots: The Road To Perfect
Bill Belichick has created his masterpiece. Call it, “The Road To Perfect.” The final stroke, pressed by his able hand on a chilled December night, in what used to be his outdoor studio. A masterpiece shaped with a chalkboard, a worn out canvas which Coach had used to paint plays for the home team for many years at Giants Stadium. Now a necessary but unwanted guest on the visitor’s sideline, his Patriots putting the finishing touches on what will be Belichick’s legacy. His Patriots, steam pouring out of their helmets, stare down the Meadowlands faithful, in the stadium where he first became noticed as a coach, in what seems a lifetime ago. Battling one final set of Blue ghosts on The Road To Perfect. The blustery wind of his old boss, Bill Parcells, questioning if Belichick had what it took to be a Head Coach in the NFL, swirls from deep inside the bowels of Giants Stadium and inside Belichick’s memory. While he was helping Parcells cement his reputation with twin Super Bowl Titles, the idea that this was merely Belichick’s early period en route to blowing past Parcells’ works seemed impossible.
The rambling ghosts flicker the shadow of a terrifying defense that ripped through offensives in fear, with Belichick the brains behind the brawn of Hall-Of-Famers to be Lawrence Taylor, Harry Carson and Company. Giants Stadium holds rusting, old memories for Belichick. A creaking cradle that held the author of The Road To Perfect when he was learning his craft, hiding at times behind his state-of-the-art x’s and o’s, more comfortable with a plays than players.
The Road To Perfect now reached, it seems only natural for a Patriots team this special, the only team capable of such a feat. The Road To Perfect in reality was filled with potholes the size of a pot of clam chowder. Its drivers coming from the most unlikely of sources, to a most unlikely place in time. Belichick, who was simply average in his first Head Coaching stint in Cleveland, his currency as Wonder-Boy of the dazzling Giants defense as their Defensive Coordinator no longer accepted as payment in a League that pays long-term for wins, not potential. In Cleveland from 1991-1995, Belichick compiled a 36-44 record with the Browns, sporting a winning-record only once (1994), en route to their only playoff appearance during his tenure. Rumor that he was not able to communicate properly with players and not comfortable with the media both true, wrong turns learned from on The Road To Perfect.
Belichick, still prickly and uncomfortable in front of a podium, has no such discomfort roaming the sidelines, hooded sweatshirt and headphones squarely on the head of the Head of the team of the decade. On The Road To Perfect, Belichick has had seven straight winning seasons with New England, a current playoff record of 12-2, including three Super Bowl Championships (with odds-on for a fourth). Add now a crown jewel to the collection, a sterling 16-0 regular season, which the organization hopes to be a prelude to the first 19-0 season in the history of the NFL.
The Road To Perfect does not end with the Head Coach. It is also the story of Tom Brady, who now seems to have been cast as the good-looking, cool-hand behind the wheel on The Road To Perfect. Drafted without note by New England in the 6th round out of Michigan, the Hall-Of-Famer-to-be was an unlikely replacement for starting Quarterback Drew Bledsoe early on in the 2001 season. Brady would go on to lead the Patriots to their first Super Bowl victory that year and the organization would never look back. His chiseled good-looks and playboy of-the-field activities call to mind another Super Bowl MVP, Joe Namath. His on-the-field handiwork draws comparisons to another Joe Quarterback, that being lower-round draft pick, Joe Montana.
The normally tight-lipped Brady made mention about The Road To Perfect, and that it is in fact a special journey. “I think we all realize what a win would mean,” Brady stated before the historic game. “This has been a very special season. The most important (record) one being the 16-0. I hope we achieve that. It’d be a great feat for the team. We’d go down as the only team to be 16-0 so that’s the goal I’ve got in mind.”
A season ago, The Road To Perfect for Randy Moss was more like The Road To Nowhere. Closer to 0-16 than 16-0 with the woeful Oakland Raiders, a two-season trap where Moss became lost, all but disappearing from the NFL radar. Last year, the enigmatic receiver fell to career lows in touchdowns (3), receiving yardage (553) and receptions (42). One short season later, Moss is back in the Pro Bowl and has a career high for touchdowns. More importantly, Moss has been a good team player and teammate. He took less money to be a Patriot, and has been rewarded with Tom Brady missiles game after game.
