I told myself to just watch the game. I left my notepad in the car, and didn’t even carry a pen with me. I told myself I wouldn’t tweet either, since the service at the Garden when filled is seriously lacking.

Despite my attempts to just enjoy the game, I still had two quick notes I had to write up post-game. You can take the tools away from the writer, but you can never make them stop thinking like one. Here they are:

- Speed-  There was a time a few years back when I would attend an NHL game and be instantly impressed at the speed difference between the pro game and the college game. The difference was marked – the pro game moved quicker, players not only skated faster but had better skating skills, and a player’s reflexes were that much more automatic.

The last two times I’ve attended a Bruins game, that difference has drastically decreased. It could be possible that it is because I’m simply not getting to games to make the comparison as often. But it just seems that since 2008, hockey observers have seen a marked improvement in the quality of play of college hockey players. The quality of passes and puck work in the NHL has decreased at the same level the college game has increased. Skating skills and speed in both the pro and college game have woefully decreased (qualities I didn’t learn how to evaluate until I started watching hockey with hockey players, but once I did, you can’t help but notice stride, edge security and speed.)

There is no longer that marked difference, that “wow – this is a different level” feeling, when you watch a NHL game as opposed to a college game. That’s equal parts wonderful for college hockey and a shame on the pro game.

-Seguin’s Shifts Off - Talented Tyler Seguin is still a teenager. Though you cannot deny his playmaking abilities and his contributions thus far to the Bruins, you can’t see his play purely through rose-colored glasses.

Seguin, like other immensely talented young hockey players both before and after him, has two switches. One controls his effort, and the other controls his natural talent. Every shift, a player like him has to decide to turn either one on or both on.

The natural talent switch is stuck on. It’s the switch to that lackluster light in the corner of the living room that provides you with no truely useful lighting source – it’s usually the light your grandmother leaves on a timer to try to convince would-be robbers someone is home.

The effort switch is not a given. It’s the light switch on the wall on the other side of the room. You really don’t feel like shuffling over to that side of the room. It’s out of the way of your final destination: the couch. Unless you are going to read or type and really need that light, there are times where you just don’t want to take the extra amount of energy to flip it on. You’ll rely on the lackluster light and the glow of the television.

Everyone in this world is naturally talented at something, and when it comes to whatever that is, they have those two switches. For Seguin, it’s hockey. Before every shift, he has to make that decision – is he going to expand that extra amount of energy and turn the effort swtich on?

Last Tuesday against the Jets, there were too many shifts where he wasn’t turning on the effort. He’d jump out for a shift and coast. Good plays and meaningful contributions will still happen because he’s talented, but not with the same regularity as they would if he would skate out on a shift with both talent and effort turned on. And that’s why his stats appear streaky at times – he will be on scoring fits and then be seemingly and suddenly extinguished. For example, he went on a six game scoring streak from October 29th until November 12th, amassing eight goals and three assists, and then only scored one assist in the next four games.

Seguin is far from alone. This is the same problem that was always evident to me when Colin Wilson played with BU – he took shifts off, thinking that he could coast on talent, put his stick down on the ice and volia! He’d score or assist magically, without having to try. Charlie Coyle suffered from this more severely. The shifts he turned on the effort shifts were increasingly rare as his BU tenure continued. He relies too much on his wingspan and talent, and doesn’t always put forth the effort that would push his playmaking ability over the edge. Every team has one – the young kid who thinks he’s invincible and superhuman, and can coast on the same talent that made him the star of mites, travel team, high school, and juniors.

Seguin won’t be felled by this for long – he has a tough coach and experienced teammates that won’t allow it. But it nagged me during a few games I watched on television, and when I finally saw a game live and could see the entire ice, it definitely stuck out for me. The “Seguinistas” may sling snowballs at me for pointing it out, but it’s not a death sentence for the talented forward, just a blemish.

In a piece this week, Pitoniak reflected on the 19th anniversary of the greatest comeback in NFL history, the Buffalo Bills defeat of the Houston Oilers in a wild card playoff game. The Bills came back from a 32 point deficit under the leadership of backup quarterback Frank Reich, forced into play after the Oilers injured starter Jim Kelly when the two teams met in the last game of the regular season.

