My Steve Smith Blog

Last Sunday, Feb 3rd 2008, BBC 2 featured the Superbowl XLII game from Arizona. Like any great sporting competition, the game taught vital success lessons which apply to ordinary life as well as to sport.

At the start of the program a voice announced: "You have an opportunity to be world champs right now! You can be what you want to be! Alright?

The New England Patriots and The New York Giants both had that opportunity in front of them that evening. No one else will now have the same opportunity but we all still have the opportunity to become world champions in our own worlds. We have the chance to be the best teacher, writer, doctor, builder etc in our own localities if we want to be - if we have the desire to excel.

The Patriots had not been defeated even once in eighteen matches. It is no wonder that they were favourites to win the Superbowl. They had a fine coach in Bill Belichick who had taken his team to their fourth Superbowl in seven years.

Mike Carlson, the American journalist on the BBC team, commented: "He knows American Football inside out. He grew up watching football games while other kids watched cartoons." Successful people are passionate or become passionate about what they do. Just one ounce of passion or desire pumping through their brains can help people start to climb the ladder of excellence and success.

The New York Giants had lost the first two games of the season but they had had several consecutive wins on the road and the scores in their losses had been so close that they had taken belief and momentum from their losing games as well as their winning games.

Sixty year old Tom Coughlin was their head coach. He made a comment about being underdogs on the road and at home all season: "We always have something to prove and there is nothing wrong with that."

The quarter back, Eli Manning, had been criticised heavily until the play offs when he began to shine. However, he had the support of his famous quarter back brother, Peyton Manning and his father, Archie, who had played as quarter back for the New Orleans Saints. Family support is a key factor in success as is the ability to use criticism to motivate you to greater efforts.

Just before the players came out on to the field for Superbowl XLII, videos were shown of players from the Giants and the Patriots describing the success qualities and the mindset which had helped them reach the final.

The video of the Giants was shown first. Key words were resiliency, faith and focus.

"Resiliency, the ability to recover from hardship misfortune or change. Resiliency defines this team. We started 0 and 2. We had team mates go down and we never lost a beat. Some of you doubted us; tried to run us out of town. Yet we never lost our focus or our faith. You can knock us down but, when it matters the most, we deliver the knockout blow. Road Warriors! Road Warriors! Then what did we do? We stopped opponents out ten straight times. Resiliency! We have faced this challenge before. Do you dare count us out again? We are the New York Giants!"

The Patriots' key success words were teamwork, winning and perseverance: "Teamwork: A cooperative effort by the members of a group to achieve a common goal. Teamwork! Teamwork! We added new faces but the chemistry was instant. The bond of this group can never be questioned - can never be broken. Records fell. Records are meant to be broken. That's not what this group, this team, is all about. We are about winning and that's what we did -18 straight times! It wasn't always easy. We were challenged but always persevered. But it's not over yet. There is one final challenge. But it will be met with teamwork because we are the New England Patriots!"

In the regular season, the Patriots had defeated the Giants but the match was so close in a high scoring game that the Giants left the field believing that next time they could win.

One of the greatest motivational 'secrets' is that people need to feel they are making progress as they strive to achieve their goals. If they feel they are 'on a roll' towards their dreams, they will keep working towards them even if they have some setbacks en route.

I tell my martial arts students to take gradings regularly so that they can build momentum towards achieving their blackbelt. They can achieve this by passing nineteen gradings. They can take one every two months, if ready. Each successful grading builds their hope and then their belief that they, too, deserve to be blackbelts and have the ability to achieve that goal.

