Back in the Nineties there was a hit film called Awakenings. It starred Robert De Niro and it told the true story of a man who wakes up after being in a coma from a sleeping sickness for over 20 years. We see him rejoice as he experiences the full rush of life, but then the sickness returns. The scene where he is put back to bed, still awake, but knowing he will be returning to a sleeping prison forever is one of the most anguished you'll ever see.

And it's what sprang to mind when Schumacher gave his retirement speech at Monza. I watched this man, responsible for so many unbelievable racing moments, say his farewells, and then that kid Kubica, who'd come third, trotted out one of those inane lift- music-style speeches about his tyres being okay. I think this was the Awakenings moment for me.

Schumacher is one of that breed of super drivers that sprang up in the '80s and '90s - the Sennas, Prosts, Mansells and Piquets - who thought their own thoughts, spoke their minds and were completely in control of their own actions. When they raced they gave us the full spectrum - passion, fury, villainy, genius, mischief, balls-ups - the lot. They were showmen worth watching and now the last of that breed is about to walk away, and as a result Formula One will become more somnambulant.

It's easy to cast Schumacher as villain. Drivers such as Stirling Moss and Jackie Stewart point to all his low-down unsporting moments - Adelaide '94, Jerez '97, and Monaco this year - as evidence that he can never be ranked with the great champions of the past who had much higher moral standards.

And it's true that generations ago, the racing was more gentlemanly. Moss himself threw away his one chance of being world champion because he wouldn't protest the points tally of his rival, Mike Hawthorn.

Then you had Peter Collins surrendering his car - and his own chance of a world championship - to Fangio mid-race, so that his senior teammate could win the title. They were sportsmen in the purest sense of the word, but you can't compare Schumacher's behaviour to theirs, any more than you can compare the cars of now and then.

Those drivers raced in an era that, like the telly of the time, was black and white. Appearance was everything, emotions were clamped down, and society, rather than the individual, was the dominant force in deciding peoples' conduct.

Today, though, a two-dimensional comic- book hero has no relevance in a society that is much more complex. If a hero is to be relevant, then he or she must be like us - vulnerable, bad and weak one day, virtuous and strong the next.

That is Schumacher times 10, the classic Shakespearean tragic hero, capable of super-human feats and then transgressing to the dark side when his fatal flaw gets the better of him. You can't appreciate good without knowing evil, and likewise you can't appreciate human greatness unless that human has demons to fight.

Schumacher has plummeted to the worst depths in his sport - blatant cheating - and then gathered himself up to make amends with acts of genius. I can relate to him in the same way I can relate to all the best hero-cum-villains in modern cinema.

I met once, in 2000, while filming a BBC series about the science of speed. It took half a year to negotiate an hour of his time, but the man himself was charming and even stayed for a drink after filming wrapped.

In the interview, he confessed that he believed Häkkinen to be easily as fast as him, and then we discussed the Dick Dastardly moment when he tried to punt off Jacques Villeneuve in '97. He admitted how he knew it wasn't right, but how he'd been schooled in the era when Senna rewrote the rules on racing conduct. It was a fair reply, and afterwards we asked Bernie Ecclestone for the footage of the moment when Schumacher turned in on Villeneuve.

Bernie refused, to protect Michael, but then gave us the devil's own solution: he would let us use the footage - as long as Michael gave permission in writing. Schumacher then had the final say over whether his dirtiest laundry should be aired again, and, more to the point, if he said no, nobody would ever know he'd blocked it. A day later, though, we received his written permission. I've never forgotten that.

Looking back over his career there are many amazing races that qualify him for hero status. Spain '96, when, in pouring rain, he trounced the field in a dog of a car, is one. Then there was Hungary '98, when he had to drive 20 straight qualifying-speed laps mid-race to compensate for an extra pit stop, and again won.

But the racing moment above all that makes him a hero for me is this year's Hungarian Grand Prix. In the final laps, Schumacher was third, with Alonso out of the race completely. Michael's tyres were shot to bits and it was obvious he would lose places to de la Rosa and Heidfeld. Even so, he'd still come home fifth and bag himself four valuable points, so all he had to do was let the other drivers through.

Schumacher didn't though. He fought de la Rosa and Heidfeld like a wounded wild animal and in the process shagged his car completely and came home with no points.

Schumacher still races every corner, every moment, like his life depends on it. The same passion for winning that exposes him to moments of weakness is also the very passion that makes him gamble everything, going down with all guns blazing, like he did in Hungary.

That is the man I will so dearly miss.

Note from the Sports Guy: The first version of this column was posted on my old bostonsportsguy.com website (January, 1998), with the second version running right here on ESPN.com (January, 2002) and the third version running last year (January, 2004). So here's "NFL Playoff Manifesto 4.0," which includes the latest updated names/theories from last year's playoffs.

"We've come too far to stop now. For Granny ... for Nate ...
[long pause] ... for Caretaker ... let's do it."
-- Paul Crewe

Back in 1991, my buddy Geoff and I created The System, a template of gambling rules that rose from the wreckage of a catastrophic NFL playoffs. At the time, we were worried that somebody would pull a Kathy Bates, break our legs and turn us into James Caan from "Misery." Fortunately, we nailed a few "makeup" bets and escaped relatively unscathed. My mom didn't even suspect anything when I asked her for an extra $500 during the second semester of my junior year because I wanted to "join a gym."

Put it this way: You learn the most about yourself when your back is pressed against the wall -- or in this case, when somebody's holding you upside down by your legs over a seventh-floor hotel balcony. Yes, Geoff and I have been to hell and back in the NFL playoffs. There's no doubt about it. As Boomer Esiason once said, "The best adjective that describes these guys is ... is ... resiliency."

Maybe it took a few years, but we finally worked out the kinks. Things peaked during the 2001 Playoffs, as we went 6-1 during the first three rounds and nailed all three Super Bowl bets: The Ravens straight-up, a parlay (Ravens + the over), and even a random "Who will score the first TD?" bet (on "the field," thanks to Brandon Stokely). Everything went our way. And maybe we aren't savvy veterans along the lines of Robert Horry, Mike Timlin and Herschel Savage, but we're getting there. During the 2004 Playoffs, you may remember my picking the winners of all 11 games, running the slate in Round 1 and finishing 8-3 against the spread. And it's all because of the system.

