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In sports, it helps to have an advantage over your opponent. There are all kind of advantages that work well. A point guard with incredible vision for example, or a wide receiver with blistering speed. These are among the more common examples. But, ask any coach, and they'll tell you the best advantage one can have is information.
Along those lines, it was only this week-after the Colts embarrassing defeat of the Ravens-that Tony Dungy decided now was an okay time to tell reporters that his quarterback, Peyton Manning, didn't have just one shoulder surgery this off-season, instead actually had two.
Why is this information key? Well, opposing defenses hearing that Manning's shoulder was that bad wouldn't worry about the deep threat because Manning wasn't really capable of throwing a deep ball. Moreover, at least those guys who are old school about things, would have gone after Manning-attempting to re-injure an already sore shoulder.
But the real advantage is psychological. Peyton manning is a perennial all-star, the Colts a perennial league leader with him running their offense. But the truth of the matter is that at the level of professional sports, everyone's a great athlete. Everyone is a dangerous threat. Knowing that the other team's main weapon is injured, gives players a slight psychological advantage over their opponents and sometimes that's all it takes to win.
With this in mind, it has become a standard coaching practice-taken to unseen heights by the always reticent Pats' coach Bill Belicheck-to not reveal too much information, about injuries or anything else for that matter. Watching reporters squirm their way through a Belicheck platitude-laden press conference has become a sport unto itself these past few years, but the reason this is tolerated, accepted and understood is because football is a game.
Which, of course, bring us to Sarah Palin. Mrs. Palin, apparently, seems to have watched too many pigskin contests and somehow has come to believe that running the United States of America is also this kind of a game. Clearly, with the current economic crisis and ecological crisis and war on two fronts (that is, if Bush doesn't decide to invade Iran and open a third front in the remaining days of the catastrophe known as his Presidency) and all the rest, America doesn't need to be serious about its future.
This would help explain Mrs. Plain's reticence to, um, talk to the media about anything at all really. After eight years of Cheney's lies and deceptions and the resulting war in Iraq, getting a straight answer about whether or not she abused her power while governor of Alaska seems, well, pertinent.
Just like whether or not she's aware of what the Bush Doctrine is (which, judging from her answer in one of the few interviews she has given, she is not) or whether or not she believes that sometime soon the Apocalypse is coming to take those chosen few hockey moms away to heaven while the rest of us are left here to deal with the credit crisis (really, I wish I was kidding about this last part).
So while campaigning may be a sport, executive office is not a game-and the "rules" that apply in the former should not be tolerated in the latter. Either that, or I want a chance to vote Belicheck into office. At least this guy has proven he can truly lead men.