The momentum of the Giants continued to build throughout the playoffs and carried them to victory in Superbowl XLII. Norman Hallett has come up with a comment about the regular season game when the Giants were beaten by the Patriots. His comment is pure gold and worth studying again and again:

"What it showed me was that you DON'T EVEN HAVE TO WIN to begin building positive momentum. You just have to TRY to win. You have to exert some positive, forward effort to begin momentum. Then you just let momentum build on itself as you continue to exert positive forward motion.
You see, as you TRY (take positive action), you begin instituting positive BELIEF and it's that belief that begins to transform into reality which justifies your positive thoughts and makes you even stronger as you continue to BELIEVE. It starts with a try. So think of some part of your life that you've been stalled in. Take some positive action. Continue the positive action, whether you "win" or not after your initial set of actions, you WILL, over time, win in the end! Try!"

The Giants won the toss, chose to receive and started well. Two passes were completed and then Bradshaw had a good run. The Giants have both thunder and lightning - a power running back in Jacobs and a speed merchant in Bradshaw.

At the end of a ten minute, sixteen play drive. Lawrence Tynes kicked a field goal and got first blood for the Giants 3-0

In the first play of the second quarter, the Patriots had a five minute, twelve play drive with a touch down at the end of it. Laurence Maroney, the Patriots' running back, bounced off Brady and over the line for the touch down. The kick went over and the Patriots took a 3-7 lead.

The Patriots' kicker made the mistake of kicking the ball out of play and Eli Manning could now start his attacking drive for the Giants at the 40 yard line. There was a brilliant catch from Amani Toomer for a 38 yard gain.

Toomer may have performed an illegal handoff to the face mask of a pursuing tackler just before he took the catch. The 'offence' was not flagged. Someone came up with a great line: "You have to play better than a ref refs." In other words, successful people have to be so skilful and excellent in what they do that they can succeed even if life, or the ref, is unfair to them!

David Tyree took a catch but was tackled immediately. No points came to the Giants from this drive but they looked fresher than the Patriots and were more physical and aggressive.

Brady was getting pressured and even sacked by the Giants' defensive unit. A commentator suggested that the Giants looked like they wanted victory more than the Patriots whose body language appeared slow and tired. Success comes to those who have a keen desire to succeed.

The Patriots were leading but were not looking like winners. The Giants were looking like winners but were still down four points.

Nothing much happened in the rest of the second and third quarters apart from some excellent individual plays and great defence from the Giants.
"The Giants are 'winning' 3-7", said Mike Carlson. "They should be in the lead right now."

At the end of the third quarter, the score was the same. It was 3-7 in favour of the Patriots. Excitement and meaning returned to the game in the fourth quarter.

At the start of the fourth quarter, the Giants had a solid drive with some accurate passes by Eli Manning ending in a touchdown to give them a lead of 10-7
Tynes kicked off, after adding a point to the touchdown and Laurence Moroney returned. Tom Brady was not playing as well as normal because of the pressure from the Giants' defence. But he made a completed pass to Randy Moss for 17 yards.

Next, Welker achieved a modest gain. He was tackled well. The Giants looked like they believed they deserved to be in this game and that they had a good opportunity to win it.

The ball was kicked away by the Patriots. The Giants had the momentum but they, too, had to kick the ball away. There were only three points in the game and less than eight minutes left.

The Patriots moved forward with passes to Welker and Moss. Then another pass to Welker moved the ball into Giants' territory. Falk took a catch. Then Welker got the first down picking up eleven yards. Randy Moss got another first down. Kevin Falk then achieved yet another first down.

Brady was now in position to throw into the end zone. He drilled one that was too hard for Moss to catch. Then he threw an incomplete pass to Falk. He kept trying and, eventually, he found Randy Moss wide open in the end zone. Touchdown!

The Patriots led by 10-14 after the kick. Brady had taken a beating but had responded brilliantly in this drive. The Patriots were like a champion boxer who goes down but gets up to finish the fight. Successful people, like Dempsey, get up even when they can't!

Now the Giants needed a touch down to win. They stood 83 yards from the lead, trailing an unbeaten team by four points with only 2 minutes 39 seconds left. Defensive players paced the sideline shouting one-word encouragement: Believe! Believe! Believe!

