On the lives of athletes; Donald Trump, Liz Cheney, and the GOP; Prime Minister Boris Johnson; To Kill a Mockingbird; and more
After 22 seasons in the NFL, Tom Brady, the great quarterback, has decided to retire. He is 44 years old. I guess he just can’t hack it anymore. Time to be put out to pasture. How did he do in his final season? Did he limp through some games, respectably? He led the NFL in passing yardage. He led the NFL in passing touchdowns. And he set the NFL record for completions in a season (485).
When I made these points on Twitter, a reader answered marvelously — saying something like, “Give the guy a break, Jay. If he waited not to be a leader in those categories, he’d never get to retire!”
Brady made a very smart, even moving, statement:
I have always believed the sport of football is an ‘all-in’ proposition — if a 100% competitive commitment isn’t there, you won’t succeed, and success is what I love so much about our game. There is a physical, mental and emotional challenge EVERY single day that has allowed me to maximize my highest potential. And I have tried my very best these past 22 years. There are no shortcuts to success on the field or in life.
This is difficult for me to write, but here it goes: I am not going to make that competitive commitment anymore.
I have a memory of Isiah Thomas — our great point guard in Detroit. He played from 1981 to 1994. Once, he was asked why he decided to retire. And when, exactly, he decided to retire.
The Pistons were playing in Florida — I forget which city. Isiah was lying by the hotel pool. Practice was at 11 a.m. He did not feel like going to practice — which was totally new. Since childhood, he had always looked forward to going to practice. He had never wanted not to go to practice. He was a basketball junkie. And this was . . . new, and startling, and telltale.
Professor Jeffrey Hart, the late scholar of English and longtime senior editor of National Review, taught me about the “first death.” An athlete experiences a first death, before the final one, you could say. He experiences it when he retires. When the body falters. When the cheers stop. Some athletes handle this well, going on to fruitful chapters. Some handle it very badly. I think Joe DiMaggio would be a prime example of the latter type.
I hope Tom Brady goes on to happy and fruitful chapters.
• Matthew Stafford, another star QB, will lead his team in the upcoming Super Bowl. That team is the Los Angeles Rams. For the previous 13 seasons, he played for us: the Detroit Lions. His light was under a bushel. He never had a prayer in the post-season. Our team was too bad. He asked to be traded — for a shot at glory — and we let him go.
Billy Sims, the great running back, spent his entire career with us. Barry Sanders, another great running back, also spent his entire career with us. So did Calvin Johnson, the great receiver. Their lights were under bushels. They never really had a shot — our franchise is not good enough. We buried them in Detroit.
But Stafford — he broke free.
For a decade or so, I said about him, “If he played for a better team, his poster would be on the bedroom walls of boys and girls all across America. But since he plays for the Lions, only we Detroiters and Michiganders really know him. What a pity.”
He deserves his Super Bowl. He gave his all to us Lions. Everyone deserves a proper shot. And in team sports — you need help.
By the way, MattStaff was not necessarily the best athlete on his high-school teams, in Dallas. His football and baseball teams. One of his teammates was Clay Kershaw, the great pitcher. That’d be about a tie, talent-wise.
• Donald J. Trump is an interesting man. He’s a bald-faced liar. At the same time, he’s capable of bursts of candor. Did you see his statement last Sunday, blasting Mike Pence, once more? It ends, “. . . he could have overturned the Election!”
Trumpers and, especially, anti-anti-Trumpers do what they can to polish the guy. To clean him up. To excuse him and reinterpret him and ’splain him. But, over and over, he cuts their legs off.
You almost have to feel sorry for them.
• Speaking on Fox, Newt Gingrich suggested that, if the Republicans retake the House, members of the January 6 committee will face imprisonment. Liz Cheney responded,
A former Speaker of the House is threatening jail time for members of Congress who are investigating the violent January 6 attack on our Capitol and our Constitution.
This is what it looks like when the rule of law unravels.
There is a voice of authentic conservatism — but today’s Right, by and large, would not recognize it as such.
• A headline in the Daily Beast: “Liz Cheney’s Wyoming Nemesis Is an Oath Keeper Who Was at Capitol Rally.” That “nemesis” is W. Frank Eathorne, the chairman of the Wyoming Republican Party. The Wyoming GOP has censured Cheney for her vote to impeach President Trump. The article says, “Of the 700-plus Capitol rioters who have been charged with a crime, Oath Keeper leaders and members are facing some of the most serious prosecutions. Eleven members of the Oath Keepers — including the group’s founder, Stewart Rhodes — have been charged with ‘seditious conspiracy.’”
