Thursday, July 4, 2002
Thursday, July 4, 2002
Your name, O God, like your praise, reaches to the ends of the earth. Your right
hand is filled with victory.
"Are you going to start throwing deep?" asked Madden before a Super Bowl game.
Montana never batted an eye. "No," he said.
"Why not?" Madden pressed. "Is your arm sore?"
"No, my arm's not sore: I can throw deep," he said. "But we don't have any plays to throw
deep. We never practice throwing deep."'
"How come?" Madden asked.
"Look at our practice field here," Montana said. "Most teams have two full hundred-yard fields,
one grass and one artificial turf. But we only have one field that's half grass and half artificial
turf. When it rains in December here, the receivers have to wear either artificial turf shoes or
grass shoes, depending on which half of the field we're practicing on. If we practice on the
grass half, the receivers don't want to run out on the artificial turf with cleats. If we practice on
the artificial turf half, the receivers don't want to risk falling on the wet grass with their artificial
turf shoes. When we practice plays, we put the ball on what would be the twenty-yard line, so
I've got only about thirty yards to work with. You can't throw deep in thirty yards. Even in the
pregame warmup, it's the same situation. You only have half the field to work with. That's why
I don't throw deep."
Montana only had a short field to work with, so he became a master of the short pass. What
would some other people have done? They would sit around complaining that they didn't have
two practice fields like other quarterbacks. Montana didn't complain, he conquered. He took his
problem and turned it into a profit. To borrow from Robert Schuller, he turned a scar into a star.
What can we do when we get knocked down? We can turn a defeat of the flesh into a victory
of the spirit.
(Psalm 48.10
NRSV)
Some people believe that Joe Montana, who played most of his career with the San Francisco
49ers, was the best quarterback in the history of the National Football League. He was an
artist with the short pass. He threw long so rarely that rumors had floated around that he had a
sore arm. John Madden once asked Montana about his style of play. The conversation is
interesting.
Dear God, help me to turn my defeats into victories. Amen.
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