Unlikely mates on The Road To Perfect, Belichick, Brady and Moss have the story that will be told 50 years from now. This team, leading the league is every meaningful offensive category, a ride in preparation for years, the map suddenly found after being buried for 35 years. The Road To Perfect, a journey to a record of 16-0 that now seems naturally created by this group, was anything but a given. Nothing is given, especially on The Road To Perfect.
Bird – Magic II – Rivalry and Rings
To be nonpareil in this world at anything is remarkable. The effort, dedication, balls and discipline required is unquestionable. Between 1980-1987 both Magic Johnson and Larry Bird set forth to battle for no less than the title of “Best basketball player on the planet”.
The backdrop for many of these duels was set on the hardwood parquet of the old Boston Garden. An incomparable basketball shrine, Boston Garden dripped in nostalgia as championship after championship banner hung from its rafters. Air so thick and humid you could knife through it, those Celtics teams used the Garden as a weapon. An ally to wear down until wilting (pun intended) opposing teams not used to its humid and rambunctious atmosphere. Add rabid fans who settled for nothing less than winning at all times and at all costs and it was a cauldron for other franchises. The Garden and its players at that time mirrored the city of Boston.
Old-school and no frills, both had their collective nose to the grindstone year after year, grinding out titles like a Chelsea factory. Fanfare was palpable as both Bird and Magic made their simultaneous jaunt to the NBA. At that time the NBA was suffering a serious image dilemma. Too druggy, too arrogant….too black in some estimations. The media shied away from such fare but Bird’s whiteness added an element to the script that made him all the more interesting a character in a league laden with black talent. It was prior to the era of European talent dotting the NBA landscape, so the emergence of a white star of Bird’s ilk was a novelty. The fact that he was a basketball savant made the plot all that much thicker. Here was a white boy who was championship-caliber right out of the box.
Boston embraced Bird as one of their own in part I believe because he was white. Bird if black would have been appreciated and revered, but I am not convinced he would have been as loved by the predominantly white Boston faithful. Boston historically has a reputation of being less kind to their black stars, with Jim Rice coming to mind for one. However, Kevin Garnett has taken the town by storm. He could be enjoying the effect of a town whose Sheriff has gone away, leaving the homefolk unguarded. Garnett, the new Sheriff in town, at any rate would be treated well by folks with a renewed appreciation for protection, regardless of his race.
Back in Los Angeles, Magic Johnson entered the league with a future hall-of-famer alongside him in Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Jabbar himself had been all-world in college, starring for the vaunted UCLA teams under legendary coach John Wooden. Jabbar, aloof and distant at times, was an interesting foil for Magic’s exuberance and flair. Magic embraced Los Angeles as no player before or after him, displaying an elegant cool that Laker fans aspired to.
During the ‘79-‘80 season, both Bird and Magic played with a vengeance, bringing an immediacy that the game had been in short supply of. It was a standard both would actually surpass as time went on. Magic averaged for a rookie an impressive 18 points, nearly 8 rebounds and over 7 assists per game, almost Oscar Robertson-like numbers. It was Bird who won the ‘79-‘80 battle but lost the war. In besting Johnson for rookie-of-the-year honors, Bird’s Celtics improved by a whopping 32 games in winning 61. Bird himself compiled 21 points and over 10 rebounds per game that year. Bird and Magic missed their first encounter in the Finals that year, as Bird’s team fell to the Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Magic and the Lakers would go on in ‘79-‘80 to win the NBA Finals, defeating the 76ers in dramatic style. It was Magic as a rookie who played Center in the clinching game after Kareem went down to an ankle injury. Magic, in the game 6 clincher, scored 42 points and drew 15 rebounds in the victory. This rookie made an indelible impact like the league had never seen previously at this level. Rookies are supposed to carry the luggage, not drop 42 and 15 in the Finals finale. As we were to bear witness, Magic and Bird would break molds throughout their careers.
