Former Dolphins wide receiver Jimmy Cefalo from Charlie Jones' 1997 What Makes Winners Win:
I can remember wondering whether or not I wanted to catch that pass in Super Bowl XVII while it was coming down. I was battling myself mentally. I don't know if all ballplayers do that. Maybe just the ones who are cerebral.
It was over my head. It was a very bad throw from David Woodley. It was one of those balls thrown directly over my head and the ball was actually going out-of-bounds. I was going to get waylaid. I knew I was. I knew it was going to hurt, and I had no control over the circumstances.
A receiver can take one little step here or one little step there and get out of a real deadly situation. I was debating whether or not I wanted to pay the price of trying to catch this ball.
The ball was very clear as it came through the air. It seemed like it was going to stay up there for sixty seconds. It was like, "Do I really want to do this? I know that safety is going to really hit me, and yeah, this is the Super Bowl but I'm not a masochist. Oh, all right, here it is." And I caught it. And I scored. What a strange thing though. It changed my whole life, catching that ball.
People always remember that I had a long touchdown reception in the Super Bowl, it's something that I'm very proud of, it's the one play people remember. It changed my career. But when it was in the air, I was still debating whether or not I wanted to catch that ball.
Tags: What Makes Winners Win, Jimmy Cefalo, Charlie Jones
2 comments:
Interesting reflection. I would never think that someone would have an internal debate as to whether to make a catch in a superbowl game. Perhaps I could understand in a regular season game if everything has been decided already but to have that struggle in the superbowl? I don't blame or fault him mind you, it's just a surprise to realize how human these guys are at times.
Yeah, that's pretty much what I took out of it, too.
But I do believe the scenario he mentioned is probably a lot more common with "cerebral" types as opposed to instinctual types.
Crash Davis: "Don't think -- you'll only hurt the ballclub." or something to that effect.
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