Without further ado, here are 15 timeless gambling rules for the NFL postseason:

RULE NO. 1: Never, ever, EVER back a crappy QB on the road
More important than every other rule combined. Crappy QBs become infinitely more crappy in the playoffs -- without exceptions -- because their shakiest qualities become magnified against a quality defense and a rowdy playoff crowd. If you need further evidence, harken back to the archives for every one of Scott Mitchell's playoff performances in the mid-'90s, which will be released next month with deleted scenes and director's commentary from Mitchell, Wayne Fontes and Rusty Hilger.

More recent examples from the past few seasons: Jay Fiedler in Oakland, '99; Jon Kitna against Miami, '99; Shawn King in Philly, '00; Vinny Testaverde in Oakland, '01; Elvis Grbac in Pittsburgh, '02; Tommy Maddox in Tennessee, '03; Jake Plummer in Indy, '04; Quincy Carter in Carolina, '04; Anthony Wright against Tennessee, '04 (special exemption here: Wright was home, but the fact that he's Anthony Wright trumped any possible home-field advantage).

RULE NO. 2: When in doubt, seek out the popular opinion and go the other way
If the general public could pick games, bookies wouldn't be driving Lexuses around town with giant wreaths on them. When Geoff and I were relative neophytes, our first great gambling moment happened during the '90 playoffs, when we went against the grain and grabbed the underdog Redskins in Philly. Everyone loved the Eagles to win the title that season ... and if Randall Cunningham was as good in real life as he was in Tecmo Bowl, it would have happened. Undaunted, we jumped on the 'Skins ... and they cruised to a 20-6 upset. I still remember the score.

Three good tricks for this one:

A. Follow the movement on the lines from Monday to the weekend. If anything moves substantially -- by a point or more -- that means the majority of gamblers are backing that team. And you know what that means.

B. Watch "Inside the NFL," check out the gambling section in Friday's New York Post, then watch the pregame shows. If everyone seems to be siding with one team, something's probably up. Remember last year's Other Way Game, when Indy destroyed Denver in Round 1? Everyone and their brother loved the Broncos that week.

C. Pick the worst gambler you know, find out who he's taking and go the other way. Never fails.

D. During the second or third round of the playoffs, there's always one team that looked a little TOO good the previous week and nobody can think rationally about them. For example, during the 2005 playoffs, everyone fell in love with the Falcons after they shellacked a shaky Rams team. Don't get sucked in.

RULE NO. 3: Before you select a team, make sure Marty Schottenheimer, Mike Tice, Mike Martz, Mike Sherman or Jim Mora Sr. isn't coaching them
Let the record show that I ignored this rule by taking the Chargers -7 over the Jets last season. The lesson, as always ... well, you knew already.

(Along those same lines ...)

RULE NO. 4: When in doubt, check out the coaching matchups
An easy rule of thumb: Before you make a selection, imagine you're watching the game and seeing one of those split-screen thingies with both coaches pacing the sidelines. Could you handle knowing that you backed the coach who looks like the overmatched doofus? For instance, six years ago, I took Miami over Buffalo simply because I didn't want to see a spilt-screen shot and know that I gambled on the doofus (Wade Phillips) over the guy who looked like a real coach (Jimmy Johnson). Sounds stupid? It worked. Buffalo doubled Miami's yardage and dominated the time of possession ... yet they still blew the game with four turnovers. Go figure.

RULE NO. 5: Don't bet heavily against Tom Brady and Bill Belichick under any circumstances
You might remember Barry Sanders, then Brett Favre owning this rule in their respective primes. Here's what I wrote way back in 1997: "Brett Favre is pure evil. Never, ever, ever load up against the Packers because of him. Just stay away. He's the one player who can single-handedly turn the tables on any team, much like Barry Sanders, John Elway and Dan Marino in their primes. As Scatman Crothers said to Danny Torrance in 'The Shining,' 'You stay away from Room 237 [and Brett Favre]! You hear me? Stay away!'"

Now the torch is passed to Brady and Belichick: A combined 9-0 in the playoffs, something like 345-1 in big games. Wager against them at your own risk.

RULE NO. 6: Ignore final records and concentrate on how the team finished the last five or six games of the season
This isn't the NBA, where contenders can coast for a few months and "turn it on" for the playoffs. In the NFL playoffs, you're always better off gravitating toward hot teams and away from hot-and-cold teams (like the 2003 Rams or Broncos), or teams that peaked too early in the season (like the 2003 Chiefs). You can't "turn it on" in the NFL. Doesn't happen. So when you see that the 2005 Bengals have lost their last two games by double digits apiece ... well ...

RULE NO. 7: When in doubt, research special teams and turnovers
Sounds dumb? The Patriots won the 2002 AFC Championship Game in Pittsburgh thanks to touchdowns from a punt return and a blocked field goal, as well as Kordell Stewart giving them two huge picks down the stretch. Those things weren't accidents. The Pats had been making plays on special teams all season; Kordell had been killing the Steelers in big games for years. The funny thing is Steelers fans still complain about this game, like the Pats were somehow fortunate to win. Are you kidding me? That game was a microcosm of everything that was right and wrong with those two teams.

So here's what you do: Check out those two stats (special teams and turnovers) and remember that Pats-Steelers game, or even the Panthers-Rams game last January. In the playoffs, Little Things always end up becoming Big Things.

RULE NO. 8: Beware of the Road Favorite
If you're wagering on a Road Favorite in the playoffs, you better have a good reason ... and I mean, a really good reason, like "The Giants are heading into Chicago for Round 2, Rex Grossman just broke his ankle in five places while shoveling snow, and Kyle Orton and his 'Hand That Rocks The Cradle' beard is getting the start."

(Hey, that reminds me ... )

RULE NO. 9: Check out the backup QBs ...
And ask yourself one question: Are Vinny Testaverde, Tommy Maddox, Quincy Carter, Anthony Wright, Scott Mitchell, Cade McNown, Bubby Brister, Danny Kanell, Gus Frerotte, Mark Rypien, Spergeon Wynn, Stoney Case, the Huard brothers, the Detmer brothers, the McCown brothers, the Sklar Brothers, Dr. Jonathan Quinn, or anyone named "Billy Joe" involved in a "One hard hit to the starting QB, and they're quickly warming up on the sidelines" capacity?

