I’m not much for professional sports, but I’m all about trying to make sense of professional life in your thirties. That’s why Chris B. Brown’s Grantland piece on Peyton Manning caught my attention a couple of days ago.
The article, “Better With Age,” looks at Manning’s ability to maintain his edge after 20 years in the game. And while I haven’t been teaching for twenty years, I can’t help but feel that “the game” has changed as much or more than I have these past ten years. Manning’s solution? Something about “throwing short” and the “Drag.” Brown:
Denver’s increased reliance on the Drag this season has been partially strategic, since it works well against the kind of press-man coverage many teams employ in lieu of letting Manning expose their zone coverage. It has also stemmed from physical concerns, though. Manning’s arm strength, while still serviceable, is obviously not what it once was. But, much as Michael Jordan shifted from slashing and dunking to employing a crafty and basically unstoppable fadeaway jumper as he aged, Manning has adapted to his physical limitations by relying on his anticipation, his ability to process defenses, and his knack for delivering accurate passes to receivers on the run.¹
I’d like to think that a teacher has a “better shelf life” than a football player, considering how physically demanding the sport is. And yet there’s a kind of mental and emotional demand that comes with teaching that can trap you between maintaining what is and creating what isn’t yet. I’m feeling it, eleven years in. Change is constant: technology, students, personnel. There’s a lot to work through that may have nothing to do with a sense of vocation and mission. But if Jordan can move to “fadeaway jumpers” and Manning can emphasize short passes, then maybe there are better ways for all of us, teachers included, to get “better with age.”
You can read Brown’s entire article here.
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¹ The article includes a number of video clips and play diagrams that probably mean more to you than they do to me. It’s a quality article, I think, even if I don’t get the nuance in much of it.
Hope you took the time to download U2’s new single, “Invisible,” over Super Bowl Sunday. According to Rolling Stone, about 3 million downloads brought in $3 million dollars through Bank of America. I was kind of hoping that the single’s release would be accompanied by an announcement for the new album.
Space Enough, and Time 