In Pitoniak’s piece this week, he quoted an interview with Steve Tasker about how usually loquacious Bills head coach Marv Levy inspired the team during halftime, despite their being down 28-3:

“All he said was, Don’t ever let ‘em say you gave up,” Tasker recounted. “There was brilliance in his simplicity. He didn’t berate us for crappy play, and he didn’t try to give us some rah-rah speech, which would have come across as disingenuous and phony. We had been to two straight Super Bowls, and he appealed to our pride. It wound up working. We chipped away and kept playing hard, and a miracle occurred.”

To say that I was exactly what I needed to read this morning would be an understatement. “Don’t ever let ‘em say you gave up.” That’s going in my wallet. Marv Levy may have never won a Super Bowl, but he’s provided me with enough kick-in-the-butt quotes and moments to last a lifetime.

(The other piece Pitoniak posted on his site this week is perfect for anyone not familiar with the pre-Indianapolis Colts work of Bill Polian, who was let go by the Colts this week. Polian was a mastermind for the Super Bowl years of the Bills, and did excellent work crafting the early years of the Carolina Panthers. Bills fans would love to have Polian back within the organization, but Polian and owner Ralph Wilson have not been on the best of terms.)

Now approximately three months into the college hockey season, all three teams are in the mix, but two surprising additions have made noise in Hockey East: Providence College and UMass Lowell. As of the morning of December 10th, here are your league standings (from the Hockey East official website):

Standings are standings – they lack an ability to rank how quality the wins are against each other. After Lowell defeated Boston College 3-2 Friday night, I woke up insanely early Saturday morning with an idea. Using the spirit of the KRACH and Pairwise rankings, why not evaluate these top five teams by their records against each other? So I created a spreadsheet. (Never mind that I should be finishing holiday shopping or doing holiday cards. I have a whole college hockey free week ahead to do that.)

After I put this together, I realized that the five top Hockey East teams have not played enough games against each other for this to be an entirely useful evaluation. And then my husband pointed out that there is already a head-to-head comparison on the Hockey East website – it’s just at the bottom of the standings page.

Well, duh. I knew that. I was just…cutting the fat and pairing down that chart. Right? Right. (Mind you, I also whacked my head pretty hard Friday, so I blame that for me not remembering that the head-to-head exists.)

So what exactly does this comparison show, if anything? For one, it shows how few in-conference games Merrimack has played so far, and in the three games they have played against the top of the conference, they have a losing record. This also helps give Providence a bigger argument for being considered a bigger threat than UMass Lowell. While Lowell has won a few “loud” games (stand alone games – non weekend series games – against BU and BC), they haven’t faced anyone else among this top five, and have only played ten league games total.

It also shows how many more league games the Beanpot schools play earlier on in the season. In addition to the totals above for BC and BU, Northeastern has played 12 league games as of Saturday morning. The only other Hockey East team to play that many league games? New Hampshire, who also played 12.

Sunday’s poor showing by Bills wide receiver Stevie Johnson is a glaring example. His post-touchdown mime of New York Jets wide receiver Plaxico Burress’s accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound and a declining jet plane drew an unnecessary penalty (though it is somewhat amusing to see the Jets handed a taste of their own bombastic overstating medicine.) Johnson can’t claim naivety – he’s been a wide receiver in the National Football League for four years. He knows that the Merton Hanks, Deion Sanders and Terrell Owens post-play antics of the past are now looked down upon. But he did his display anyway, drew the penalty, and thus caused the chaotic kickoff that resulted in very favorable field placement and subsequent touchdown for the Jets.

Johnson then miffed two key catches on the last drive of the game – catches that presented a clear and easy run route ahead of him, and would have resulted in a game winning touchdown. Given that Sunday’s game was a must-win to keep the Bills relevant in the AFC playoff picture, that touchdown would have been the most important of the season to that date. The lack of extra hustle by Johnson to make them – or at least outstretch his arms a bit more and read the pass better – is disappointing.