The ‘79-‘80 season would mark the beginning of dominance for the two players and their franchises. With the Lakers winning the title that year, it would begin a stranglehold of the NBA championship which would include an amazing run of 8 of 9 years with one or the other winning it all. Only the dominant 76ers team of ‘82-‘83 would prevail in June during that era. That team, with perennial superstar Julius Erving and the underrated Moses Malone, would chop through the league that year, ultimately sweeping the Lakers in the Finals to finally bring Erving and Philadelphia their crown.
The Celtics would return fire in ’80-‘81, after Boston acquired both Robert Parish and Kevin McHale that off-season. This trio would subsequently become the frontline by which all others would be measured. In the ’80-’81 season, the Celtics would again have to face Erving and the 76ers in the Eastern Conference Finals. Coming back from a 3-1 deficit, Boston would win the final 3 games and advance to defeat Houston in the Finals. Houston would earlier pull a stunning upset of the Lakers in the first round of the Western Conference Playoffs, 2 games to 1. Moses Malone would almost single-handedly help Houston prevail in that series, leading to the abolishment soon thereafter of the best-of-three playoff format. The ’81-’82 season saw little-known Pat Riley take over the Lakers as Head Coach.
Riley, the slick-haired, well-dressed icon who would ultimately lead Johnson and the Lakers to become the team of the ‘80’s, preferred an up-tempo style that pleased Magic and the fans alike. Los Angeles would propel themselves back into the finals where they would again defeat Philadelphia. The Philadelphia 76ers were an enigmatic squad led by future hall-of-famer and high-flyer Julius Erving. With many talented pieces in place, they were destined to be near great during that era. If it weren’t for Bird and Magic, the 76ers and Erving almost surely would have garnered more titles and a more pronounced legacy. In boxing, champions are made greater by dangerous contenders that provide dramatic challenges. The same can be said with regard to the Sixers during this era. Their Joe Frazier (both Philadelphia products ironically enough) to the Lakers’/Celtics’ (take your pick) Ali, Philadelphia would always make for a bloody and close decision, but inevitably they would watch as Magic or Bird would move on to higher peaks.
Finally in the ‘82-’83 Finals, bolstered by the enigmatic Moses Malone, the 76ers got their hardware, scorching the NBA in both the regular season and playoffs. The Lakers for once would be their foil, being swept by the hungry Philadelphia squad in 4 straight. The 76ers had hit their apex that year and would not return to the finals during that era, even though a young, rotund power forward by the name of Charles Barkley entered the Philadelphia scene just after they won their title. Boston would end Erving’s trips to the Finals thereafter in dominating the Eastern Conference by going to the finals the next 4 consecutive years.
The ’83-’84 Finals finally secured the matchup that the league and fans had been salivating over since the days of Michigan State-Indiana State. Both the Lakers and Celtics rolled into the Finals that season, with Boston winning a hard-fought 7-game series to even up the trading of championships between Magic and Bird at two apiece. It was this series though that allowed Bird head-to-head bragging rights for the first time in their careers. It would also be the only time that Bird and the Celtics would defeat “Showtime” in the Finals. It seemed during the Magic-Bird run that theirs were the only two teams playing at a level elite enough to win a championship. If one would slip in their conference playoffs, the other hungrily appeased their ravenous appetite.
The Celtics mastery over Los Angeles lasted exactly one year. In ’84-’85 the highly anticipated rematch went to the challenger as Los Angeles committed the sacrilege of defeating the Celtics in a deciding game on the hallowed parquet floor of Boston Garden. During that run neither team could produce a repeat and defend their championship. It would take until later in the decade when Los Angeles would finally break through, defeating Boston and then the rugged “Bad Boys” of Detroit. The ’85-’86 season saw the Lakers again fold to the Houston Rockets in the West. This time instead of Moses Malone doing the damage, there was a new force emerging in the twin towers of Hakeem Olajuwon and Ralph Sampson. This duo seemed destined to perhaps wrestle control of the west during that time, and were the most serious threat to do so during the 1980’s. However, after defeating the Lakers and making it to the finals only to lose to Boston, the Rockets would not make it back to the Finals during the 1980’s. Sampson’s fragility would not lend itself to powering together with Olajuwon at a championship level thereafter. Hakeem would however ultimately lead Houston in the mid-‘90’s to back-to-back titles.