Who is the real oath keeper? Cheney? Or the Oath Keepers?
• Here is a tweet by Alex Isenstadt, a reporter for Politico:
Peter Thiel hosted a fundraiser tonight at his Florida home for Harriet Hageman, who’s primarying Liz Cheney. According to audio of the event, Thiel in his intro called Cheney the “ringleader” of the ‘“Treasonous Ten,’” referring to the 10 House Rs who backed Trump’s impeachment
Those “Treasonous Ten,” as some of us see it, were faithful to the Constitution and our American way of government. They may be forced out of politics — but they can hold their heads high.
• The heading: “Conservative Leaders: Remove Cheney and Kinzinger from House Republican Conference.” See it here. In a letter to Kevin McCarthy, the GOP capo in the House, these leaders asked that Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger — the two Republican members of the January 6 committee — be booted from the conference. The leaders include Matt Schlapp, Gary Bauer, Jenna Ellis, Jim DeMint, Dave McIntosh — everybody, pretty much.
In a sense, I agree with them. Cheney and Kinzinger don’t belong in today’s GOP. Neither does Mitt Romney. But Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert, Madison Cawthorn, Paul Gosar, and the rest of them? Apparently, no problem.
• In Britain, Prime Minister Boris Johnson is on the hot seat — I mean, more than a leader usually is. One by one, members of his party are turning on him. I think of a great old song: “How Could You Believe Me When I Said I Loved You When You Know I’ve Been a Liar All My Life?” Fred Astaire and Jane Powell did it up, big-time. This is the most enjoyable song-and-dance routine I know, and one of the most amazing.
I look forward to BoJo’s return to columny. He was — is — one of the greatest (ever).
• A Ukrainian friend told me the following joke. A Russian tourist is at an airport, passing through immigration. The agent asks him some standard questions, including, “Occupation?” The Russian answers, “No, just visiting.”
• The more Putin threatens Ukraine, the more Ukrainian Ukrainians feel. I’m sorry that sentence comes off a little goofy — a little Dr. Seuss-like. The more Putin threatens Ukraine, the more the national juices flow in Ukraine. People rally ’round the flag, naturally. We have watched this phenomenon for years in Taiwan as well. The more China threatens, the more Taiwanese the people on Taiwan, or in Taiwan, feel.
Here is a recent headline from the New York Times: “‘We Are Taiwanese’: China’s Growing Menace Hardens Island’s Identity.” And the subheading: “More than ever, Taiwan defines itself by its democratic values. Beijing’s military and diplomatic threats only reinforce the island’s separateness.” (Article here.)
“. . . defines itself by its democratic values.” Hmmm. Another creedal nation, or partially creedal one? A lot of people won’t like that. Tough noogs.
• A school district in Washington — the State of Washington — has struck To Kill a Mockingbird from its required reading list. The racial politics of the book are too dicey, evidently. In 2020, a district in California forbade the teaching of the book altogether.
We who cherish American culture can only hope that young people, and other people, will read the book — Harper Lee’s classic — on their own.
I read it with Mrs. Mayo at Tappan Junior High School, in my hometown of Ann Arbor, Mich. I loved the book, and I loved the teacher. I remember what she wrote in my yearbook — something like, “We’ll always have a bond over Mockingbird.”
God bless her, and that book.
• Check out a happy little sledder, in Central Park:
• Not so much snow on the golf range here. But if you lose your ball in the sun, a puff of snow might tell you where the thing landed:
• The Museum of Jewish Heritage is way down at the bottom of Manhattan: on the edge of the water — New York Harbor. Within shouting distance of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. I was at the museum last week for an opera premiere, believe it or not: The Garden of the Finzi-Continis. This is the story of Jews, of various types, in Ferrara (Italy). They were of various types, yes: but when the Holocaust hit, they were all simply Jews — targets for murder.
In 1962, Giorgio Bassani wrote the novel. In 1970, Vittorio De Sica made his famous movie, out of the novel. And now Ricky Ian Gordon and Michael Korie — composer and librettist — have written an opera.
When I left the theater, the museum, I happened to glance across the water. The Statue of Liberty was all lit up, and splendid. What a precious thing, I thought: liberty. And fragile. To be guarded.
Thanks for joining me, everyone, and I’ll see you later.
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