Will any of Johnson’s lack of effort and focus – as demonstrated by the dropped catches and post-TD performance – be punished by the Bills? If history repeats itself, probably not.

The Bills have lacked systematic accountability since the days of Marv Levy. Levy was a coach that installed and rewarded responsible and vocal captains in the locker room and on the field, and didn’t mince words or actions himself. The Johnson/Flutie years saw some strong in-team leadership as well. Since then, the Bills coaching staff and roster have been more about leniency than accountability. Neither Chan Gailey or his predecessor Dick Jauron seem interested in asking for and expecting more from their team, and let antics and egotistical play slide, whereas in other NFL organizations it is not. And is it any surprise that the organizations that are most hard nosed about such things, like the New England Patriots and the Green Bay Packers, have a history of winning? (Further, if you read Michael Holley’s excellent War Room, you can see that while the Patriots still have a hard nosed coach, a lack of locker room leadership eroded the team at times, and it has shown since 2008.)

One could even surmise that this inability to discipline their team does not solely rest on the coaching staff, but the front office who hires such unaccountable coaching staffs and the owner, who we are unsure is even still alive. Buffalo’s front office showed a strong valuation of character and responsibility when late general manager John Butler was in charge, but began to wane when he departed for the San Diego Chargers. Ralph Wilson has been largely absentee for years, and his lack of leadership regarding key issues is apparent. Other owners get involved and step in when a lack of discipline is sullying their brand. When the Pittsburgh Steelers have their various situations of poor character, their owner, Dan Rooney, hurriedly steps in and tries to right the ship.

It is when owners are absentee, or when they relish a spirit of personality rather that team (categories the late Raiders owner Al Davis both fell into in points of his career), then lack of discipline runs rampant. You can’t expect a return on your investment if players think more of their own worth than the organization’s.

So Johnson’s Sunday antics may be making the national headlines today for their content, but what they are really indicative of is a culture of mediocrity and a lack of responsibility within the Bills. That Johnson had the sense that an extended touchdown celebration that would cost his team was worth it speaks to the inability of the Bills organization to instill a sense of responsibility across the board. The lack of effort Johnson showed on the final drive speaks to the lack of expectations instilled by the coaching staff. Until the Bills start seeking more from those that they hire across the board, they will be bottom feeders, and us fans, the laughing stocks of our non-Bills fans. How long must fans waste our time sticking up for an inept organization?

But now that we are a few days into the mess (and that’s truly what it is, a mess), I finally have some quick insights that aren’t hackneyed. Most of these come more from the educational administrator part of me, and less from the sports consumer/writer side, but I hope you’ll find them useful.

The Mob Mentality of College Students - College students will gather en masse for anything except truly useful things. I learned this first as a student government executive board member, had it hammered home as a resident assistant, and live with it as a reality as a professional. The most powerful and informative programs will draw two students, and a flash mob in center campus will draw 500. It is a conundrum that hundreds of higher education administrators have tried to solve for years, but despite coming close, no one has ever found the golden answer.

Students are going to gather in large groups when there is an element of risk and when they know administrators aren’t behind it. Consider it their version of jumping out of a plane or making out with someone you met two hours ago in the backseat of a car at Lookout Point – it’s dangerous, stupid, but gosh darn it, it’s a rush of adrenaline to do something you aren’t supposed to do. Why else do you explain my residence hall at Binghamton University “rioting” (milling about and cheering, not really rioting) in the parking lot after Syracuse won the 2003 Final Four? It was truly stupid – why were we celebrating the school up Route 81 winning a basketball championship? (Because we weren’t post-season eligible and never thought our school would make the big dance, so we adopted the Orange. Makes no sense now, but did at age 21.)

I’m not defending what the students did in any way – they look like horribly confused and morally corrupt human beings by doing so, and their activities were truly dangerous  – but I honestly believe most will eventually regret doing it. Most of them probably justified participating by saying, “I just came outside to see what was going on,” and hopefully will learn the lesson that what the large group is doing is not always the best option. The administration of Penn State could have done a few things to lessen the mob. For example, that Trustees press conference didn’t need to be at 10pm, which is prime procrastination time for students. Have that presser at 8am, and your rioting would have been lessened. You would have less of the bystander participation, which is what fueled that fire.

