Shortstop?

Yes, back when Eli Manning was going through a rough stretch as a rookie quarterback with the Giants, he received a phone call from Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter.

As recounted inn a post on sports writer Dan Graziano’s ESPN blog, Manning said, “He just told me, ‘Keep your head up, keep doing what you’re doing and it’ll get better.’”

At the time, Jeter was an established New York superstar, and a role model for Manning.

“Derek’s a guy, from the time I first came (to New York), that I definitely have paid a lot of attention to,” Manning said after a recent practice.

With the Giants’ 21-17 victory over Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in Sunday’s Super Bowl, Manning could well be headed to the Hall of Fame. Jeter one day will be enshrined in Cooperstown, with Canton a distinct possibility for Manning.

And it may never have happened without a kind word from a role model. Now, years later, Jeter returns the respect that Manning originally accorded him.

“I’ve always appreciated the way Eli has carried himself, not only on the football field but more importantly away from it,” Jeter said in an email through the Yankees’ media relations department. “He certainly seems to me to have the perfect demeanor to handle the spotlight that comes with playing in New York.”

Whether it’s the Yankees, Giants or high school sports, role models can make a big difference. I recently showed a young woman a practice session for some high-level high school athletes.

“Someday you can play at that level,” I said.

“I would love to play at that level,” she responded, her eyes wide.

Tyron Edwards, a 19th century American theologian, said, “People never improve unless they look to some standard or example higher and better than themselves.”

Looking up to someone certainly worked for Eli Manning.
*** *** *** ***
TotalGamePlan offers Winner’s Workshops for schools, sports teams and businesses. The emphasis is on motivation, skill-building and teamwork. To bring a Winner’s Workshop to your group, just email coachtully@totalgameplan.com or call (973) 800-5836. To order a copy of “Ten Things Great Coaches Know,” click here.

“Tell me,” Williams said. “When you swung and missed that ball, did your bat go over the ball or under it?”

“What difference does it make,” the teammate wanted to know. “Either way, I struck out.”

It makes all the difference in the world, Williams explained. Knowing how you missed was the first step in preparing for the next time.

Williams was an expert on the art of receiving feedback. He examined what happened and used the information in his next attempt.

Feedback is available everywhere. Often the result of our actions will tell us what we’re doing right or wrong. For instance, if a golfer consistently hits a slice, the ball is telling him something about his swing.

You can bet that both the New York Giants and New England Patriots will be using feedback to prepare for Sunday’s Super Bowl. They played each other during the regular season, and they’re in a race to see who learned the most from that game.

Herb Brooks, mastermind of the U.S. Olympic hockey team’s gold medal in 1980, used feedback to make history. After the Soviet Union trounced his team 10-3 in a pre-Olympic exhibition, Brooks simply said, “We learned some things.” Two weeks later, the teams met again, and this time the U.S. won!

So if you’d like to be a champion, you must first do what Brooks, Williams and other did — become experts at receiving feedback.

“I imagined this last night,” Tynes said after his 31-yard field goal 7:06 into overtime gave the Giants a 20-17 victory over the San Francisco 49ers. “It was 42 yards.”

No matter about the distance. The point is that Tynes previewed his own success. And he wasn’t the only one. According to this blog item by ESPN’s Dan Graziano, Giants’ special teams player Devin Thomas saw himself making big plays. And he did, recovering two fumbles, including one that set up Tynes’ game-winner.

“I knew I was going to do it,” Thomas said. “I was just thinking today was one of those crazy days where something crazy’s going to turn the game. And I had a vision in my mind that I would be the guy who did it.”

Charles Garfield, author of the widely acclaimed “Peak Performance” trilogy, has noted the effect of previewing success

.“I’ve discovered that numerous peak performers use the skill of mental rehearsal of visualization,” Garfield said. “They mentally run through important events before they happen.”

Aided by all this visualization, the Giants now enter Super Bowl XLVI for a rematch with the New England Patriots, who advanced when Baltimore Ravens kicker Billy Cundiff failed where Tynes succeeded.