The ’85-’86 Finals would be the last that Bird’s Celtics would win. He also garnered his third straight regular-season MVP as well that year. The fitting rubber match between the Lakers and Celtics was somewhat anti-climatic, as Boston would be the franchise to blink. It was this ’86-’87 Finals that secured the Lakers as the team of the decade. The Celtics were willing but their flesh was weak. By outlasting the Celtics 4-2 that June, the Lakers would post the first title in their back-to-back run, leaving the Celtics as a worthy second-best team of the decade. It was the twilight of a superb rivalry.
What perhaps gets lost in the distance between there and here is how clutch both Bird and Magic were when the stack of chips were at their highest. Whenever either team needed a big play or someone to lead, both men would raise their hand, time and time again. It is an era now locked in the far reaches of our minds. However, a quick trip back recalls the Celtics-Lakers battle royale that emerges not as separate seasons, but one almost decade-long fight for NBA supremacy. That both franchises could stay atop their respective conferences for so consistently long speaks volumes not just about the teams themselves, but their leaders, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson. In our minds both will always be tussling in the Finals, securing enough real estate to pop a jumper, to find an open teammate, to grind out another win against an insatiable rival. They were each great in their own right but they made each other that much better. They were rivals in search of rings, daring the other in a simply glorious time to be a basketball fan.
Bird – Magic I – The Perfect Basketball Storm
As a 12 year-old boy I sat in my parents’ apartment in Brooklyn, NY, examining my first college basketball game. I knew of the game’s existence prior to that, albeit with a fuzziness and lack of detail that youth brings. I was brought into the tent by the pandemonium surrounding the game more so than whatever expectation I had for the game itself. The force of two cults of personality had seemingly overnight transcended college basketball to a fever pitch. College basketball hit its high note that night, never again to keep that kind of grip on our nation as it did that one evening.
Being from New York, even before ESPN there was in fact such a thing as East-coast bias. A New Yorker was bred for more sophisticated sporting fare than two mid-western teams in college basketball. In addition, at my tender age there were more pressing matters to attend to. For one there were girls to avoid. Unfortunately this trend would begin reversing itself a mere two years later. In the world of sports I had the New York Yankees to be concerned about. These were still the days of The Bronx Zoo filling the newspapers with their goings on. Was Billy Martin the Manager today? Can Reggie win the MVP? (mmm….good candybar) Can they three-peat? The saying wasn’t even invented yet.
Imagine the force of the gravitational pull to bring a 12 year-old Brooklyn boy with everything and anything on his racing young mind except a college basketball game into the tent. Indiana State and Michigan State no less. That is what happened and it was not just any basketball game as history has shown. This was March 26, 1979, and this was the first time that Larry Bird and Earvin “Magic Johnson ever faced one another on a basketball court. As amazing as that game and night were, it would inconceivably be only a prelude, an opening act, to the greatest personal and team rivalry many of us have ever seen in sports.
I will openly admit that neither before nor since have I witnessed a game with Indiana State involved. I could not name you any of Larry Bird’s teammates from that game. I could not name you any of Magic Johnson’s teammates in that game outside of Greg Kelser. For all intents and purposes Magic and Bird were playing 1-on-1 that evening. They may as well have. Bird draining jumpers from the outside while Magic would attempt to juke and jive his way to the basket. I could not tell you where the game was played or who the coaches were. I only remember Bird and Magic.
