NFL Football by Shane Gibson

 NFL Football

by Shane Gibson

Now while we may be gracious to other types of athletes and accept Baseball as “America’s Pastime” there is no doubt in the heart or in the blood of America that Football is America’s Game. When the population of the nation nears 375 million the game will still be played in some recognizable fashion.

On a field, two small armies. Generals patrol their lines; even they are subject to vulnerability. The weapons on the field, the warriors themselves. No missile thrown toward their body at injury speed. No staffs with which to strike head and body. No three thousand pounds of powered metal surrounding them. Nope, themselves. The very few who can get to risk the rules and dangers of “The Greatest American Game”.

They work in conjunction with 24 other warriors and a staff of Commanders and aides. It is war, regulated, refined, restrained. Dressed up in pageantry, displayed on “Jerry World” screens with representatives of their regional Tribe and the Owner viewing from the hillsides of magnificently constructed stadiums.

Giant community screens will exist even in population centers not in possession of a “Franchise”, and the game will be seen all over the world. Every nation will seek or adopt a team of its own and war will become regulated, refined, restrained. Only a few will die.

History will at that time have recorded the 2013 season. An entire collective intelligence had envisioned the same four teams competing to reach the opportunity to win Super Bowl XLVIII. They had seen the vision animate and culminate in the ultimate event with the number one defense and number one offense in the world battling on a make believe field.

Sixty minutes to supremacy. It truly was a magical season, as if it had been preordained; and surely you have read the accounts by now. One highly valuable piece of history however, was alas lost.

In one arena of the final four, each team had a Quarterback universally judged to be one of the greatest of their kind ever to perform America’s game. Two had been mentioned as the Most Valuable Player in the “Game” all season long.

Of course you know the name of the player ultimately chosen and also the one who was not. Therein lays the loss. In the future, fans of America’s game all over Mother Earth will not know that in that one magical season there were not one but two Most Valuable Players.

Whereas one had displayed his genius, will and power so well, the other had done the same over the entire season and his name was Tom. It had been a foregone conclusion the right to play for the ultimate team trophy in sport would be decided by the play of these field generals.

On that field that day stepped Tom Brady. This was the over looked (but good looking) all American boy! And those sharp fellas in Las Vegas and London were betting kilos of silver and pounds of gold on his team’s opponent after they created a bet which made it appear as though his team had a winning chance. They didn’t.

In the final measure they lost as you know by two scores. Respectable yet hardly the battle which had been so highly anticipated. It was not a defeated man who exited the stadium in red, white and blue that day. It was a man whom against all odds had helped keep his squad together, representing the Eastern Division of the American Conference and winning it with one of the League’s best records.

Personally, your writer is of the firm belief that no other combatant in America’s game could have achieved such navigating through an entire season with more than thirty-six percent of his buddies injured, unable to fight, to put their lives on the line with him. Yet, here they were, facing the Broncos and Peyton Manning, who won. The “Most Valuable Player” award for 2013…..should be shared.

Tom Brady did what no one had ever done. Peyton Manning did what no one had ever done. One lost, one won. In the end, there can only be one, we all know. Wait, has this not been done before? Could there be a precedent?

One man almost took his team to the “Land of Legend”, while one man did. What they did and how they did it is legendary. It was a legendary season and should be remembered as such. Having their names beside one another as most valuable players of the year in “America’s Greatest Game” would most certainly add to the legend of 2013.

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