(Note: This is like checking the safety on a gun.)

RULE NO. 10: Only pick an underdog or a road team if you're convinced it has a chance to win the game outright
This used to be the paragraph where I rattled off cool gambling stats for the first three rounds, trying to demonstrate how gamblers should gravitate toward home teams except for one underdog pick every round (two if you were really feeling it). Unfortunately, that logic was blown out of the water by Round 2 of the 2004 playoffs, when all four road teams inexplicably covered. So much for stats. In the age of parity, you can't play the percentages like that anymore. But here are two rules of thumb to remember:

A. At least one underdog covers every round. Always. This will never change.

B. If you're picking a road team to cover the spread, you better think it can win outright. For instance, here's what I wrote before talking myself into the Panthers over the Rams in January, 2004: "Don't get suckered into the Panthers on Saturday because you 'think they can keep it close.' You better believe they can knock Bulger around, move the ball with Stephen Davis, get some circus catches from Muhammad and Smith and come out of St. Louis with the Dubya. Or else take the Rams and lay the seven."

RULE NO. 11: Beware of the easy two-team teaser on the same day
I created this rule during the 2003 playoffs, after everyone and their brother teased the Jets (home against the Colts) and Packers (home against the Falcons) on the Saturday of Round 1. Well, the Gambling Gods didn't appreciate that ... so Michael Vick ended up having the game of his life in Lambeau. The same situation arose in Round 2 of the 2004 playoffs -- with the Pats (home against the Titans) and the Rams (home against the Panthers) -- and this time, I was ready:

"This Rams-Pats tease is those 'Britney Spears X-Rated Video: Click here!' e-mails. In other words, any time something looks too easy, it usually is. Something weird is gonna happen. And it won't be with the Pats."

What happened? The Rams lost to the Panthers. And a new gambling rule was born.

RULE NO. 12: Never bet heavily against a playoff team that has a coach and an owner whose last names both end in a vowel
A friend of a friend named Oaksie created this one three years ago, after San Fran pulled off two bizarre covers against Green Bay and Atlanta in the first two rounds (two games that smelled worse than Vlade Divac). Doesn't apply this season.

RULE NO. 13: Never bet too much money on your own team
Especially in the playoffs. If they lose, it's doubly excruciating and the collective devastation almost feels like a quadruple loss. Remember, gambling is supposed to be fun, despite how it turns out for every TV character.

(And I shouldn't need to remind you that you should never, ever, EVER wager against your own team. But I will, just for safety.)

RULE NO. 14: Don't try to be a hero, just try to win money
A new addition to the list. When the playoffs roll around, some gamblers have a tendency to get cute and go against the grain -- like with Jake and the Broncos last year-- so they talk themselves into stats like "Did you know the Broncos had the best time of possession mark of any team this season?" and "They could have been 14-2 with a couple of breaks," and suddenly you're going against Manning and the Colts at home like an idiot because you want to be a hero.

Here's a good rule of thumb: Take a deep breath and ask yourself one question: "If my life depended on this pick, would I still be making this bet?"

RULE NO. 15: Before you make your decisions, take one last look at the quarterbacks again
(Note: I update this ending with every version of the column. In version 1.0, we used Jon Kitna and the Seahawks. In version 2.0, we used Elvis Grbac and the Ravens. In version 3.0, we used Jake the Snake and the Broncos. This year? Chris Simms.

Imagine taking the Bucs in Chicago for Round 2:

They're down by seven points, there's 11 minutes left in the game, the Bucs are at their own 12-yard-line, the Bears fans are going crazy, it's 2 degrees with a minus-35 wind chill ... and Chris Simms is bending over center. He's 9-for-26 for 121 yards and three INTs, including one that Nathan Vasher brought back for a TD. You're PRAYING for Simms to hand off every down. And yet he's dropping back to pass again, and he's looking for Joey Galloway over the middle, but he has to rush the throw ...

Does that sound like a nightmare or what?

Editor's Note: The following excerpt from "Moving the Chains: Tom Brady and the Pursuit of Everything" examines how Tom Brady is able to maintain a successful balance of humility and stardom while being one of the fiercest competitors in the NFL. Reprinted from "Moving the Chains: Tom Brady and the Pursuit of Everything" by Charles P. Pierce with permission of the publisher, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC. All rights reserved.

Each chain is precisely ten yards long. There's an upright at either end. There is also a third upright with numbers on it. The uprights are called the "sticks." The officials who keep the uprights that are connected by a chain are called the "rod men." The official who keeps the other upright, which is called the "down indicator box," is called the "box man." Across the field are auxiliary chains and sticks, and auxiliary rod men and box men, so that players can look at either sideline and determine the state of play.

When a football team makes a first down, one rod man plants his stick in the ground parallel to where the ball has been placed. The other rod man extends the chain to indicate to the team (and the spectators) how far they have to go to another first down. Once a team passes that second stick, it gains a first down and the chains move. The object of any offense is to keep the chains moving.

It's within the movement of the chains that football finds its soul. It's within the movement of the chains that football players see most clearly how they are bound together. When an offense is moving the chains, it keeps its defense off the field, rested and ready, while exhausting the defense of the other team. When an offense is moving the chains, its success is easily defined in calibrated achievements, ten yards at a time, one after another after another again. Each player gains confidence -- in himself and in what comes to be seen as an inexorable whole. This confidence can become an almost physical force -- something Newtonian, like gravity or inertia: "An offense in motion tends to stay in motion, except when acted upon by an equal or opposite force, which is usually a linebacker with blood in his eye." In fact, an offense relentlessly moving the chains is often said to be going "downhill." The constant progress shortens the game. "Time of possession" is one of the most beloved statistics among football coaches. Moving the chains bends time itself to a team's will.