“The timing was just a little off,” Cundiff said after missing a 32-yard field goal attempt that would have sent the game to overtime. “I’m disappointed. I let my teammates down.”

Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis disagreed. “Not one play won or lost this game,” Lewis said. “There’s no ‘Oh, Billy’s the fault. Billy missed the (kick).’ There’s no freaking ‘Billy missed the kick.’ It happened. Move on.”

For some people, it will be harder than for others.

*** *** *** ***
TotalGamePlan offers Winner’s Workshops for schools, sports teams and businesses. The emphasis is on motivation, skill-building and teamwork. To bring a Winner’s Workshop to your group, just email coachtully@totalgameplan.com or call (973) 800-5836. To order a copy of “Ten Things Great Coaches Know,” click here.

“For you,” said the pig, “bacon and eggs are a donation. For me, it’s a full commitment.”

As the AFC and NFC conference title games unfold today, coaches, fans and teammates will be able to separate the pigs from the chickens. Some players will offer total commitment, while others will make a donation now and then.

“If you don’t make a total commitment to whatever you’re doing, then you start to bail out the first time the boat starts leaking,” said former college and NFL coach Lou Holtz.

It’s one thing to enter the game with commitment. It’s another thing to hold onto it when you’ve been drilled with an NFL-style hit, say, from Ray Lewis.

It reminds you of what ex-heavyweight champ Mike Tyson said about strategy in the ring. “Everyone has a plan ’till they get punched in the mouth.”

The San Francisco 49ers can take a punch. They are in the NFC game because they stayed committed even after the New Orleans Saints stunned them with a go-ahead touchdown with just 97 seconds left.

They will face the New York Giants, who showed some commitment of their own by going to Green Bay and dominating the NCF’s top seed.

In the AFC, the Baltimore Ravens and New England Patriots will find their resolve tested as well. Whether on the line or in the open field, they will be tested in ways that would make other people walk away.

Whoever survives will get a chance to test their commitment one more time, two weeks from now in the Super Bowl. There they will play for the Lombardi trophy, named after a man who knew a little about commitment.

No matter what your interest or life pursuit, it will turn out better if you are the pig, not the chicken.

“The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor,” said Vince Lombardi, who coached the packers to victory in the first two Super Bowls.

*** *** *** ***
TotalGamePlan offers Winner’s Workshops for schools, sports teams and businesses. The emphasis is on motivation, skill-building and teamwork. To bring a Winner’s Workshop to your group, just email coachtully@totalgameplan.com or call (973) 800-5836. To order a copy of “Ten Things Great Coaches Know,” click here.

Superstition is doing things to avoid something bad. Rituals mean doing certain things to make something good happen.

Superstition involves belief in things beyond your understanding and control. Rituals are a way to organize the things that you can control.

All this comes to mind on Friday the 13th, with a poll just out on Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow. It says that 43 percent of people in the country believe that Tebow’s success comes with some help from God.

Some people — both believers and non-believers — might snicker at such a notion. Just the other day, for instance, I saw a quote from a minister who said that God doesn’t care who wins football games, because God is a baseball fan.

To me the issue of divine help is more complex. Richard Neer, a sports talk host on WFAN radio in New York, did a beautiful job of discussing nuances on his Thursday night show. Among other things, Neer said that belief in a higher power can give you confidence and help you do your best. I agree.

But there are limits. If Tebow fails to read the playbook, watch film and get great practice repetitions, it’s hard to imagine God helping out much.

“Sure, luck means a lot in football. Not having a good quarterback is bad luck,” said Don Shula, who once coached the Miami Dolphins to an undefeated season.

“Luck is the residue of design,” said Branch Rickey, considered the smartest baseball man in history.

Years ago, a wonderful baseball sage named Bill Shannon explained why certain teams — like the Yankees — seem so lucky. “Good teams always seem lucky because they’re in so many close games,” said Shannon. “If the ball takes a funny bounce when the score is tied, it’s a big deal. If the score is 10-0, who cares?”