I still remember the excitement of that game. The buildup in the media for that time was borderline hysteria. Bird-Magic always made for a perfect contrast even physically. The gawky, blond-haired Hoosier, Bird was the complete opposite of the good-looking, easier-natured Johnson. Somewhat forgotten nowadays was the fact that Bird’s team drove into that game unbeaten. Magic and Michigan State were only too happy to end multiple dreams for Bird and Indiana State that night.
The two would cross paths again and again throughout their careers, in a battle that would rage for the better part of a decade for nothing less than title of best basketball player in the world. Magic Johnson, his team having won the NCAA Championship game over Bird and breaking up Indiana State’s perfect season, would go on to be drafted #1 overall in the 1979 NBA draft by the reloading Los Angeles Lakers. The continuation of this perfect storm for both players brought Magic to a city and franchise that were known for flashiness, cockiness, and star-power. Magic would not disappoint. On the contrary, he became the physical embodiment of “Showtime”, the nickname given to the free-wheeling, fast-paced style of the Lakers offense. His enthusiasm, electric smile and pure joy for the game brought life back into what was seen as a degenerate NBA scene. Magic’s youthful enthusiasm was indicative of a psyche yet untouched by the debris of the world. This spirit embodied his play on the court as well as his personality off it. This persona is always attractive and was one of the main considerations why he resonated so thoroughly with America.
Magic’s attitude was a perfect juxtaposition compared to his teammate, superstar veteran Center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Jabbar, considered aloof and downcast before Magic’s arrival, was seen as even more so when plopped side-by-side next to the young Johnson. If players should be measured by how much better they make their teammates, Magic was off the charts with his ability to find open men on the court while balancing this with his own offensive prowess.
Larry Bird was actually drafted by Boston the year prior to his leaving college, being the #6 overall pick in the 1978 NBA Draft. Crafty Boston guru Red Auerbach took a gamble and was subsequently able to sign Bird the following year. Draft rules have since change whereas a player cannot be drafted until they are legitimately coming out of school.
The passion that Bird displayed for playing and more importantly winning was no less evident, although it was produced by Bird in a less outward fashion, which matched completely their personalities. Magic the extrovert, Bird the introvert. One can argue that anyone compared to Magic would seem the shrinking violet, but Bird always looked like he was on the way to have root canal done when being interviewed, while Magic appeared born with the spotlight shining in the delivery room.
When the two finally appeared on the NBA scene, they drafted me along with them in addition to millions of other basketball fans. Once their departure from that NCAA Championship game was complete, I never viewed College basketball in the same fashion again. Yes, there was Jordan at North Carolina, Ewing at Georgetown and so forth, but the sheer magnitude of the event and the personalities involved brought me in at the sport’s apex. Unfortunately, there was nowhere to go afterwards but to descend.
NBA fans upon Magic and Bird’s arrival were either discovering the NBA for the first time like myself, or more interestingly rediscovering the league as one would rekindle a friendship with a longtime friend that had not been kept in touch with. It was again this gravitational force of these two players that moved the needle of the NBA during that time. Could one have done it by himself without the other’s ying and yang? Some say no but I believe yes with exhibit A being their mutual heir, Michael Jordan. Without peer during his defining run in Chicago, Jordan virtually carried a league that could have suffered serious post-partum depression had there not been such a force of nature as Jordan post Bird-Magic. While the central force in the NBA, Jordan did not have that measuring stick that forced him to examine box scores each night. However, this did not reduce his greatness and may have enhanced it by him having the stage alone.
Jordan’s sheer force of will created scorched earth in every city during his reign, including Chicago once he decided to leave the Bulls for good. Part of the story was that there was no one else that was in the class of him or Bird-Magic. Either Bird or Magic alone could have dominated their era the way Jordan did. Had Bird or Magic been in their prime when Michael was, either one of Bird-Magic would most probably have had a similar rivalry with Jordan, but somehow thinking about it like that just doesn’t feel right. It was indeed a perfect basketball storm that was born in the heartland of America in 1979, subsequently throwing its force and power to the coasts into Boston and Los Angeles.
NEXT: BIRD-MAGIC PART II….RIVALRY & RINGS
