Lessons from half a lifetime ago
What Blockbuster Video, the Club Pink Pussycat and a T-shirt have in common
Suppose you’re 58 years old and all the best moments of your life came before you were 30. Congratulations! You’re the San Francisco 49ers in the Super Bowl era!
I promise this isn’t yet another Super Bowl column. Not really. I’ll barely say a word about the Kansas City Chiefs, and won’t even mention Taylor Swift. Oops.
It’s more about savoring the moment. Or not. And chasing away demons. Or not. And growing old gracefully. Or not.
Call it “The Picture of Dorian Oy Vey.”
I will start with a football movie, though: “Varsity Blues.” After asshole coach Bud Kilmer got ousted by his high school team, quarterback Mox offered a rallying cry.
“Before this game started, Kilmer said, ‘48 minutes for the next 48 years of our lives.’ I say fuck that. Right? I say, fuck that. Let’s go out there and we’ll play the next 24 minutes for the next 24 minutes, and we’ll leave it all out on the field. We’ve got the rest of our lives to be mediocre, but we have the opportunity to play like gods for the next half of football.
“But we can’t be afraid to lose. There’s no room for fear in this game. And we go out there and we half-ass it because we’re scared, all we’re left with is an excuse. We’re always gonna wonder. But we go out there and we give it absolutely everything — that’s heroic. Let's be heroes.”
If the 49ers happen to win Super Bowl 58 on Sunday, it would be the first time since Super Bowl 29, half a lifetime ago, when they pretty much played like gods and routed the San Diego Chargers.
On a tremendously smaller scale, it was a career and lifetime highlight for me, too. I got to cover it for the San Mateo Times, my only Super Bowl. I still have the T-shirt the Times made.
Like Super Bowl 29, the column is a snapshot in time, nothing more. It points to the surrounding craziness, like a plane advertising Miami’s now-defunct Club Pink Pussycat and a blimp from Blockbuster Video, later deflated by Netflix.
The Times itself got sold the next year, then continued to swirl in journalism’s economic toilet for two decades before its final flush. Like Blockbuster and the Club Pink Pussycat, it couldn’t compete with the internet or the march of time.
Steve Young hugged the Lombardi Trophy like they would never part. Anybody with a superstar sibling could understand; when you follow Joe Montana, as Young did, you celebrate your own accomplishments without worrying about comparisons. That’s a good lesson for all of us, for savoring moments big and small.
Young, Jerry Rice and several other 49ers players wound up in the Hall of Fame. Only one Charger did: linebacker Junior Seau, inducted posthumously. He died by suicide in 2012 at age 43. A bullet to the chest ended his life, but a brain disease that’s hardly rare among football players is what killed him.
It’s a brutal sport, even if you win. One 49ers touchdown was by star rookie William Floyd. The next season, he was leading the NFL in receptions. Then he blew out his knee. He lasted seven years, but was never the same.
As cruel as fate can be, though, life more than matches it with beauty. A 49ers assistant coach left after that season to become the head coach of the Denver Broncos, eventually winning two Super Bowls. A little over two decades later, Mike Shanahan’s too-old-to-be-prodigal son returned to coach the 49ers.
Kyle Shanahan’s 49ers lost their first Super Bowl four years ago against these same Chiefs, but life loves second chances. Where would romcoms be without them?
The 49ers haven’t won a Super Bowl in 29 years. Lots of teams haven’t. But there was beauty in every year, even if it ended in a loss. Sometimes all of us get so obsessed with having a great half of metaphoric football that we see the rest of our lives as mediocre.
So even if you didn’t take a world cruise or land a new job or find your soul mate, celebrate what you have accomplished since Super Bowl 57. What did you learn? Who are you closer to? What are you most proud of? What makes you smile?
Even if the 49ers lose, I’m guessing that Brock Purdy will have had a damn good year. He recovered from elbow surgery, had the NFL’s best quarterback rating and got engaged. Just a hunch: I bet Travis Kelce had a decent year, too.
Whether you spend Sunday glued to the TV or at the mall escaping it all, think about Mox and fearlessly putting your heart into what matters most, and Steve Young, who proved that even giant shadows can’t obscure the brightest stars, and Junior Seau, who played like a god even if he was all too mortal.
While you’re at it, listen to this song and think about a hero in your own life. Even if it’s you.
Murphy Slaw
Something old: Tracy Chapman’s 1988 song “Fast Car” got a lot of attention at Sunday’s Grammy Awards, but another live performance is what first thrust it into the spotlight. You can find more details here, but the tl;dr version is this: Stevie Wonder was supposed to perform at a 1988 concert at Wembley Stadium, a tribute for Nelson Mandela’s 70th birthday. Wonder was plagued by a computer glitch, though, so they rushed Chapman back on stage to fill the gap. Boy, did she.
Something new: Americans now owe $1.13 trillion on their credit cards, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. That’s almost as much as Donald Trump’s legal fees.
Something borrowed: There’s making a mistake and then there’s Making A Mistake.
Something blue: Sometimes we get so preoccupied with our weaknesses that we forget about our strengths.
Thank you for another great post, Murph. Did the IUD compare itself with the IED and say, "I'm not explosive enough?" (Go ahead, groan.)