Emotions - To fully grasp how residents of the community of Penn State must feel, I think you can best relate this to the range of emotions felt in individual parishes during Catholic Church sex scandals. I grew up in the Church, so I saw some of this first hand.

Your priest, especially when you were lucky enough to have one that stayed for years (a rarity in the late 1990s as generations of them retired and a shortage resulted), was someone you trusted for anything and everything. So when a scandal involved your priest, you were devastated. The parishioners would have a range of emotions with one truth behind each individual reaction: you couldn’t really understand why the priest did what he did. How you reacted to that truth was different for every person, but it was akin to the priest passing away – he no longer was the person you knew. That trustworthy persona you knew was dead.

This is exactly what’s going on with Penn State. I know several people from the area, and Penn State football is their regional cultural identity. It is their secular Saturday religion (which raises all sorts of issues for theologians, but that’s another topic for another day.) And Joe Paterno is like their priest. And no matter what each residents’ reaction is, there is one truth behind it: they don’t know how those people could do what they did. For some people, that results in a rational thought; in others, it results in a denial; and in most people from the region, it results in swirling middle ground of acknowledgement of the awfulness, but a personal grief for the ideal that was and no longer is.

Internal vs. External - There are some in this world that believe that when abuse or hurt occurs by the hand of an known entity, it is best dealt with internally, without using the external manner for punishment and investigation that societies have set up for such a thing. These people think that processing the abuse should be done within the victim’s self, and that the family or group should handle punishing (or not punishing and just acknowledging) the perpetrator internally. They take their own “action,” and then never speak again of what happened. This is a very Old World mentality that some Americans still hold to, and you see it represented by those with the opinion that no one except the physical abuser should be punished in the Penn State situation.

To a victim, that is like being hurt all over again. Victims want their feelings acknowledged, to be believed and to know it can’t happen again. And when the accused doesn’t go through any substantive punishment process, the hurt’s haunting lingers within the victim with an increased drumbeat. It could happen again, it could happen worst than last time, and no one will do anything to help, because no one did anything to help last time.

The Old World mentality that “somethings are better handled internally” that leads to abuse being swept under the rug needs to go. Internal handling breaks down the victim’s ability to trust. A victim’s trust was betrayed by someone hurting them, and so how can one ask them to trust that the accused is being handled appropriately internally?

So to hear some say that situations like Penn State’s are best handled internally is a knife in the heart and a punch in the gut. It’s a type of denial that lets the remnants of abuse hallow out the victim. How can anyone actually want that to occur?

And now that we’re a month into the season, I immediately and totally regret this decision. I’ve got too much to say. So here are my pent up college hockey thoughts from this weekend- edited and sanitized of course.

Of course, most of this will be about Boston University, and how much physical pain (from banging my head against the wall out of frustration) the Terriers caused me after Saturday evening’s 7-1 loss to UMass Lowell. The Riverhawks chased around the Terriers around the Tsongas Arena ice like my old lab-retriever mix would chase a poor squirrel facing impending doom.

What’s wrong with BU? Here are two of the issues.

Lines, Lines, Everywhere A Line - There has been little consistency to the forward lines from game to game. Surpising? No. BU head coach Jack Parker line changes with the regularity that I drink coffee. Tinkering with lines is Parker’s cure to any and all that may ail his team.

When is the last time that Parker let forward lines gel for a few games? The Terriers national championship season in 2008-09. His top three lines largely remained unchanged from game to game. Lines were allowed time to grow together as a unit. If a line performed poorly, he demoted the entire line instead of changing up its make-up.

I am not saying a coach should set lines the first week of the long college hockey season and then never touch them again. That would be impractical. But Parker himself has admitted in years past that he’s guilty of changing up lines too much (I am trying to find the exact quote, but I believe he said it in 2007-08), and this year is no exception. No one is playing with the same guys from game to game, let alone day to day. In a home and home again UMass Amherst two weekends ago, the lines changed overnight.