The much criticized Eli Manning now had an opportunity to be a Superbowl MVP. The Patriots kicked down field. Hixon caught the ball but was hit early by Ray Ventrone. Toomer caught the ball for a first down for the Giants.

Then, Manning threw an incomplete pass. 2 mins 4 seconds left! Then, another incomplete pass! Next, a completed pass to Toomer which was just short of a first down. In the fourth down, Brandon Jacobs barrelled his way through for a first down on the 39 yard line. Power pays!

Crunch time! Manning ran but held on to the ball as his knees touched the ground. He now threw an incomplete pass. The next play was decisive. Manning was almost sacked but he struggled free and passed. David Tyree caught the ball between his right hand and his helmet He landed backwards on top of his tackler Rodney Harrison. 59 seconds left.

Next, Manning was sacked. 51 seconds to go. A commentator said: "This is the Superbowl and the theme is: 'Who wants it more?'"
The next pass was incomplete. 45 seconds left. 3rd down and 11. Steve Smith caught the ball and went out of bounds to stop the clock. 39 seconds left.

The next pass flew into the end zone and was caught by Plaxico Burress who was wide open. He kneeled to pray. The commentators said that the Giants wanted it more! Tynes kicked the ball over. 17-14 to the Giants!

The Patriots could still come back. At 19 seconds, Brady was sacked for the fifth time. Previously, he had been sacked only 21 times all year. But he was still trying to win. He signalled for a time out as he lay on his back on the field.

A long throw went to Randy Moss but the Giants' coverage knocked the ball down. Ten seconds were left. Another desperate pass was knocked down again. Only one second left. The Giants had won! They are the world champions!

Eli Manning has been surrounded by critics for years but now he is surrounded by fans. Burress had played all season on a sprained ankle. Now he was rewarded for all that painful effort by the joy of receiving the winning pass.

Joyful comments abounded from the Giants and their supporters as the reality of their victory sank in:

Woodson: "Nobody gave the Giants a chance. I said they would win verbally but I had doubts in my mind."

Coughlin: "This team never say die."

Eli Manning: "We believed in ourselves all year. We've learned how to deal with adversity and mistakes. We put them behind us."

David Tyree wasn't surprised that he caught the key fourth-quarter pass: "Whenever they call my number, that's my opportunity. Every receiver has to believe he's the best guy out there."

Defensive end, Justin Tuck, said: "In the heat of the game, you really never allow yourself to think you're not going to win it"

For some, it took until the end of the game for hope to become belief, and for belief to turn into the reality that the Giants were World Champions in 2008.

Several gigantic success lessons emerged from this game:

We all have the opportunity to become world champions in our own worlds.

Just one ounce of passion or desire pumping through our brains can help us start to climb the ladder of success. Success comes with the desire to succeed.

Enlist the support of your family or of someone else. Support of some kind is a key factor in success.

Value teamwork - a cooperative effort by the members of a group to achieve a common goal.

Use criticism to motivate you to greater efforts. Don't get run out of town by your doubters. Never lose your focus or faith.

Value resiliency - the ability to recover from hardship, misfortune or change.

Persevere when you are challenged.

Make some progress towards your main goals every day.

You don't have to win to start building positive momentum. You just have to try to win.

As you try by taking positive action towards your goals, you will begin to hope and then believe and your belief will transform your reality.

Get up and take action even when you can't!

Play better than a ref refs!

Believe that you deserve to be a success and that you have the opportunity to be one. Never allow yourself to think you're not going to succeed.

Believe! Believe! Believe! Until your belief becomes reality!

John Watson is an award winning teacher and 5th degree blackbelt martial arts instructor. He has written several ebooks on motivation and success topics. One of these can be found at http://www.motivationtoday.com/36_laws.php

You can also find motivational ebooks by authors like Stuart Goldsmith. Check out http://www.motivationtoday.com/the_midas_method.php

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