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Tom Brady moves the chains. It's the first thing the New England Patriots and their coaches saw in him, back in 2000, when he was a sixth-round draft pick -- and a fourth-string quarterback -- directing the scout team with players who hadn't been around long enough yet to be considered castoffs. The scout team's job is to simulate the offense of the upcoming opponent. However, after practice, Brady and the scout team would practice the New England offense. He led, and they went with him. "They'd go through the plays, and, if somebody got something wrong, he'd correct them," recalls Belichick. "You could see them getting better. They moved on you."

Almost two years later, in the Superdome in New Orleans, playing with the starters in the biggest game of his life, at the end of a very strange football season, Tom Brady moved all the chains, literally and figuratively, transforming the Patriots and changing his life. By the end of the day, he had produced a remarkable upset that had marked a beleaguered franchise with an entirely new identity, one that resonated deeply with a country still freshly wounded, and Brady instantly personified all the change he'd helped to engineer. Along with his team, he stepped into strange new territory.

In the early evening of February 2, 2002, the Patriots were sitting on their own 17-yard line, tied at 17–17 with the heavily favored St. Louis Rams with 1:21 left in regulation time. Their defense, which had smacked the velocity out of the Ram offense all evening, was literally on its last legs, having just surrendered a touchdown on which at least one pursuing New England defender simply collapsed as though the air had gone out of him.

The smart play was to let the clock run and take a chance on winning in overtime. In fact, John Madden was recommending that very thing on national television while Brady, Belichick, and the offensive coordinator, Charlie Weis, huddled on the sideline. "It was a ten-second conversation," Weis recalls. "What we said is we would start the drive, and, if anything bad happened, we'd just run out the clock."

Belichick and Weis agreed that the Patriots should try to win the game immediately -- in part because of the exhausted state of their defense, but mainly because they knew that, even if he didn't get the team a chance to win, Brady was not likely to make a mistake that would cost them the game.

The bare-bones play-by-play does not do justice to what happened next. Consider the play described as: "2-10 NE 41 (:29) T. Brady pass to T. Brown ran OB at SL 36 for 23 yards (D. McCleon, Little) Pass 14, Run 9." Brady hit receiver Troy Brown with a pass that Brown carried twenty-three yards down to the St. Louis 36-yard line before being forced out of bounds.

What's missing is the moment on the previous play that made this one possible. Brady read a blitz by a St. Louis linebacker and threw the ball away. ("T. Brady pass incomplete," says the official record.) What's missing is the fact that Brady noticed that St. Louis had rushed only three of their defensive linemen, dropping a defensive tackle into pass coverage, the way he'd seen them do it on all that film with which he'd seared his eyeballs over the previous week. What's missing is how he bought enough time for Brown to "clear" the unwieldy defensive tackle and get free, how Brady took a tiny, instinctive step up in the pocket to avoid an onrushing lineman whom he felt more than he saw, enabling him to find Brown for the completion.

"There are a lot of little things that go into it," says Bill Belichick, whose occasionally terse commentary can make the official play-by-play read like Finnegans Wake.

The movement is missing. There's no sense of constant forward motion, or of the burgeoning confidence that was its primary accelerant. Two plays later, with seven seconds left, Brady "spiked" the ball, deliberately tossing it to the ground in order to stop the clock so that New England would have time to kick the winning field goal. In this situation, most quarterbacks simply slam the ball to the turf and walk off the field.

However, on this occasion, Brady bounced the ball gently, caught it, and handed it to the official. ("T. Brady pass incomplete" reads the play-by-play sheet again.) Up in the luxury suites, Robert Kraft, the owner of the Patriots and the man who had redeemed the franchise from its history as one of the greatest screwball comedy acts in the history of professional sports, was stunned by the coolness of the gesture. On the next play, Adam Vinatieri came on and won the game for New England with a 48-yard field goal.

Two years later, in Reliant Stadium, deep in the industrial savanna outside Houston, Brady established himself permanently in the place where the win in New Orleans had brought him. The Patriots were favored this time, and this time Caro-lina could be said to have tied them, 29–29, on a late touchdown pass. However, New England was gifted with a bizarre kickoff that went out of bounds on their 18-yard line, giving them a minute and eight seconds to travel only about thirty-seven yards to get into position for another field goal try. The measure of the distance that Brady had come is the fact that, this time, almost everybody watching the game expected him to do it

This time, the pivotal play came with fourteen seconds left, a third-down-and-three situation from the Carolina 40-yard line. Again, Weis and Belichick worked on a vulnerability they'd spotted earlier in the week. Carolina would play man-to-man coverage near the line of scrimmage while sending two defensive backs deep, what the coaches called "Cover Five." At the line of scrimmage, Brady read the defense and intuited the consequence: receiver Deion Branch would be open underneath the deep coverage.

Branch lined up in the slot between another wide receiver and the line of scrimmage. The cornerback was playing him to take away the middle of the field, so Branch broke out and down and away, toward the near sideline, and Brady hit him for seven-teen yards and a first down. The chains moved. Vinatieri kicked another game winner. A year later, in Jacksonville, Florida, Brady and the Patriots beat the Philadelphia Eagles to win their third Super Bowl in four seasons.

The territory that had been so new in New Orleans was now the place in which he would live out the rest of his life. Brady would forever be discussed in the same conversation with the greatest quarterbacks who'd ever played. He would be held up as the ideal player on an exemplary team and, while the velocity of his life had increased exponentially, it would be assumed by others that its trajectory would remain straight and true. In the minds of many people, he could live the rest of his life on automatic pilot. He didn't have to move another step. His life could be complete if he wanted it to be.

And this is the oddest irony about moving the chains -- the quarterback is the only player anywhere on the football field whose job specifically requires him to stand still. Even the most mobile quarterback usually has to stop to throw the ball. This means that the quarterback has to perform a task made up of a half dozen finely jeweled movements while a thousand pounds of hostile beef is running around him with its hair on fire.

"Think about it," says Steve Nelson, a former Patriot linebacker. "The quarterback's the only player on the field that has to worry about his elbow pointing the right way to do his job." And the final irony is that it's what the quarterback does when he's standing still that gets the chains to move.

