Reggie, not you!

A couple of years ago ESPN.com's SportsNation ran a mock election to run parallel with 2004 Presidential election. Instead of Bush vs. Kerry, this election pitted the Progressive Party against long time nemesis the Purist Party. Progressives love jumbo trons, sushi at Seahawks games, camouflage retro jerseys, eccentric touchdown celebrations and the Playstation3. Where as Purists love listening to replays on their walkmans, beer and hot dogs at Baltimore Colts games, Joe Thiesmann's single bar facemask and the Atari 2600. In 2004, the SportsNation canvassed the entire country looking for candidates to rule over the entire sports world. Millions of people emailed ESPN.com and gave their views on sports as well as their affiliation to each side. When the dust settled and the tumbleweed tumbled its way across the scene, 2 candidates were left standing. Each of whom would battle for one coveted spot. Vice President of the SportsNation. To my surprise, the candidate of the Progressive Part was my good friend Jamaal. It was awesome. He was featured on ESPN.com, did a phone interview, he took questions from fans in a debate style format and they even made an animated Jamaal on the website. Though this is a cool story and Jamaal and I did have some great sports experiences ( Like in 2004 when I explained to him how the Boston Red Sox could and WOULD overcome an 0-3 deficit to the Yankees to win the ALCS), this blog is not about Jamaal or his bid for SportsNation immortality. I was reminded of the whole Progressive/Purist debate this past weekend as I watched the
New Orleans Saints and Chicago Bears in the NFC Championship game.

For me anticipation was at a very high level. It could be compared to the excitement of the Celebrity Boxing producers from FOX during this whole Donald Trump/Rosie O'Donnell thing.(Can 2 people, not named Terrell Owens and Jerry Jones, be more irritating?) The "Monsters of the Midway" featuring that intimidating defense against the "feel good story" of all professional sports and offensive juggernaut !!!!! Brees vs. Grossman, Thomas Jones vs. Deuce McCallister, and Reggie Bush vs. Brian Urlacher. Wow. I thought it would be a few years until Bush was thrown onto the largest, well second largest, stage, the Conference Championship. Everyone in the house was asleep ( Just so I wouldn't wake Briley and Lindsay up, I watched the game on mute ... actually very peaceful!). However I was wide awake, I swear Hank Williams Jr was in my bathroom singing, "Are you ready for some football?"

The very second after Vince Young and his Texas Longhorns "upset" Reggie, Leinart and the gang, we were thrown into Mel Keiper Jr. land. All we heard was draft projections and comparisons. Reggie was definitely going to be a Texan, but wait Vince Young is from Houston, he's going to be a Texan, but wait Mario Williams is a cornerstone defensive player, he's going to be a Texan, but wait Emmitt Smith is on "Dancing with the Stars," he's never allowed in Texas again. Regardless of where Reggie would be come training camp, he was destined for greatness. Reggie Bush could be the next Barry Sanders, the next Walter Payton or even the next Gale Sayers. A silky smooth runner, with the vision and instinct of all 3 of the aforementioned backs. A human highlight reel (sorry Dominique) that could max out your TiVo in one game. And here is what people seem to like the most about Reggie. His professionalism. Reggie is a player from "Generation Next" who plays like he has done it all before. No self promotion. No fear that he will get into a drunken brawl outside of a strip joint. No fear that he will attempt to board a plane with a mysterious parsley-like, pungent substance that somehow does not prove to be marijuana. Reggie Bush is a Progessive athlete yet a Purist's dream. He has today's style with yesterday's class. However, this theory came under fire one snowy Sunday in January at Soldier Field.

After graduation from high school, we all thought it would be fun to enter our church in the local Adult Sunday School Basketball League. My friend Jeremy, my cousin Dave and I along with other good players made up a pretty good core of players. However there was one road block ahead of us. There was a rival team in this league composed of former All Area players. This seriously was a Western Maryland High School All Star team. They were still good players! I remember when we played them. We held our own. We were undersized and outmanned but we played a great first half. At halftime, we were only down by 6 points and feeling very good. As the buzzer sounded a 747 Jumbo Jet hit our chances of winning at 500 mph. Dave is a VERY,VERY outspoken person. As both teams walked back to their bench for halftime, Dave started mouthing off and taunting the other team, he even pushed one of their players down! You got to love Dave, when we were kids we were always waiting to see what he would do next. (Though having a child has mellowed him out big time ... Im talking elephant tranquilizer mellow!!!) As Dave walked off the court, Jeremy grabbed him and said something that I had forgotten about until Sunday when Reggie Bush seemed to have brought the Saints back. You know, when Reggie broke off that 90 yard run after the catch, followed by pointing at Brian Urlacher, followed by flipping into the end zone, and then followed by whatever dance that was. Jeremy said, "What are you doing? You do not want to piss guys like this off!" Boy, was he right!! I think we lost by 30 that game. All because the other team got motivated to kick our butts! Just as the Saints, we had this team on the ropes. They were reeling. Yet, we motivated them ... and they woke up!

When Reggie pointed at #54, flipped in the endzone and then danced, he loaded the gun that would end the Saints season. When this happened I said aloud, "No Reggie, don't do it!" The Saints had the Bears going in reverse. They were shocked and so were the fans at Soldier Field. The Saints were in control. That is until Reggie awakened them from their hibernation. When Reggie pointed/flipped/danced the score became 16-14 in favor of Chicago, the "Saints WERE coming," or so it seemed. However, after this play the Bears scored 25 unanswered points. The Bears defense became revitalized and played the same football it did in October.

Now Reggie will have to watch Super Bowl 41 like the rest of us, enjoying a great game, great commercials and praying that there are no "costume malfunctions" during the Prince halftime show. I am still astounded by "the powers that be" signing Prince to perform the halftime show at the largest televised sporting event in the country. That would be like having The Wiggles open for Metallica on their 2007 World Tour!

Smile on people, Smile on!