The Terriers saw Charlie Coyle and Alex Chiasson paired together for a while, which is a mistake because both are Colin Wilson-esque – they’re long wingspan guys with a lot of natural talent but who need to give more consistent effort. Sahir Gill gets bounced from line to line, and while he’s a good player, he doesn’t have the consistency to be relied to boost lines in that way. Taking the two strong freshman forwards in Evan Rodrigues and Cason Hohmann and changing their lines every game doesn’t help ease them into play or help them get a rhythm going (and both have shown glimpses of being decent contributors.)

The Past Is Calling - This summer, I interviewed Parker for a feature in the Red Hot Hockey game program (coming soon to Madison Square Garden, so be a dear and pick one up on game day.) We spoke at length about the BU championship teams of 1971 and 1972. During the Terriers’ first ever national championship season, Parker was a coach for the freshman squad (in that time, freshmen were not allowed to play on varsity squads.) In his coaching at the time, he was a fan of using a goaltender rotation. Then BU head coach Jack Kelley was a fan of the opposite – naming a number one goaltender and sticking to it.

Kelley chose Tim Regan to be his starting goaltender in 1970-71, until a particularly poor outing by Regan. Parker recalls Regan’s tough game being against Cornell at Lynah Rink. That would point towards the Terriers’ 5-1 loss to Cornell on January 23, 1971. After that game, Kelley decided to start Dan Brady in net. Brady would go on to start the rest of the season and be named the NCAA title game MVP.

The exact quote from Parker in my interview notes: “I think Jack Kelley had the opinion that he wanted a starting goaltender, and Timmy was our number one guy for quite a while. Then he faltered, and it might have been at Ithaca, I think, and Danny had the chance to play.”

Mr. Parker, I think Saturday night was the equivalent of that “perhaps in Ithaca” moment for this year’s squad. Kieran Millan has faltered, and you can no longer lay all the blame on the defense. It’s time to give Grant Rollheiser a greater chance as “the guy” in goal.

Gripe of the Week - It amazes me that some of the most talented members of the college hockey media are still acting like Merrimack College’s recent success was completely unpredictable and unexpected. Merrimack is an example of how long it can take for a recruiting strategy and coaching philosophy to take hold. Head coach Mark Dennehy is in his seventh year in Andover, and thus has five or so years of teams made up of primarily his recruits.

Also, don’t underestimate that the last two years brought an administration at the school who have made Division 1 hockey a priority (for better and worse) – that wasn’t a case in prior years. It was not long ago that Merrimack was on the verge of possibly leaving Hockey East because their facilities were not up to par. While their Lawler Arena still isn’t ideal, it’s as renovated and gussied out as it is able to be.

So to say, “if you saw two years ago that Merrimack would be the last unbeaten team in the nation/a top team in the nation/the top team in Hockey East” is a bit disengenous. Sure, it was touch or go for this program for a while from a facility and schedule stand point. But to say you didn’t see this success coming just means more that you weren’t paying attention to who Merrimack was recruiting three years ago than their rise being truly surprising.

Predicting that the Warriors would struggle without Stephane Da Costa was also a mistake many college hockey media members made early this season. While talented, Da Costa was ineffective for several multi-game spells last season, during which Merrimack won games regardless. Goaltender Joe Cannata and big man Kyle Bigos are back and Ryan Flangian (as College Hockey News’ Joe Meloni points out well in his Monday blog post) is currently one of the best players in Hockey East. So is it shocking that Merrimack is currently the hot hand in the league? No. These are all the next steps in Dennehy’s and his program’s building process – one that’s been in action since 2005.

My first thought was, “Isn’t that a bit…convenient?”

I do not have the ability to argue that Lackey does not need an ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction (UCL, the medical term for Tommy John surgery.) I am not a member of the medical community. But we have reached the point where it seems like every time a major league pitcher needs to take a “vacation” for a spell, they’re sent down to visit Dr. James Andrews (the nation’s best surgeon for this particular procedure) in Birmingham, Alabama.

This leads me to ask: Is the baseball community overprescribing Tommy John surgery?