Ultimately, moving the chains can add up to a journey. By resisting easy summation, Tom Brady commits himself to that journey on his own terms. He declines to be defined by the limits of his profession. He declines to be the vessel for anyone else's virtue. Somehow, he has struck and kept the balance that Elwood Reid noticed in that classroom full of knuckleheads. He will live life -- and be successful -- on his own terms and, at the same time, he will not be culled from the herd. He will be a star and he will be a teammate. He will be smart and handsome and rich and popular and he will be one of the guys, too. He will move the chains in his life, constantly, so that he will determine its ultimate definition.

In this, he sets himself up for a journey through public life that's fueled by formidable contradiction. He will live a normal life, albeit one that includes a movie-star girlfriend and a condominium that priced out last year at $4 million. In this, he is the perfectly consonant face of the mythology that his performance has helped the New England Patriots create and market about themselves -- that, in a day of stylized individualism, the Patriots and their quarterback are a team with red-state family values playing in the bluest state of all.

Can anyone be humble if he talks about being humble on 60 Minutes?

Can anyone be a teammate when the team's success works at the same time to exalt him individually?

How can any football team be a family when a great deal of the family's success depends on grinding up some of the children and tossing them away?

There are material rewards, certainly, to football, but they come with the realization that physical destruction is as central to the sport as it ever was to boxing. (Which is why so many of the pious calls to ban the latter ring so hollow when they come from people who glorify the former.) That basic fact can lead to a soul-killing destruction, in which the player commodifies himself until the essential parts of the person grate together the way the bones in a knee will when the cartilage is removed.

Success is an anodyne. Adulation is a powerful anesthetic. It deadens the pain of that moment when the physical destruction of the sport darkens the heart and bleeds the soul. The key is to keep the adulation under control in such a way that the essential person is not lost. The key is to keep moving. Resist everything that slows you down, whether it's physical pain or the petrifi-cation of celebrity. Keep moving. Keep moving. Keep the team moving, even when you're standing still. Keep your life moving, even when you're frozen in the fondest memories of the people who watch you play.

This is the journey Tom Brady has taken on. It began in a family wherein the spirit and documents of the Second Vatican Council mean as much to his development as any playbook. It moved along to college, where the whims of incompetent coaching nearly brought it to an end. It proceeded into the NFL, where it benefited by a brutal injury to another quarterback and where it has arrived, finally, at the opening game of the 2005 season. A Thursday night at home, September 8, 2005, against the Oakland Raiders.

In its game presentation, the NFL is what the Roman Empire would have been had it invented the bass guitar and the thirty-pack. To be in the middle of it is to be deaf to many things, including irony. For example, there has to be an academic slumming out there somewhere who's willing to undertake the study of the phenomenon of sockless males -- public heterosexuality and testosterone at flood tide -- howling along to "YMCA" and "Rock and Roll, Part Two," the only hit for Gary Glitter, a kiddie-porn aficionado who, at the very moment his song is blasting away across Gillette Stadium, is on his way to a couple of decades in a Vietnamese prison for having transferred himself and his hobby to Southeast Asia.

Tonight, the NFL's in full voice. The rapper Kanye West was dropped at the last minute because he'd said unkind things about President George Bush's reaction to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, but he was replaced by Santana and the Rolling Stones, and we have indeed arrived at that dark day in which the Stones are the safe play. There are fighter jets and fireworks. The teams come out onto the field as completely obscured by smoke as Cemetery Ridge was on the last day at Gettysburg.

Outside the press box at Gillette Stadium hang a series of television monitors. These enable the sportswriters to follow the action, especially the slow-motion replays, since the height and funky corner location of the press box make watching the actual play on the field problematic. One screen carries the actual television broadcast seen in people's homes. Another carries the raw feed. At this moment, Tom Brady is on both of them.

On the broadcast monitor, dressed in a knife-sharp suit, he's sitting at a table in what appears to be a high-toned restaurant, surrounded by his actual offensive linemen, who are in full uniform. It's a commercial for Visa credit cards, and the linemen are metaphors for the various forms of consumer protection offered by the card. They read their lines, straight credit-card cant, no chaser. They cut their eyes at one another from behind their facemasks, which, oddly, emphasize every change in expression rather than obscuring them, as though the cages bring their features into clearer focus. The funniest thing, of course, is that here in the restaurant, full to the gunwales with Armani and attitude, it's the offensive linemen who have individual identities, even if only as "Fraud Protection" or "Zero Liability." These are roles with greater range than those of, say, "Left Tackle" or "Right Guard," which can be the football equivalent of those movie roles identified in the closing credits as "Second Man in Elevator" or "Dead Soldier No. 3." Here, Brady's just another guy in an expensive suit, and he's the straight man.

Presented with the check for the meal, Brady delivers his one-liner: "Do metaphors pay?"

"Ha, ha," the linemen laugh in reply. "No."

On the monitor next to this one, there is a low-angle shot of Brady live on the New England sideline, with fireworks exploding far above his head. It's the kind of hero shot in which the NFL specializes. It's hard to tear your eyes away to look all the way down to the sideline at the actual person, slapping high-fives with his teammates, his face a bright burst of joy that you don't need a television to see.

This is where the journey truly happens, down on the field. Everything else is side trips and diversions -- roadside amusements and reptile farms. Tom Brady fought hard to begin the journey, and he will fight just as hard to determine its direction. Ultimately, he'll determine its end. After all, in some ways, his career is already complete. He's won three Super Bowls, more than any other professional quarterback except Joe Montana. He's rich. He's famous. He will be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, even if he gives the whole thing up tomorrow and joins the Carthusians. But he won't stand still, except for those moments when he has to in order to move the chains.

"Is there a perfect game out there?" Brady muses. "It's got to be at the highest stakes. It has to be a game that means a lot, and it has to come down to the end, probably a game where you have to keep digging and digging. You don't remember the ones you win 35–17. You remember the ones you win 38–35. A two-minute drive. They score. You score. Those are the ones that are memorable. Who wants everything to come easy?"