I’m writing this on an airplane, flying on Friday the 13th to speak to the Illinois Track and Cross Country Coaches Association. There was a time when flying on that date would have bothered me, but no more. Whether on Friday the 13th or any other day, I do like to tap the plane on the right side of the door with my knuckle when boarding. It started long ago and it’s just for fun. However, I wouldn’t think of not doing it.

More to the point, I recently used the example of a plane when talking to a group of students. Challenging them to use their time wisely, I asked them to rate their effort in their last study hall on a scale of zero to 10. Then I asked them to imagine they were boarding an airplane. How would they feel if the pilot was going to put in the same level of effort that they had put into the study hall?

They got quiet.

Things won’t be quiet this weekend when Tebow faces Tom Brady and the New England Patriots, or in any of the other three NFL playoff games.

And as for luck, the only questions are whether the ball will take a funny bounce, or what the score will be at the time.

*** *** *** ***

TotalGamePlan offers Winner’s Workshops for schools, sports teams and businesses. The emphasis is on motivation, skill-building and teamwork. To bring a Winner’s Workshop to your group, just email coachtully@totalgameplan.com or call (973) 800-5836. To order a copy of “Ten Things Great Coaches Know,” click here.

No, not Tebow’s religious faith. This time, it’s the belief that Tebow’s teammates have in him.

In beating the Pittsburgh Steelers 29-23 in overtime on Wild-Card Sunday, the Denver Broncos looked like a team with great belief in each other and in their quarterback, Tebow.

“He showed he’s a quarterback in the NFL, case closed,” said Broncos running back Willis McGahee. “They said he couldn’t throw, they said we wouldn’t be able to move the ball on them, and we did that. I wonder what they’re going to say next week?”

Well, they (presumably the odds-makers and other so-called experts) will probably say that the New England Patriots are better than the Broncos. And they’re probably right. Patriots’ Coach Bill Belichick is a genius at devising game plans, and he’ll aim to shut down Tebow’s running and make him throw.

Then again, that’s what the Steelers tried to do. But teams become dangerous when they jell like the Broncos have. They become greater than the sum of their parts. It’s a feeling that all coaches try to build. It just isn’t that easy to make teams peak emotionally the way the Broncos have.

“We feel like we’ve got the best players, the best team, best people on the field,” Broncos rookie safety Quinton Carter said, summing up the feeling on the Broncos.

And a lot of that feeling comes from the difference Tebow has made with a scrambling style that isn’t pretty to watch but that has brought the Broncos within two victories of the Super Bowl.

“A lot was said, a lot was written, there was a lot of critique on him,” Broncos Coach John Fox said. “I thought he stepped up in a huge way tonight, and I think he was a big part of us winning the game.”

Of course, the Broncos aren’t the only team in the NFL playoffs with strong belief. Here’s an article on the confidence building on the New York Giants after their victory over the Atlanta Falcons. The Giants have strong faith in their quarterback, Eli Manning, who found a way to win without a big contribution from Victor Cruz.

*** *** *** ***

TotalGamePlan offers Winner’s Workshops for schools, sports teams and businesses. The emphasis is on motivation, skill-building and teamwork. To bring a Winner’s Workshop to your group, just email coachtully@totalgameplan.com or call (973) 800-5836.

The Dolphins, the only NFL team ever to go undefeated, now see two teams — The Indianapolis Colts and the New Orleans Saints — threatening to accomplish what they did nearly four decades ago.

Two years ago, the Dolphins watched and waited as the New England Patriots came within one game of joining them — only to lose in the Super Bowl.

What makes it so difficult to go undefeated?

First, of course, you have be a skilled, tough team.

Second, there is so much competition — every team you play is professional — that it’s always possible to face someone who can beat you.

Third, there is the mental challenge. It’s so hard to get up emotionally for every game. And the more you win, the harder it is to take the so-called weaker teams seriously. Finally, there’s always a danger that the streak can become a distraction — winning is so difficult that the moment you stop preparing and start thinking about the record books, you’ve lost a crucial bit of focus. It’s like the story of the tortoise and the hare. Even though the hare ran faster, it lost the race to the tortoise because it stopped running and started to think.