Cherington admitted in his press conference (per the Boston Herald) that the arm soreness that kept Lackey out at the start of last season was related to the condition of his elbow in a contract signing exam in January 2010. When the soreness interfered with his pitching in April 2011, he was prescribed rest and placed on the disabled list. He returned, pitched and the soreness returned. Further examinations throughout the season monitored the injury, leading to Cherington to admit on Tuesday:

“Based on the combination of the symptoms, the physical exam of Dr. Yocum and the new MRI, Yocum felt like it was probably time to consider surgery.”

That progression suggests that the injury is a partial tear and not a full tear. There are a few ways you can treat a partial tear, via plain old rest and a few other procedures. Tommy John is not the default treatment – but it’s quickly becoming that way.

Tommy John was created to treat a full tear of that ligament, not a partial. But around 2000, about twenty years since the surgery was first performed, more partial tears began to be steered towards the procedure. If the procedure treated full tears so well, why not try it with a partial? The surgery now has a high rate of success (85% or better), so the invasiveness and lengthy rehab now seems worth the risk for either type of tear.

Two years post-surgery, a successfully rehabbed pitcher will report at least pre-injury strength, if not better. For a pitcher approaching their mid-30s, like Lackey, that increased strength may extend their playing career. Lackey is signed with the Sox until he’s roughly 36. If everything goes right with his rehab, that gives him that best-ever strength in the year his contract runs out.

The Red Sox may not like the idea of paying such an expensive pitcher for a year where he never dresses, but it’s not as dire of a situation as it could be for other ballclubs. The wealthier teams of Major League Baseball do not necessarily feel as devastating a blow to their organizations when a pitcher is lost for a season for such surgery, thus allowing them to steer athletes towards the procedure with much less trepidation. Says Dan Connolly of the Baltimore Sun:

“Interestingly, in Boston, Lackey’s situation may be viewed as a blessing in disguise. It may force the Red Sox to be even more aggressive for pitching in free agency this offseason because they can’t hope for a Lackey resurgence in 2012 – which may have been foolish anyway.

So they lose a $15 million pitcher for next year, and it may actually spur them into further action. That’s the advantage of the big-money teams.”

So the Red Sox can lose Lackey, but providing their new GM and owners are willing to spend, they’re able to weather the blow of not having him around.

Lackey also has some key personal issues to work through, and has not been the most favorite member of the Red Sox during his two year tenure with the team. Having him reframe his mindset for a year towards rehab and basics may be the kick in the behind the organization thinks could do him some good.

I am in no way saying that Lackey doesn’t need the surgery – he’s 33 and has been playing intense sports since high school (he played football and basketball in addition to baseball.) He’s been pitching professionally since 1999 – twelve years. If he didn’t have elbow problems after that much use, he would be a miracle.

But is the baseball community pushing too many pitchers towards this surgery? Was it Lackey’s only option for treatment? Or is it a convenient way to treat the problem and hide him away for a while? Are aging pitchers looking for a “quick” (more like higher percent of success) fix and hoping for a bionic arm at the end of the process?

And what happens if it doesn’t work?

Jerry York, head coach of Boston College (who are ranked tops in the country this week by USCHO), took to 98.5 The Sports Hub to speak with The D.A. Show (I can’t find the link on their site, but I’ll keep searching.) During the interview, the station announced that they will be broadcasting select Boston College hockey games this season starting tonight against Denver. This is a giant get for Hockey East, who already have games on NESN and CBS College Sports this season.

Maine head coach Tim Whitehead, who split their opening weekend, losing to Merrimack but winning against Northeastern, spoke to the good people at the Maine Sports Network on Wednesday. Whitehead may be on thin ice in Orono – losing their season opener to a team who had not beat them at home since the Clinton administration is not the way to start. He has to motivate his team to play big and consistent, or Maine fans may strengthen their call to boot him as head coach.

