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Aging Players And Greatness... (1 Viewer)

Joe Bryant

Joe Bryant

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Funny in I'm not a Tennis guy at all but I found myself scanning this New Yorker article today. The first paragraph relates to all athletes I think. 

Greatness doesn't slowly fade. It "flickers". 
 

In the summer of 2002, before the U.S. Open, Pete Sampras, slowing and struggling and contemplating retirement, at age thirty-one, brought back his old coach Paul Annacone. Then Sampras, who was seeded seventeenth, went on to win the tournament, defeating Andre Agassi in the final, stunning much of the tennis world. He retired shortly thereafter. Annacone, who’d later coach Roger Federer, among others, has a theory about how a tennis great ages. It’s not that all aspects of her or his game diminish at the same pace, or that the ineffables of greatness—the self-confidence and the hunger to win, and the ability, under pressure, to find yet another gear—atrophy steadily and irrevocably like fast-twitch muscle fibres. Greatness, Annacone suggests, comes, with time, to flicker. It can flare in late career, but will never again glow every week. And don’t count on finding some switch for it in the moment in which nothing short of greatness is what’s required to win.
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Football is so brutal that sometimes guys lose it all at once due to injuries piling up.

Then again how many great vets could still play if teams would pay them what it would take instead of preferring to pay a guy on a cheap rookie contract? T.O. was a pain in the ### but could have kept putting up WR2 stats until he was 42 if anyone wanted to pay to deal with him. Probably the same with Ochocinco if the Pats weren't his last destination. Tony G could seemingly have kept playing forever it felt like. 

I do have to say that some of that excerpt certainly rings true after spending a season watching a "washed up" Adrian Peterson play for my team. He's no longer a top 5 RB or even top 15 RB but he flashed more talent and greatness on a bad team than I've seen in my lifetime. A joy to watch even as he gets old. He just has IT even though he almost didn't get signed by anybody last year.

 
You almost have to put these guys in buckets by position...we've seen kickers in the their 40's, and now QBs (Brady).  But a RB to play much past 30 - 31 yrs old is rare, AP defies logic IMO.  He isn't 22 yrs old anymore but man that guy looked good at times last year.

 
That article was written before Sunday's men's final. Federer turns 38 in 3 weeks and he's still playing at an extraordinary level.  Of course he can't do that for too much longer but still incredible. For the athletic ability needed to play tennis think it's more impressive than Brady still playing QB at a high level at 41 (soon to be 42). John Mcenroe and Borg both retired in their mid 20's.

 
Tool said:
That article was written before Sunday's men's final. Federer turns 38 in 3 weeks and he's still playing at an extraordinary level.  Of course he can't do that for too much longer but still incredible. For the athletic ability needed to play tennis think it's more impressive than Brady still playing QB at a high level at 41 (soon to be 42). John Mcenroe and Borg both retired in their mid 20's.
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McEnroe was ranked in the top 10 in the world at age 31, prior to his eventual retirement..

 
ConnSKINS26 said:
Football is so brutal that sometimes guys lose it all at once due to injuries piling up.

Then again how many great vets could still play if teams would pay them what it would take instead of preferring to pay a guy on a cheap rookie contract? T.O. was a pain in the ### but could have kept putting up WR2 stats until he was 42 if anyone wanted to pay to deal with him. Probably the same with Ochocinco if the Pats weren't his last destination. Tony G could seemingly have kept playing forever it felt like. 

I do have to say that some of that excerpt certainly rings true after spending a season watching a "washed up" Adrian Peterson play for my team. He's no longer a top 5 RB or even top 15 RB but he flashed more talent and greatness on a bad team than I've seen in my lifetime. A joy to watch even as he gets old. He just has IT even though he almost didn't get signed by anybody last year.
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I think the toughest part with some of the TO and AP types are that they can’t over the fact they have become role players. They think they are just as good as they were when they were 28 and want the ball every play.

 
Ilov80s said:
I think the toughest part with some of the TO and AP types are that they can’t over the fact they have become role players. They think they are just as good as they were when they were 28 and want the ball every play.
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Yeah, it's probably hard to shut that mentality off at the tail end of a successful career

 
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