Of Punters and Presidents...

Have you ever seen a really good punter? For my friends who are Texas A&M fans, you were blessed with seeing one of the greats in Shane Lechler...still one of the best. But you won't find a lot of people out there wearing Lechler jerseys (certainly not in the top 25 best sellers, although if the punter for the Vikings gets his way, he might crack that list). The role of the punter in a football game may not be pretty, it may not bring great fame, but it's key to the success of a team.

Here is one example:


In the above video, Buffalo Bill's punter Brian Moorman punted a ball in such a way that his teammates were able to stop it on the opponent's two yard line. By doing so, he put the opposing team at a serious disadvantage by A) limiting their offensive options as they fear the dreaded safety, B) making the field much longer and therefore offering decreased chances to score, and C) greatly increasing the chances that his own team will have fantastic field position when they get the ball back. It may not be as sexy as an interception, a deep bomb, or an ankle-breaking run, but it is a game-changer in its own right. They may not sell many jerseys, but punters can make themselves a lot of money with punts like these because a good coach knows the value of field position.

Having watched the speech from the President tonight, the best way I can sum up his performance is that it reminded me of this kind of game changing moment. However you feel about the President or health care reform, take a moment to watch the speech from a "big picture" perspective (like from the old hole in the roof of Texas Stadium). The speech really wasn't all that pretty (though the end had some of the best lines I've heard in political speechmaking in a while). It was incredibly utilitarian in its specifics and response to criticism and I thought at times he wobbled a bit by straying into partisanship. But, like a good punt, I think it changed the game in his favor in many ways.

This was confirmed to me when I watched the Republican response. First of all, I thought at first that Rep. Boustany looked a bit like a rookie punt returner waiting for the punt to drop while the "gunners" for the other team raced to tackle him. But, to his credit, he picked up his stride as he moved into the response. That said, it seemed to me that his response played more defense than offense. He seemed forced to say where Republicans agree with Democrats (lowering health care costs for all Americans, readiness to work with the President, American people want health care reform, etc.) rather than offer plans of his own. While that's good bipartisanship, and is to be applauded, it just seemed he was backed up against his endzone and deep in the Democrat's offensive turf. He got a few yards out of his government bureaucracy stats around the 2 minute mark (I especially liked the wordsmithing required to make us feel bad about raising "taxes for job creators by $600 billion"...I would feel bad about that...if those job creators weren't the massively uberwealthy health insurance companies...here's a list of how much some of these poor CEO's make...don't you feel badly for them?) but, by and large, it reminded me of a slightly nervous backup quarterback with his back on his own goal line trying to stay in the game.

The president's speech didn't seem to be the ankle breaking show of offensive force some expected it to be and it wasn't merely a defensive stop to the attacks that have been coming from the right (though it had moments where it did both of these things). What it seems to have done is help the Democrats win back some field position they lost in August. They may not have had a very clear offense (at times they seemed as confused as a group of practice squad regulars playing their first big game). They didn't seem to have much of a defense against the stunts and trick plays of their opponents ("death panel" is the new "statue of liberty play"). But tonight they had a pretty good punt. Now we'll see how both sides respond.