Football, supposedly the ultimate physical game, is also largely mental.
Todd Gurley, the star running back for the Super Bowl-bound Los Angeles Rams, who rushed for over 100 yards seven times this season and was last year’s offensive player of the year, is battling a left knee injury. He scored a touchdown in last month’s NFC championship game against the New Orleans Saints, but was held to 13 total yards. Still, with the adrenaline flowing, I wouldn’t count him out against the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LIII this weekend.
And when it comes to “mind over matter” I would keep an eye on the Patriots’ tight end Rob Gronkowski, who was injured two years ago after multiple concussions and couldn’t play in the Super Bowl. Still, the Patriots won that year thanks to quarterback Tom Brady in perhaps the greatest comeback of all time.
DEAR GOD, IS IT OK FOR ME TO PRAY THAT MY TEAM WINS THE SUPER BOWL?
In last year’s Super Bowl against the Philadelphia Eagles, Gronkowski overcame injuries for nine catches for 116 yards and two touchdowns, in a hotly contested game that ended in a 41 to 33 loss.
This season, Gronkowski has been battling ankle and back injuries, but in the AFC championship game against the Kansas City Chiefs, he overcame them and had six receptions for 79 yards, including catches of 25 yards and 15 yards on the Pats final two possessions that set up go-ahead touchdowns.
In Sunday’s Super Bowl, Gronkowski’s presence will again be inspirational and will provide a mental as well as physical boost to his teammates. Of course, as a physician I am hoping and praying that he doesn’t sustain another concussion – concussions are a risky business, especially in contact sports like football, no matter how tough the player. Gronkowski is quite tough, having finished a game with a punctured lung back in 2016.
Even more significant than Gronkowski’s presence on Sunday will be the overpowering mind control of his teammate, Tom Brady. The legendary quarterback, who has won three league MVP and four Super Bowl MVP awards, as well as five previous Super Bowls, will try to win the NFL championship again at age 41, just as he did two years ago by practically willing an incredible second-half comeback, and just as Peyton Manning did at age 39 the year before that.
In my book at least, Brady is the odds-on favorite to win again.
Does physical age no longer matter?
Remember when John Elway, at age 38, led the Denver Broncos over the Atlanta Falcons to win his second straight Super Bowl in early 1999? How was he able to complete 18 of 29 passes in that game, including an 80-yard touchdown pass?
How was Peyton Manning, at age 39, able to overcome spinal surgery to win the ultimate goodbye game for the Broncos three years ago?
I am not alone in this thinking. The odds makers say the Patriots are favored to win the Super Bowl and the 41-year-old Brady is likely to win his sixth Super Bowl ring.
[I]n the end, my medical prediction comes down to the deep primitive center of the brain, where stress hormones and emotional memory predominate, and late-game charges are fueled by fight or flight.
The answer is conditioning, experience and, above all, mind over matter.
Brady has a fervent commitment to his diet. He avoids nightshade vegetables (peppers, eggplants, tomatoes) which can cause inflammation. I believe, as many physicians do, that the capsaicin, anti-oxidants and phytochemicals in peppers are actually good for health, as are the lycopenes in tomatoes. But I am very impressed that 80 percent of Brady’s diet is reportedly organic vegetables and whole grains, and that the rest is fish, which contains omega 3, and lean meats.
I believe these “brain” foods help Brady focus and succeed. David Blaine, the endurance artist who held his breath underwater for over 17 minutes on "Oprah," used a nutrition program of “wholesome, energy-driving, fat-burning energy” that was developed for professional cyclists.
“Food is my medicine,” Blaine told me in an interview. “I look for nutritional impact, the exact nutrition I need to do the job.”
Brady has the same approach. He seems likely to win yet again, no matter how healthy Gronkowski is and despite the Rams’ superior record. It will be a tough fight, especially if Gurley and Gronkowski play well.
But in the end, my medical prediction comes down to the deep primitive center of the brain, where stress hormones and emotional memory predominate, and late-game charges are fueled by fight or flight.
Brady has long overcome the humiliation of “Deflategate” and his mother’s health issues to fight another day. History and human courage predict that he will prevail as he did two years ago and as Manning and Elway did before him.
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I predicted that Brady and the Patriots would win the Super Bowl on these pages last year (I was wrong), but that doesn’t stop me from predicting it again this year. I also don’t see Brady retiring any time soon.
As the poet Dylan Thomas famously wrote, “Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”
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