Grace Under Pressure

The football announcer mentioned a running back "doing his Baryshnikov impression," when he was tiptoeing along the sideline. This came on top of a Barry Sanders highlight film I saw a week ago, at which I marveled at his balance even under violence, as if he had some sort of gyroscope installed. I realise the slow-motion does highlight the smoothness and grace somewhat unrealisticly.  But still...



We think of football's appeal as coming from its controlled violence, its collisions between persons of size and strength. Yet I think it is the ability of some athletes to be graceful in that context that draws us in.  The passing games and kicking games are precise, balletic - while other people are trying to slam into you. Yet even the running game, the line play, the return game, while they rely on strength as a prerequisite, involve footwork that even smaller, lither persons would find difficult.