Empty Calories & Male Curiosity, #11

Shia LaBeouf or J.K. Simmons? Why being cool is for losers.

QUICK HITTERS:

1. Spencer Hall & Holly Anderson are two of the best football writers in America. Their piece yesterday on Philadelphia, and all of its nuttiness, is incredible. Read it here (for free).

   

   I stole this from them because it accurately describes the experience of all Eagles fans this season.

2. Stickers are in. Get a friend to subscribe to SilentPunt and I’ll mail you one!

   

   For reference, my moleskin is 4.5x7.

3. This week’s book recommendation is Bringing the Heat, by Mark Bowden. Bowden was a longtime Philly sports reporter and spent time following the Buddy Ryan era Eagles. In the vein of Friday Night Lights, Ball Four, and Paper Lion Bowden provides wonderful insights on the dynamics of that team. You don’t need to be an Eagles fan to enjoy. Originally published in 1994 it was at the time Bowden’s second book. He’s gone on to publish many more, the most famous being Black Hawk Down.

   

   Darla gives this one two ears up.

4. OVERTIME: At the conclusion of the seventh episode of the SilentPunt podcast earlier this week (here) Travis & I discussed the upcoming Super Bowl. He gives a TSwift prediction and I give an actual one….

5. Tell us what to talk about next week….

6. Fellow Substackers, if you’re not following CK Steefel yet you should be. You might recognize her from her appearances on Seinfeld, but you’ll stay for the laughs.

7. Welcome here Wilbur!

GOING DEEP:

Shia LaBeouf or J.K. Simmons? Why being cool is for losers.

Have you ever had someone in your life that you were just drawn to? And not just you, but everyone seemed to swoon over this person. Maybe it was the cool kid in school. Or the hot one in college. Or the super-dynamic go getter that was moving so much faster in their career than you were in yours. 

There are many adjectives to describe these people: dynamic, energetic, charismatic. Oh what you wouldn’t do to be able to be like that person.

And then, some years later you found out that person was in reality an a**hole. They cheated on their wife. They defrauded a client. Whatever. The luster had been lost. The facade revealed to be a charade. 

Now, hold that thought.

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I know some of you reading this couldn’t care less about football (American football for my overseas readers)¹. So I will keep this analogy brief, but trust me it’s interesting.

I was recently listening to an online business discussion where one of the commentators used Barry Sanders as a point of reference. For those non-football fans out there Barry Sanders was a Hall of Fame running back for the Detroit Lions. When he retired in 1999 he was the second leading rusher in NFL history. 

One of the things Sanders was known for was his electrifying ability to make would-be defenders flail in their efforts to tackle him. The rich SOB’s that run the NFL won’t let me put a brief video clip in here so you’ll have to make due with these screen grabs:

The defender that Barry makes look like a fool went on to be a Hall of Famer as well.

The analogy the commentator was trying to make to business was that in order to be successful you need to be able to pivot on a dime like Sanders. They used the buzz words ‘first to market’ repeatedly. Of the utmost importance to this person was being first. They said that by being first to do something you will be first to make mistakes. And mistakes are how you learn and improve. 

In theory I can see where they were coming from. However, some mistakes can be fatal. In the words of Hall of Fame coach Jimmy Johnson, “the first thing you need to do to win a football game is to not lose it.” He was talking about making those fatal mistakes.

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Frank Gore was also a running back in the NFL, playing from 2005-2020.  He played for five different teams during his career and was known for his hard-nosed style of play. During the course of his sixteen year career he never once lead the league in rushing.

Many of you reading this will have never heard of Gore. He was not flashy like Sanders. He did not make defensive players look silly with his moves and quickness. He was a lunch pail guy. Show up, gain yards, go home. 

Frank Gore is now the third leading rusher in NFL history. 

Do you know who is fourth? 

Barry Sanders. 

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How did this happen? How did a journeyman running back run for more yards than one of the greatest players in NFL history? Surely Gore’s toughness and durability played a role. But so did Sanders’s own propensity to make the fatal mistake.

In addition to all of the glorious NFL records Sanders still holds, he also holds an ignominious one: 

Barry Sanders is the all-time leader in NFL history in yards LOST. 

What this means is that for every flashy run Barry Sanders had, he had just as many where he hurt his team. If you watch actual game footage of him, and not just highlights, you can see that his halting and darting style of running was often to blame. These were his fatal mistakes.

Instead of executing the play as designed he would often shift his focus somewhere else, thinking he saw an opening or a crease in another part of the defense. When he was right it led to glorious highlights. When he was wrong it put his team in very difficult situations that eventually led to them losing games.

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This leads us back to our initial analogy. Who would you rather be around: The dynamic superstar or the steady performer?

Who would you rather have as a friend: The guy that will invite you to that cool party and then ditch you when he finds someone cooler to be with…..or the one that helps you move?

Shia LaBeouf or J.K. Simmons?

Megan Fox or Diane Keaton?

Transformers or Edge of Tomorrow?²

I know who I’d rather be around. How about you? Please share your thoughts in the comments. 

1. Believe it or not SilentPunt now has subscribers from a boat load of other countries. Some of these include Australia, New Zealand, UK, Spain, and Germany.

2. Edge of Tomorrow is Tom Cruise’s piece de resistance. Emily Blunt is tremendous as his co-star. Super hot too (putting this here to see if my wife reads the footnotes).