Fear and doubt can make one feel alive. It's why we love the heat of competition.
Posted: Friday, August 31, 2007 7:00 pm
The memory from 34 years ago still makes me wince.
George Foreman’s uppercut is lifting my childhood sports hero Joe Frazier completely off his feet and into a broken heap on the boxing ring canvas.
Smokin’ Joe, then the unbeaten champ, picks himself up for the sixth time in less than two full rounds, but the fight is mercifully over. Foreman is now the new heavyweight king of the world and I’m having trouble believing my eyes.
It was a brutal beating, and one that, years later, Foreman would claim was sparked in part by a fear for his life.
He recalled how, as the two met in the center of the ring for pre-fight instructions, he hoped Frazier would keep his stony stare on Foreman’s face so Frazier couldn’t see that Foreman’s knees were shaking.
Then, with each knockdown, the thought occurred to Foreman that he’d only made his opponent mad enough to want to get back up and tear him to shreds.
Now, I’ve never come across a Nebraska football player who would admit he feared for his life before a Husker game. But if you don’t think Bill Callahan’s warriors aren’t fueled by anxiety entering today’s season opener against Nevada, you don’t understand why they push their bodies through torrid summer workouts, or sharpen their minds by spending hours in the film room dissecting an opponent’s every move.
“Every time I watch a college team play, even though I’m in college and I’m a player, I see them and go, ‘Man, they’re so big and so fast and so good — I’m not like that at all,’ Nebraska junior guard Matt Slauson said.
This comes from a guy who, at 6-foot-5 and 335 pounds, is the largest of all Huskers.
“Last year when I watched film on USC, I was like, ‘Man, this is going to be impossible.’ And I went out and held my own.
“And then against Texas, they have those two first-round draft pick D-ends (actually second-rounder Tim Crowder and fourth-round Brian Robison), it’s like, ‘I’m never going to be able to keep up with those guys. I’ll be giving up sacks left and right.’ And I was fine.”
When Nebraska faced the Trojans in Los Angeles, you would have had no problem finding Huskers who were battling atelophobia. That’s the fear of imperfection.
Undoubtedly, there will be some of that going on again when USC comes to Lincoln in two weeks. But a more common condition that helps push athletes through their trepidation is atychiphobia, or the fear of failure.
“Every time I step on the field I still get those goose bumps,” said offensive tackle Carl Nick, who’s the same height and only five pounds lighter than Slauson. “That fear that I have, I don’t fear my opponent, I just fear letting our team down. That cranks me up a little bit.”
Today, it will come as a surprise to most if the Huskers don’t win their 22nd straight season opener. Nevada has played in bowl games the past two years, but in the modern era of college football, the Wolf Pack have just two victories against opponents from BCS conferences (Northwestern last year and Washington in 2003).
And, yet, there’s nothing quite so mysterious as a season opener.
“You can watch film as much as you want, but until you actually play against the person that’s listed for you to go against, I mean, you really don’t get a feel for what they have and what their strengths and weaknesses are,” NU nose tackle Ndamukong Suh said.
It’s that thought that gives Suh a better understanding of what Foreman meant about being afraid.
Fear and doubt can make one feel alive. It’s why we love the heat of competition.
For all his insecurities, Foreman won 76 of 81 professional fights (68 by knockout), and in 1994, at age 45, became the oldest man to win the world heavyweight crown.
“That’s pretty intense,” Slauson said of Foreman admitting to being afraid. But “I know if I’m scared for my life, if somebody’s coming after me to kill me, I know I’m going to do whatever I have to do to get them away.”
Let the season (and the wincing) begin.
Reach Curt McKeever at 473-7441 or cmckeever@journalstar.com.