Well, Super Bowl 50 has come and gone. Peyton Manning can now go out with a big win, if he decides to retire now. Cam Newton's introduction to the Super Bowl was a rough experience. The game shows that even great teams and great players can have times when nothing seems to go right for them.
Interestingly, neither of the much-vaunted quarterbacks in this Super Bowl played a really notable game. Neither stood out for their running game, or their passing. This was a game in which both offenses were stymied and frustrated. Super Bowl 50 was a contest of defenses. So many possessions for the teams amounted to running three plays and punting. Many passes were knocked down. So many runs resulted in lost ground. For a time, as the game progressed, it looked like the defensive players might score more points than the offensive squads. I would give the Carolina defensive unit an A grade, and the Denver defensive unit an A+. What was super about this Super Bowl was the defensive play; more than the scoring, more than the half-time show, more than the ads. The most valuable player for the game was a defender, Miller, who helped make Cam Newton's day rough and tough.
This Super Bowl had been hyped as a contest between the up-and-coming newcomer, Cam Newton, and the old, possibly retiring veteran champion, Peyton Manning. Well, our man Peyton gets to go home as the winner, and becomes the first quarterback to win a Super Bowl with two different teams, but I wouldn't say that he goes home as the hero this time. Those guys who were able to sack Cam Newton behind the line of scrimmage at least six times, (or was it seven?), were to me the heroes of this Super Bowl. The game definitely showed that a strong defense can win games.
Defensive games, especially when the defense for both teams plays really well, tend to be low-scoring games. That may not make for the most exciting television. High scoring games, with spectacular runs and amazing passes and superlative catches, and especially with many touchdowns, seem to be the desired recipe for a successful TV presentation. But I'm thinking that many of us have come up in sports traditions which had strong defense philosophies and strong emphasis on defense.
I like to remember our own basketball playing for Pea Ridge High School back in the 1950s. That was before our school had a football program. Until about 1963, PRHS was basically a basketball school. I think the first Pea Ridge football team was in the 1963-1964 school year. Our 1957 basketball team never became as famous as some other earlier Pea Ridge basketball teams: we didn't win the district tournament, we didn't go to state, and we didn't beat Prairie Grove. I always particularly wanted to beat Prairie Grove at least once before I graduated from high school. We came close, so close, in our last game with them. We lost by only 1 point. That was the game in which I got my nose relocated to the side of my face, and had to go to the doctor late in the night.
I was getting around to saying that we were a defense-oriented team. We used to say that if we could hold opposing teams to 50 points or less, we had a really good chance of winning the game. We relied on a strong defense. In playing center, as I did then, I needed to score baskets when possible, and I thought I had a pretty fair turn-around jump shot; but much of my job involved defending. I made it my job, so far as possible, to keep the opposing center from getting the ball. That wasn't always possible, of course. So, if he gets the ball, let's see if we can get it away from him. Or, let's see if we can keep him from shooting. But if he shoots, let's see if we can block the shot, or cause him to shoot hurriedly or off balance. Then, if he gets off a shot, let's be sure we get the rebound; and don't foul. We want to spend more time at the free-throw line than he does. I understand that our Pea Ridge 1934 District Championship team, and our County Champion 1926 teams also stressed intensive defense. Defense is good.
As an old-timer who comes from the era in which there was no Super Bowl, not even an AFL, and no local football (except in the big schools like Rogers and Bentonville), it is rather astonishing to me how big college football and pro football have become these days. Even high school football programs are coming to have excellent stadiums and playing fields, field houses for practice, and fancy uniforms and cheering squads. Looking back to the 1920s and 1930s, we thought it was real progress when schools started buying the uniforms for their players. Early on, the players had had to order their own uniforms from the Montgomery Ward Catalog or from Sears Roebuck. In the 1930s, the schools started building gymnasiums, so the basketball teams didn't have to play on outdoor courts as they had always done before. We've come a long way since then!
•••
Editor's note: Jerry Nichols, a native of Pea Ridge, is an award-winning columnist. He can be contacted by e-mail at [email protected], or call 621-1621.
Editorial on 02/17/2016