Monday, November 24, 2008

Max Kellerman's Monday Musings Vol XXXII - Priority is a matter of perspective

In my opinion, today's Max Kellerman show had a subliminal message for NY sports fans. Although the casual listener might have thought that the show was even handed in its treatment of the Jets and Giants, a not too subtle hint dropped at the beginning of the show may lead one to an opposite conclusion.

[Before getting into today's show, I would just like to respond in relation to last week's non-posting of the "musings" on Monday, November 17. I apologize for not making a post, however this was partially due to the fact that Max did not host the show on 11/17 and partially because the day itself was a little too hectic for me to do a "my musings" supplemental post. To those who were disappointed, I apologize.]

Max started the show with a line about the Jets win over the Titans on Sunday. He said that Brett Favre and the Jets' offensive line proved what he had been saying all year - that the Giants are the best team in football. As to whether this was praise for the Jets, a knock on the Titans or a little Giants home cooking, its all a matter of the approach you take to the story.

Other interesting perspective tidbits were - "Brett Favre played like he was Eli Manning." I would have loved to have heard Louie Gold's response to that one. Speaking of Louie, last week (I think that it was Friday) the guys were talking about the Dr. Theodore Atlas Foundation dinner. Louie talked about how he had met Coach Mangini and that he thought that Mangini was a great guy. Having said that, Louie still wants him fired (or at least when Max gets him stoked up, that's what comes out of Louie's mouth).

Another interesting discussion revolved around whether the Jets are the best team in the AFC. I actually heard this question asked on numerous shows including on the Michael Kay show to Chris Berman (he said that they are the best right now). Max had a similar answer, but he framed it in such a way as to also knock the BCS system. Max said that Jets are presently the best team in the AFC and that while they may not have been for the entire season, that only matters for the BCS rankings. He then followed it up with a good point - your season record determines your playoff position, but the way you are playing at the end of the season determines how far you will go in the playoffs.

Max also had an interesting perspective on the Knicks' lightning rod - Stephon Marbury. He said that Marbury is a non-issue but that he made the Knick relevant with his audacious (my word) behavior while the Knicks were playing horribly.

As part of a product endorsement (I can't remember which one) Max said that you do errands for your wife on other days so that you can watch football on Sundays. To me, this leaves my Sunday Jets game as a question of perspective. Do I perform all my tasks during the week so that I can watch the game on Sunday (making the game the priority which I am building up to)? The flip side would be -- is the game on Sunday a break which I use to recharge my batteries for the week?

The answer of course is linked to Torah. I can recall a Rebbi in school posing the same question in relation to basketball. Do the boys go out to play at recess as the highlight of the day, or as a way to release some energy so that they can then return and concentrate on their learning. Like most of Max's discussions today, it really is a matter of priority and perspective.

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