Even the best can crack under pressure
Tara Wellman
Issue date: 2/4/10 Section: Sports
Even the St. Louis Cardinals earned the nickname for their pitiful performance in the 2004 World Series (a week I've tried to block from my memory!). The best win-loss record in the National League. Swept in four games. Ouch.
Sometimes redemption comes, thankfully, in the form of finally shaking the demons and standing up to the pressure. Elway finally did win "the big one." Jacobellis is headed back to the Olympics in a few weeks for her second chance. The Yankees came back big to win last year, the Cardinals did in 2006.
Some, though, never quite make it to their goal. The question then becomes, does that make them failures? Is there something wrong with them that keeps them from performing well at that one, specific moment? Does their lifetime of work and dedication vanish if they never get "the big one?"
I have a hard time calling most professionals - in any field! - "chokers." These are people that do something few people in the world ever do. Ask any regular Joe on the street to show up Karl Malone and they couldn't do it. See if some skater at the local ice rink could out-skate Michelle Kwan. It wouldn't happen. Out-serving Andy Roddick on the court? Not a chance.
Anyone who works to that high performance level has won a big game somewhere along the line. You don't get to the NBA without making some plays in high school and college. You don't march into a stadium as an Olympian without staking your claim internationally. There's no doubt Brett Favre has been the best before.
Do some of the best of the best fold under the weight of expectation once in a while? Clearly, it happens often. But should their achievements be discounted because they didn't convert at the moment when the world was watching? I'm not so sure.
After all, it is sport. Someone is always going to have to lose. It happens, even to the very best.
Sometimes redemption comes, thankfully, in the form of finally shaking the demons and standing up to the pressure. Elway finally did win "the big one." Jacobellis is headed back to the Olympics in a few weeks for her second chance. The Yankees came back big to win last year, the Cardinals did in 2006.
Some, though, never quite make it to their goal. The question then becomes, does that make them failures? Is there something wrong with them that keeps them from performing well at that one, specific moment? Does their lifetime of work and dedication vanish if they never get "the big one?"
I have a hard time calling most professionals - in any field! - "chokers." These are people that do something few people in the world ever do. Ask any regular Joe on the street to show up Karl Malone and they couldn't do it. See if some skater at the local ice rink could out-skate Michelle Kwan. It wouldn't happen. Out-serving Andy Roddick on the court? Not a chance.
Anyone who works to that high performance level has won a big game somewhere along the line. You don't get to the NBA without making some plays in high school and college. You don't march into a stadium as an Olympian without staking your claim internationally. There's no doubt Brett Favre has been the best before.
Do some of the best of the best fold under the weight of expectation once in a while? Clearly, it happens often. But should their achievements be discounted because they didn't convert at the moment when the world was watching? I'm not so sure.
After all, it is sport. Someone is always going to have to lose. It happens, even to the very best.
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