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Super Bowl

This tag is associated with 27 posts

Impossible Upset

It took the impossible to create the Super Bowl. Forty-six years ago, the New York Jets upset the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III, despite entering the game as 19 1/2-point underdogs. “We’re going to win on Sunday. I guarantee it,” said Jets quarterback Joe Namath, who backed up his words with a 16-7 victory […]

How to Save 155 Lives

Today marks five years since “The Miracle on the Hudson,” in which Capt. “Sully” Sullenberger landed a disabled US Airways airliner in the Hudson River, saving 155 lives. Sullenberger is now retired, but memory of his feat can inspire not only pilots but people anywhere who want to get good at what they do. Asked […]

How to Play on the Big Stage

Four days before the biggest speaking gig of my life, I’m nervous. If the talk goes well, the people in the audience will like me. They will buy my book. They might hire me for more speaking gigs. Stop! What’s wrong with this train of thought? Here’s what’s wrong: It’s all about me. Me, me, […]

Why the 49ers Lost

Niners’ running back Frank Gore says his team was better than the Baltimore Ravens. Fine. Unfortunately, there’s no category for the better team in the Super Bowl. There’s only a list of teams that scored more points than the opponent. And Sunday, that was Baltimore, 34-31. “It was just a couple plays here, a couple […]

Is Reading People an Innate Talent?

They tell the story of Willie Wood, who showed up at Green Bay Packers training camp, sprinted to the end zone, jumped to grab the goalpost, then started doing pullups. This burst of energy impressed coach Vince Lombardi, who decided then and there that he wanted Wood on his team. Whether or not the story […]

The Worst Advice People Get

If Rogers Hornsby were alive today, he would be celebrating the start of spring training. Hornsby, a Hall of Famer and owner of the second-highest batting average in big-league history behind Ty Cobb, would be right there in Florida and Arizona, even though, technically, only pitchers and catchers must be there this early. At this […]

How Tom Coughlin Became a Champion

No wonder the New York Giants are tough, tough enough to win two Super Bowls in the last five seasons. Their coach, Tom Coughlin, is as tough as they come. How tough? Well, not glass-eating, phonebook-ripping tough, but tough enough to do this: Coughlin once asked a player to give him a top-to-bottom list of […]

Babe Ruth as a Role Model

No one I know thinks of Babe Ruth as an intellectual giant. Ruth, born on this date in 1895, partied his way through life, going for all the gusto he could. He lived that way both on and off the field. “I hit big or I miss big,” he once said. “I like to live […]

How Derek Jeter Helped the Giants Win

For the second time in four years, the New York Giants have won the Super Bowl. And they couldn’t have done it without a great shortstop. 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. […]

The Secret of Feedback

One day Hall of Fame baseball player Ted Williams watched a teammate return to the dugout after striking out. “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.” […]