"The whole thing was pointing in another direction. It just wouldn't turn. He was flicking it right, left, straight. Our Goodyear's were not as good as those Bridgestone's on the Mclaren. We had a car that was a full second and a half slower than our rivals. But there he was, forcing it to turn, dragging it by the neck. The hair on the back of my neck stood up. The car was suffering from massive understeer, I was so sure that he would have gone off, atleast thrice in that one lap. But despite all this, he was inside on sectors 1,2 and 3. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I felt pulverised. Sometimes, Michael goes further beyond the boundaries of sheer genius. He put that car on pole. I knew that day, I witnessed something truly brilliant and I will never forget that lap. He's just that bloody good"

Ross Brawn on MS after witnessing his quali laps in Hungary -1998 (Provisional pole)

A DRIVING FORCE

Finding a contemporary counterpart of Rama is a tall order. Rama is an ideal figure - loyal, devoted, even-tempered, trained in all the arts of peace and war, and kind to all (Rosenberg 1996, p. 302). Such is the greatness and the excellence of Rama. There are many great figures in the contemporary world, but only few can match the magnitude of Rama's greatness. These personalities are one in a million. Out of these one in a million personalities, I choose Michael Schumacher.

Michael Schumacher is a seven times Formula One world champion. Like all the great drivers Schumacher has exceptional ambition, confidence, intelligence, motivation, dedication and determination. But few have combined these qualities to create such excellence and even fewer have been so excellent for so long. For Schumacher, his sheer enthusiasm for driving (he still goes karting for fun) is like a fountain of youth, his search for improvement never ends and his racing success drives him on (http://www.formula1.com/archive/halloffame/driver/7.html). He is considered by many as the greatest driver of all time (Kehm 2003, p 13).

Rama is considered to be the best of men (Rosenberg 1996, p. 301). Schumacher is considered by many to be the best in his generation. Rama possesses superior combat skills and fighting abilities while Schumacher possess shrewd racecraft and untouchable driving skills. Both men are not only prodigiously talented, but they also have  great attitude and character as well.

Michael Schumacher can be compared to Rama not only because he has similar characteristics with Rama, but also because he has the characteristics of a Hindu hero. He can be considered as a modern day Hindu hero, and as a modern day Rama.

The Hindu hero should be loyal to the righteous behavior or dharma (Rosenberg 1996, p. 297). Rama is loyal to his dharma. He obeyed his father even if it meant relinquishing the throne and being a hermit (Rosenberg 1996, p. 305). Michael is loyal to his duty as a driver for the Scuderia Ferrari team and as the president of the Grand Prix Driver's Association. As a driver for his team, Michael works very hard to contribute to the team's success. He is very professional in the way he works with his mechanics and engineers (Kehm 2003, p. 43). He is also very professional in doing things that are not related to driving, such as promoting the products of the team's sponsors as well as doing public relations work for the team and its sponsors. As the president of the GPDA, he has religiously campaigned for safety improvement for the sake of his colleagues. As a Formula One world champion, he has used his influence to encourage and promote safe driving to motorists.

The Hindu hero is expected to remain devoted to duty (Rosenberg 1996, p. 297). Rama is devoted to his duty by staying as a hermit for 14 years and enduring the sufferings and endeavors that come. Michael is very much devoted to his duty. He is usually the first in the team to arrive at the race track (he arrives even before the car), and is the last to leave the race track (Kehm 1996, p. 45). He is known for "giving 110% at 100% of the time"(Kehm 1996, p. 43). He is known for his commitment in winning as well as for his work ethics. There was never an occassion where he complains about the work to be done (Kehm 1996. p. 43). Michael does more than driving the car fast, he also tests the car, he helps his engineers develop the car, he motivates his mechanics to do their best, he does public relations work for the team, and he sees to it that the team is united in one direction.

A Hindu hero is known for putting responsibilities to his subjects ahead of his personal life (Rosenberg 1996, p. 297). Rama displayed that when he left his wife because people in his kingdom doubted her virtues (Rosenberg 1996, p. 316). Michael sacrifices time for his family by performing his obligations for the team.  Usually, the summer three week break is the time where Formula One drivers take a break and have a relaxation, but not Michael. Instead of spending quality time with his wife and children, Michael spends it by helping the team develop a winning car. There was even an occassion where Michael slept on the track garage because he was testing the car until night time (Kehm 2003, p. 57).

The Hindu hero is model for proper behavior among his subjects (Rosenberg 1996, p. 297). Rama was a model because of his devotion to his dharma. Michael is a model for proper behavior among his team. He is more than a driver for Ferrari, he is the leader as well. He is the heart and soul of Ferrari. He is known for his leadership by example. Because of his positive energy when performing the job at hand, the rest of the team gets to acquire that positive energy as well. His optimism, exuberance and work ethics are infectious. (Kehm 2003, p. 45). He does his job with such commitment and dedication. Because he gives full effort and focus in doing his job, his teammates get motivated to give full effort and focus to their job as well.

No Ferrari driver has worked harder for the team, nor has any been more appreciated than the man who has led the team to six successive Constructors' Championships. He leads by example, frequently visiting the factory at Maranello, talking to the personnel, thanking them, encouraging them, never criticising and inspiring everyone with his optimism, high energy level and huge work ethic. The team is devoted to the driver who often says he "loves" the Ferrari "family." (http://www.formula1.com/archive/halloffame/driver/7.html)

The Hindu hero honors the attitudes of his subjects and obey their wishes (Rosenberg 1996, p. 297). Rama did just that when he left his wife because people in his kingdom doubted her virtues. Michael honors the attitudes of his mechanics and engineers by being open to their suggestions, and by not putting the blaming finger on them when things go wrong. (Kehm 2003, p. 51). He obeys their wishes when he tries their suggestions about his driving technique and approach. He is open-minded enought and does not force his will on the team.

Both Michael Schumacher and Rama are exceptional figures. They are persons whom we witness once in a lifetime, at least in the case of Michael Schumacher. Excellence and greatness are bestowed upon them. Rama's legend will be told from generation to generation on how he defeated the evils of the world. Schumi, as Michael is called popularly, will be missed by many racing fans when the day comes that he would have to hang up his helmet. People will remember Schumi on how he ended Ferrari's 21 years of championship drought, and on how he led Ferrari to dominance that the sport has never seen - 5 consecutive driver titles, and 6 consecutve team titles. People will remember Michael Schumacher as the driver who dominated the sport like no other - 7 world championships, 91 races wins, and 68 poles and counting are almost improbable to be surpassed. Like the legend of Rama, the legend of Schumi will be told from generation to generation.