Two weeks ago the Saints saw how hard it is to stay undefeated. Playing the lowly Redskins, they needed some late heroics — as well as some Redskins mistakes — to keep their streak alive.

By the way, there’s a legend that the surviving members of the 1972 Dolphins still get together every year for a toast when the last undefeated team loses. Apparently it’s nothing more than a legend.

But toast or not, the Dolphins have every right to be proud what they accomplished — it is so difficult to do.

He also showed what makes him a great coach.

Belichick, coach of the New England Patriots, took a huge gamble that did not work out Sunday night, and his team wound up losing to the Indianapolis Colts.

As a result of the failed gamble, Belichick has received some torching criticism. What’s silly, of course, is that if the gamble had worked, those same critics would be hailing Belichick as a genius.

It all comes down to this: Belichick was coaching to win, and he was basing his coaching decisions on that. Some coaches base their decisions on trying not to lose. There is a big difference.

Belichick was also willing to make his decision under the white-hot glare of a nationally televised prime time game, knowing that failure would make him an easy target of second-guessers. But again, he was thinking about only one thing: winning the game.

Legendary basketball coach Pat Summit says that if you are afraid to make the tough decisions, you don’t belong in a coaching position.

Obviously, Belichick belongs.

Morris cited “their head coach, their quarterback, their receiving corps, their defense. Everything about the New England Patriots is a great model to follow.”

All that is fine, but what exactly does that mean for any club — like Morris’ winless Buccaneers — that wants to copy the New England model?

First there is the issue of copying anything. Olympic gymnastics guru Bela Karolyi says the best way to finish second is to imitate.

Karolyi’s statement gains power if you add “to imitate without understanding.”

In other words, what do the Patriots do that can be measured in any way? What specific ideas do they use in drafting, player development, practice planning, etc.?

It doesn’t take a genius to look at Patriots’ Coach Bill Belichick and know that he is at the top of his field. He is the only NFL coach to win three Super Bowls in a four-year span. But it may take a genius to look carefully at what Belichick does, and put it into some format that others could copy.

For an interesting book, try “The First Season,” the story of how Vince Lombardi took the Green Bay Packers — then the worst team in the National Football League — and began turning them into winners.

Many coaches have tried — most of them without success — to be the next Lombardi.

Maybe there is no such thing as the next Lombardi. But winners can follow his advice, namely, that football is basically blocking and tackling. No matter what your sport, if you work on the essentials, you are using at least part of the formula.

A few years ago, Brian Kinchen was teaching Bible school when his cell phone rang. It was the New England Patriots calling to coax him out of retirement.

What do the stories have in common? They both represent the human side of players, a side that is so easy to forget.

Our sports world often reduces players to a set of stats, a name to be flashed at the bottom of a TV screen, or an entity to be either cheered or booed. We even do it on the high school and college levels, where too often players become mere pieces in the puzzle of a coach’s dreams for success.

There is more to athletes than that. Not only do athletes stand one injury from the end of their career, but they also fight intense emotional battles within themselves.

Kinchen is profiled in the book “The Long Snapper: A Second Chance, a Super Bowl, a Lesson for Life,” by Jeffrey Marx. Kinchen confronted doubts about his ability to do the job, long after his prime.

Wright will have to confront doubts of his own after his frightening injury. Whenever a player is hit in the head, he must step back into the batter’s box and face the fastball again. And the longer the time between the injury and the player’s return, the more doubts can come into the mind: Will I be able to stand in there? Will I flinch? Have I lost my nerve?

Every day in your gym these little emotional battles are taking place: Am I good enough? Will I fit in? Can I balance studies and sports? Years ago, when I coached in a small academy, I would occasionally stop into the chapel to mediate. There, written in an intention book, were various prayers and hopes, offered anonymously. A plea for more tranquility in the home. Concern for a classmate who is headed down the wrong path. A struggle with an eating disorder.

You can never be a great coach without being aware of this human element to your players, and doing your best to get to know them as people. You may not necessarily wind up as a confidant or friend, but you can be there anyway.