Vermont’s Kevin Sneddon spoke with the Chris and Rich Show on 101.3 ESPN Burlington late Thursday afternoon. Sneddon has a group not unlike last season’s Boston University team – talented youngster heavy. It could be rocky for the Catamounts, who open their season tonight against the U.S. Under 18 Team, but once their freshmen get their feet under them, they could be dangerous. I am eager to see if they can harness sophomore Connor Brickley’s enthusiasm, which last season tended to manifest in big NHL style hits that aren’t exactly kosher in college hockey.

The Sneddon interview is also significant for another reason. I happened to mention to my friend Chris that my fantasy hockey team was once named, “Kevin Sneddon’s Playoff Beard.” I find Sneddon’s post season choice of a playoff goatee as opposed as a full out beard fascinating. It’s meticulously kept, unlike most unruly and grizzly hockey beards. I once wrote that I wanted to name my imaginary garage band after it. But since I’m tone deaf, I named my fantasy hockey team after it instead.

Like a good friend, Chris then mentioned my fantasy hockey team name when introducing Sneddon. The response by the coach is priceless.

The team overcame all of that negative buzz surrounding them, and won the team gold medal at the world championships on Tuesday. And now that the extremely young team has reached that pinnacle of their sport, they have one thing on their mind: meeting teen heartthrob Justin Bieber. Team all-arounder Jordyn Wieber tweeted post medal ceremony:

“Now that we are world champions… can we meet Justin Bieber yet? #welldeserved …. Who has connections!?!?”

Well, when the team you put on the mat is all under the age of 19, of course Bieber is going to be a motivator. No word if Bieber will cross country lines (Bieber is Canadian, and the Canadian girls finished 11th as a team) and grant Wieber her wish.

But for the time being, Wieber has bigger fish to fry. She competes along with Boston based gymnast Aly Raisman for the all-around title on Thursday morning.

Young paved the way for me understanding and enjoying the game of football beyond my home region Buffalo Bills. Watching him helped teenage me understand football beyond the no-huddle offense and stoic passing quarterbacks like I was used to watching with Jim Kelly and Frank Reich. I was too young for my father’s favorite quarterback ever, Fran Tarkington, so my dad used Young as an example of what I had missed in the 1970s. Plus, my dad was naturally obsessed with any NFL player who shared his first name (Steve). That meant that my family loved Steve Tasker, Steve Wallace, Steve Bono, and Steve DeBerg along side Young. If you were a Steve, you were a football player worth watching.

But Young also paved the way for many of the ways we look at quarterbacks beyond the playing field today. While quarterbacks had always had some endorsement deals and occasionally made poor attempts at humor on Saturday Night Live and variety shows, Young took the idea of “quarterback as superstar” to a whole new level. He was one of the most commercially viable quarterbacks of all time, paving the way for what we see the Manning brothers and Tom Brady endorsing today. In 1994-95, he became one of the first celebrities featured in a “Got Milk” ad, shilled for Powerade and the then-brand-new PowerBar, and predated Brady as a Visa spokesperson, taking wide receiver Jerry Rice out to a fancy dinner. (Brady did a similar ad a decade later featuring his offensive linemen.) Young also became the king of the television cameo – he did gigs on several TV shows, including the original Beverly Hills, 90210 (every 1990s teenagers favorite show.) Even today, Young is has more national endorsements than some active quarterbacks. Young and his Dallas Cowboys counterpart Troy Aikman set the stage for how a quarterback could be used off the field, and in many respects, also carved out the niche of “quarterback as celebrity.” Quarterbacks were more than just football players – they could be well spoken, be good looking and have lives outside of football.

Steve Young wasn’t the best quarterback of all time, but he was a hell of a quarterback regardless. He was mobile, he read the field and distributed the ball well, and he was a great leader of his offense. That and his off the field presence made him a significant part of NFL history.

And if it hadn’t been for tweenage and teenage me becoming obsessed with him like my friends had with Jonathan Taylor Thomas, I might not be writing about sports today. They had their Tiger Beat posters of the Home Improvement star, and I had my Sports Illustrated covers of Young. So happy half century, Mr. Young.

(If anyone can find his famous “self-catch,” let me know. I wanted to put it in this post, but can’t find it.)

Steve Young and his famous 1988 run against Minnesota

Steve Young and Super Bowl XXIX