REFERENCES

Rosenberg, Donna. World Mythology: An Anthology of Great Myths and Epics Second Edition. National Textook Company: Illinois, 1996.

Kehm, Sabine. Michael Schumacher: Driving Force. Edsbury Press: London, 2003.

http://www.formula1.com/archive/halloffame/driver/7.html

Michael Schumacher was 5 secs ahead after his 2nd pitstop against Fernando Alonso. He is on his way to win the Japan GP and take a good lead at the WDC standings. If he won and FA finished 2nd, the score would be 126-124 in favor of MS comming into Brazil.

But it was not to be. Its unbelievable. MS engine gave up. Its the first engine failure for MS since France 2000. Its just unbelievable. What a time for it to come. Fernando Alonso wins because of that. Alonso takes the WDC lead - 126-116.

Its really sad. MS made a great effort and fought hard to comeback from a 25 point deficit against Alonso. After China last week, the score is tied at 116 all with MS having the advantage due to more wins. I thought MS is about to win another WDC for the 8th time in his career and retire in an excellent way. But its not to be. Its sad that MS will come to Brazil needing to win and hoping Alonso will not score any points to be the WDC. That is a very tall order. But I guess we fans should keep the faith.

Its just sad and unbelievable, I really hoped, wished and prayed that MS would be the WDC this year before he retires. But if it is not to be, then I guess thats life. Life goes on...

Congratulations to the UST Tigers and Tigresses. Both the senior men's and women's team won their respective UAAP basketball championship.

I watched the Game 3 of UST vs ADMU final just a few hours ago. Its indeed a great game. Thank God UST won and it was a great game. Kudos to Ateneo for putting up a good fight.

Its a great experience to see UST win and cheer Go USTe for them.

Its also a great experience to go from General Admission to Upper A section, hehe. Gino and I did an "Eskapo" First from Gen Ad, we jumped to Upper B. Its pretty difficult because there are many security guards there, so we have to execute it perfectly. Going from Upper B to Upper A is just a matter of smarts and tactics, and being the Philosophy majors that we are, its not a problem. Many people take pride with their successful quest of going to Upper B from Gen Ad. We did it one level better - Gen Ad to upper A. The challenge is now to go from Gen Ad to Patron. Hehe

Go USTe!!!

The Shanghai track is considered to be as Michael Schumacher's bogey track. He is jinxed there. His best result there was 12th, in 2004. He was miserable there in 2005. But now, he has breaked that jinx. He has won dramatically there here in 2006. This is the day MS silenced his critics.

MS started from sixth. He is the only Bridgestone shod driver to be in the top 10. That says a lot about the advantage of Michelin over Bridgestone in the wet tire department. Fernando Alonso has maximized his tire advantage to claim pole and lead early in the race. It seemed that Alonso is about to win again in China as he did last year and extend his championship lead over Schumacher, it seemed that Schumacher is destined for another China bogey performance.

But then suddenly, we saw a vintage Michael Schumacher - the Rainmaster. Schumi overtook the Michelin shod runners - Barrichelo, Button, Alonso, and Fisichella. MS took the lead despite starting sixth. It was a brilliant drive from Michael. I hope and pray that this great drive will lead to his 8th career WDC.

Fernando Alonso lost a 25 second advantage in the start and ended up 2nd. Alonso has also lost a 25 point lead in the WDC standings. MS and FA are now tied at 116 points each. But MS has the advantage because of more wins. Go Schumi !

   Michael Schumacher, a brilliant and masterful yet controversial F1 driver. Loved by many of his fans, yet hated by many of his critics. He has achieved so much yet embarrassed himself a lot as well.

   He has caused extreme polarized opinions. They say, it is either you love him or you hate him, either you are a fan or a critic. As for me? I consider myself a fan of his positives, and a critic of his negatives. Im in awe of his positives, and I criticize his negatives. I respect him for his excellence in Formula One and his greatness as a driver, a leader, and a person. I criticize him for his mistakes and unthinkable and wrong acts. Yes, because of Michael being a hero sometimes and a villain sometimes, he has caused polarized opinions. But true F1 fans wont have extreme polarized opinions of him. Schumi, like this world, is not just black and white. We should see him in all angles, in both negative and positive light. For the Disciples (Planet-F1 forum term, they worship MS,  for them MS has the divine nature in which he can do no wrong) you should be open to the fact that MS is not infallible and makes mistakes now and then. For the Antis (Planet-F1 forum term too, they hate MS to death that they blame him for everything from a rival's engine failure to global warming, he never does anything right for them). you should be open to the fact that MS has achieved a lot for F1 and deserves credit for the good things he has done.

   As for me, I admit that I support Michael to win this years World Drivers Championship. The man is retiring, I think it would be great if he would retire while on top, rather than retire because he is no longer competitive enough. At 37, MS is no longer at his prime, I believe his prime was from 1995 to 2004, his abilities started to be in a downward slope from 2005 onwards. MS at 37 is no longer as fast, as competitive, as sharp, or even as fit as the MS of 3 or 5 years ago. But even though that is the case, MS is still one of the best, if not the best driver of today. However, 3 to 5 years ago, no one would have dared to question Michael's status as Formula 1's best driver - by light years. Now, the question is being asked, is Michael still the best driver? or is Kimi Raikkonen or Fernando Alonso better? But at 37, MS is still right up there with Raikkonen and Alonso, if not above them. Winning this season's WDC will silence the critics who question his ability to deliver and his status as the best. I believe he is still the best, just not by light years but rather by inches. I would like to see Michael Schumacher retire in 2006 as a champion in the same way Michael Jordan retired in 1998 as a champion.

