Monday, November 12, 2007

Take it to the house ..or Cribbs

<TRAINING NOTE
For the week.....4 hours of running--biking-and elliptical. most of it at heart rate between 135--145.. steady work. plenty of core work. balance on stability balls. 2 upper body workouts. one leg workout. good week.

Cribbs
Covered the Browns-Steelers game Sunday in Pittsburgh. Yes, the Steelers won 31-28, and yes, the Browns might have gained a little more respect, but a loss is a loss is a loss.

However, with all those high priced, highly touted players on the field, I was struck by the fact that the one player who caused the most fear from the other team..the one player who impacted the game in so many ways was a player considered not good enough to get drafted. Not good enough to earn the huge signing bonus. A player from a school known more for its basketball than for its football.

The player????Joshua Cribbs of Kent State University.

Cribbs photo-courtesy www.clevelandbrowns.com

Sunday he returned one kickoff 90 yards that set up a t.d. The rest of the game the Steelers tried several ways to kick the ball so he wouldn't get his hands on it.
They even squib kicked a ball, that he bobbled.. picked up at the goal line and.........................................
proceeded to run 100 yards for a T.D. It was electrifying stuff from a seemingly unlikely player.

Unheralded. Average height. Good speed. Nothing exceptional. But all Cribbs has done since coming into the league is outplay guys much more talked about. Guys with bigger reputations.

I thought about how teams try to keep the ball out of his hands. I thought about how this guy with a great personality, who even has his own tv show lights up a room when he enters. How he volunteers to do community projects. I thought how one couldn't be more grounded, if he were wearing lead boots.

I'm sure many thought the apex of his athletic career was at Kent State when he was the multi-purpose q.b., but Josh thought he could do more. Josh believed in himself.

We might at the moment, think that life can't get any better. That right now is as good as it gets. We might think that our triathlon times can't get any faster. That we can't possibly train anymore, or train with any more intensity.

When I think like that, I think about the Joshua Cribbs of the sports world. How anything is possible.

Are you a Joshua Cribbs waiting to break out and succeed???

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