Character Driven by Derek Fisher & Gary Brozek

Author:Derek Fisher & Gary Brozek
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2009-09-08T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

Staying in Bounds:

Understanding the Rules of the Game and of Life

In mid-November of 2008, I came home from a Lakers practice on a Sunday afternoon to kids napping as usual. Feeling that I needed to wind down a bit, I did what millions of Americans do on fall weekends—I sat down to watch an NFL game. I flipped around the channels for a while, hoping to find a game of interest. Week eleven in the NFL had a few close games and its share of blowouts—a traditional-rivalry game between the Chicago Bears and the Green Bay Packers was one of the latter, with the Pack handing the Bears a spanking. With Green Bay up 24–3 at the end of the third quarter, I figured I’d move on. I tuned in to a game without the same kind of intense rivalry—the Philadelphia Eagles and the Cincinnati Bengals. Heading into the last few minutes of the fourth quarter, the teams were tied 13–13.

Figuring on overtime at the worst, and a last-second decision at best, I settled in to watch the conclusion of the game. I’m a fan of Donovan McNabb, the veteran Eagle’s quarterback. I knew that he was a pretty fair basketball player as a high schooler in the Chicago area before he went to Syracuse University on a football scholarship. He’s a stud athlete, and I admire his courage, especially as he was attempting to come back from a serious knee injury that wiped out his 2007 season. Unfortunately for the Bengals, most of what I knew about them was not good. Their players had had a series of run-ins with the law in the previous seasons, and you seldom read or heard anything positive about their program. Whatever the cause of the breakdown in discipline, I felt bad for the team and for the city and for the sport. I never like to hear about athletes in any sport discrediting the profession. I am not one to pass judgment, but the Bengals had either a stretch of bad luck or immaturity that led them to be regarded as representing everything that critics find wrong with pro sports generally and pro athletes specifically.

I figured that Cincinnati had to be the underdog, and their 1-8 record had me rooting for them. I like to see anyone overcome adversity and succeed, and from what I knew, the guys out of Cincy were dealing with adversity with a capital A on and off the field. What I saw in those last few minutes of the game made me think that something was up with both clubs. Neither of them could move the ball, and the game slipped into overtime. Deciding that my little rest was over, I shut down the television and joined my kids and my wife in the family room.

The next day, driving to practice, I had the radio on. I wanted to find the news to see if President-elect Barack Obama had made any announcements of cabinet nominations or

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