   Michael Schumacher will go down in Formula One history as one of the greatest, if not the greatest driver to ever grace F1. For all his abilities - the blinding speed, the superior racecraft, the intelligence, the tactical wisdom and technical brilliance, the wet weather superiority, the unbelievable awareness in all situations and almost perfect decision making skills (MS probably makes 19 right decisions in every 20 hard decisions). For all his unbelievable desire and unshakeable will to win, the pyschotic drive to win, he would win at all costs, he believes winning is everything and would do everything to win. For all his leadership, perserverance, dedication, commitment and hard work in helping Ferrari revive and win a title after 21 years. For all his consistency, competitiveness, excellence, greatness, and dominance. I have never seen a Formula One driver dominate the sport in the way Schumacher had done it. Michael has been at the top of Formula One for more than a decade, he has been considered as the best driver from 1994 onwards. The closest figures right now who can possibly achieve that same kind of domination and competitiveness is Tiger Woods of Golf, and Roger Federer of Tennis, and they are still not close enough.

   Of course there is the downside of MS as a driver. Michael is has that ruthless streak in his character, he is willing to risk a competitor's life to his advantage, his intentional crash to Damon Hill in Adelaide 94, and to Jacques Villeneuve in Jerez 97 is a testament to that. He even squeezed his own brother to the wall at almost 200mph. Michael would do everything to win, even if it means cheating like what he did in Monaco 06. While I admire his ruthlessness to some extent, I believe that in order to win, you need to be a bit ruthless, and in order to dominate, you need to be ruthless. Michael's ruthlessness is what separates him from just an extremely talented driver to an utterly dominant driver. Sure his win at all costs attitude is unacceptable to some, but at the end of the day he is the winningest driver in Formula 1 history.

   MS is not just a great driver, he is a great person  as well. I have read the book "Schumacher : Driving Force" and I recommend this book to everyone. Michael has donated a lot to charities, and is one of the highest individual donors, if not the highest individual donor in the Tsunami disaster in 2005. Contrary to the popular view that Michael is this arrogant and cold driving machine, the people who know him very well would say that he is a person who cares about others and will do everything to help them. There are many stories about MS compassion and remarkable deeds, its just that many of those stories were never published. Michael the competitor is for sure, arrogant and ruthless, But Michael the person is the complete opposite.

   MS is a great leader, he is the driving force behind Ferrari's success and their revival. Sure MS is not the only one, there is Jean Todt and LdM, but he is the driving force and the leader of the Ferrari team. He is very professional when it comes to doing the job with excellence. He is a great motivator and is a leader by example. His professionalsm, commitment, dedication, motivational skills, and character is what makes him a great leader. No wonder it was he who ended up Ferrari's 21 years of drought without a title. Sure, it is possible that Ferrari would end their losing streak, but I think it will take them longer, and I doubt if they would be able to sustain that level of success. MS after leading them to revival, led them to more success, and led them to dominance. MS didnt just drive fast and win races for Ferrari. He has visited the factory oftenly to motivate the team as well as be of help. He has provided technical inputs to help develop the car, as well as tirelessly testing them. Ive never seen a driver so dedicated and commited in doing the job with such high energy and optimism.  And I think his greatest achievement as a leader - he made the people around him better hence making the team better. Thats why I believe he is deserving of his status as the team's number 1 driver.

   Whether we are fans or critics, I think we can all agree that MS has given us a lot in watching him from our armchairs, from out TV sets, to our Internet Live Timings. For fans, MS has given them someone to support, someone to cheer and root for, and perhaps someone who made them watch F1, and become a F1 fan in the process. For critics, MS has given them someone to blame, someone to criticize, and etc. For F1 fans like me, MS has given us a benchmark for excellence in the sport. I appreciate and respect MS for what he has done in the sport, Michael gave everything even if it meant compromising himself. MS came back even after breaking his legs in 1999, and won 5 straight World Championships from 2000 to 2004, thats resilience, thats something that merely ordinary or even very good drivers cannot do. Michael has remarkable consistency, he always turns up to be Michael Schumacher every season, every grandprix, every race, every qualifying, and even every practice and testing session. I have never seen a more competitive driver than MS, he will always fight to the bitter end, he never gives up. This season he is 25 points down after the Canadian GP, everyone thought this championship is already sewn up by Fernando Alonso, but after 6 races, MS came back, fought back, and is now just 2 points down. I remember Spain 94 and Nurburgring 95, in Spain 94, MS willed his way to 2nd place despite being stuck in 5th gear for most of the race. In Nurburgring 95, MS was 30 secs behind, and cameback in the final laps, to win. I have never seen a more determined driver than MS, perhaps Ayrton Senna is right up there, but MS still gets the notch.

   Yet, I have never seen a driver tainted with as many controversies as MS had. Adelaide 94, Jerez 97, Austria 01 and 02, Monaco 06 on and on and on... I have never seen a driver that is both loved and hated at the same time. I thought I will never see a driver as ruthless as Ayrton Senna, until Michael Schumacher came. I have never seen such a great champion get heavily criticized like MS does. And yes MS fans, admit it, MS deserves some of those criticisms because of his own faults.

   Michael Schumacher, the best and the greatest Formula One and Grand Prix driver ever. The most controversial driver in F1 and Grand Prix history. Some will remember him as the greatest in F1. Some will remember him as the most successful in F1. Some will remember him as the biggest cheater in F1. Some will remember him as the dirtiest driver in F1. Some will remember him as the most controversial driver in F1. Some will remember him for gracing F1. Some will remember him for disgracing F1. Some will remember him  for being a flawed driver. Some will remember him for being a great champion. But for sure, F1 will miss him, and will never be the same without him.

   How will I remember him now that his time has come? Instead of remembering him as a flawed driver who happens to be a great champion, I will remember him as a great champion who happens to be a flawed driver. Sure Michael has his flaws, controversies, unforgettable mistakes and the like; but his great traits, contributions, achievements, and greatness outweigh those flaws. Sure he has negatives, but the positives outpower those negatives. He maybe a flawed genius, but a genius nonetheless.

   I hope and pray that Michael Schumacher will win this years World Drivers Championship, as well as Ferrari winning this years World Constructors Championship. I wished we could have a season long last dance for MS in 2007. But MS decided it was time to go, I can only support him in that decision. I believe he knows best on when to call it a day, its his career anyway. This last three Grands Prix in China, Japan, and Brazil will be the last time were gonna see Michael Schumacher drive...race...and fight. Have a great one, Michael.