Glenn Stout - Against All Odds. Never Give up

Copyright 2012 by Glenn Stout

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Sandpiper, an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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Jacket art 2012: Frank Reich photo Getty Images; all other cover photos Associated Press Images

Interior art 2012 Associated Press Images

The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:

Stout, Glenn, 1958.

Against all odds : never give up / by Glenn Stout.

p. cm. (Good sports)

ISBN 978-0-547-88734-0

1. SportsPsychological aspects. 2. Teamwork (Sports)Psychological aspects. 3. Success. I. Title.

GV706.55.S78 2012

796.01dc23

2012023942

eISBN 978-0-547-98538-1
v1.1012

This book is dedicated to everyone who refuses to give up and keeps trying.

Q UITTING IS EASY .

Everyone who has ever played a sport has fallen behind, or lost, or made a terrible mistake that cost his or her team a victory. No one, not even an All-Star or an All-American, is perfect. Making errors and losing are part of the game.

However, whether one loses or makes a mistake isnt what is most important. What really matters is playing hard, giving it your best, and never giving up. If you do all that, you will win something even more important than any one game: the self-respect that comes from knowing you gave your best effort. That is the true goal of all sports.

The athletes and teams profiled in Against All Odds: Never Give Up either fell far, far behind or made a terrible mistake that cost their team a victory. But none of them ever quit or gave up. They kept playing the game with passion and integrity. In the end, they not only won on the field, but they also won something larger by setting a good example for others, by showing the right way to play.

So the next time you make a big mistake during a game, dont think about quitting: think about the way Roy Riegels, who almost ran for a touchdown in the wrong direction, was able to overcome his error. The next time your team falls far behind, dont try to win the game back all at once, but like basketball player Tracy McGrady or quarterback Frank Reich, just keep trying and doing your best, one play at a time. And when victory looks impossible, as it did for the St. Louis Cardinals in 2011, or Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow, remember that if you never give up, you can still beat the odds and end up a winner.

Besides, nothing feels better than a comebackdoing what everyone else thinks cant be done!

TIM TEBOW

T HE D ENVER B RONCOS WERE FINISHED , and so too, it seemed, was the career of the backup quarterback Tim Tebow. Five games into the 2011 NFL season, as the Broncos faced AFC western division rival the San Diego Chargers, the Broncos were a dismal 14. Reaching the playoffs seemed virtually impossible. No team in NFL history had ever started the season 15 and then made the playoffs.

Tim Tebow was all but forgotten. Despite winning the Heisman Trophy as the best player in college football in 2007 and being selected in the first round by the Broncos in the 2010 NFL draft, thus far Tim Tebow had been a disappointment in the pros. As a rookie in 2010 he had played only sparingly and not impressed anyone, passing erratically and appearing overwhelmed. Before the start of the 2011 season, the Denver coach John Fox announced that Kyle Orton would be the teams number one quarterback and that Tim Tebow would serve as his backup.

During training camp and practice during the first month of the season, Tim was almost an afterthought. He didnt take a single snap with the first-team offense. Instead, Tim played for the scout team, imitating Denvers opponents against the Broncos first-team defense. Thus far in the 2011 season Tim had appeared on the field for two plays, and those came during the Broncos 4923 loss to Green Bay. Although some Denver fans pleaded with the team to give Tebow a chance, most fans and sportswriters were beginning to consider Tim Tebow a wasted draft pick.

In the first half against San Diego, the Broncos continued to struggle. The Broncos offense, in particular, had trouble moving the football, and as the two teams retreated to their locker rooms at halftime, the Broncos trailed 2310. Then Coach John Fox made a decision. He pulled starting quarterback Kyle Orton from the lineup and told Tim Tebow that he would start the second half at quarterback. The Broncos had nothing to lose.

Tim tried to stay calm. I was just very thankful for the opportunity and wanted to make the most of it, he said later.

That he did. Although it took a while for him to get going, in the fourth quarter Tim led the team on two touchdown drives, running for one score and passing for another. Unfortunately, with the Broncos still trailing and driving downfield once again, they ran out of time as Tims desperation pass fell incomplete on the final play of the game.

It never feels good losing, said Tebow at a press conference after the game. It definitely puts a bad taste in your mouth. We just have to go out there and work and get better, so hopefully we dont have to feel that way this often again. Although the loss dropped the Broncos record to 15, Tim Tebow was not prepared to give up on the season.

Over the next few months the rest of the NFL would learn just how badly Tim and his teammates wanted to get rid of that bad taste and taste victory instead.

Tim Tebow was just getting started.

***

Another player may well have been ready to give up, but Tim Tebow wasnt just another football player. He had been beating the odds and doing things that others thought were impossible ever since he was a young boy. Tim Tebow believed in himself. And just because he was a backup quarterback did not mean that Tim had stopped believing. He knew that all he needed was a chance.

The odds had been against Tim from before he was born. His father, Robert, was a pastor in the Baptist Church, and he and his wife, Pamela, were serving as missionaries in the Philippines when Pam learned she was pregnant. Before Tim was born she became ill, and doctors did not expect her baby, the Tebows fifth child, to survive birth. They were shocked when Tim was born healthy and strong.

The Tebows eventually returned to the United States, and Tim was raised in Jacksonville, Florida. Tims older brothers loved sports, and when Tim was a young boy he tried to follow in their footsteps. Like his brothers, Tim played baseball, basketball, and football in local youth leagues. Tall and strong and fast, Tim was one of the best young players in the area. Football was his favorite sport, and he dreamed of playing quarterback in high school.