The "McGee Method"

Maybe you've heard the story of a football player named Max McGee. In the very first Super Bowl, way back in 1967, the thirty-five year old McGee was winding down a great career as a wide receiver with the Green Bay Packers. Because McGee did not expect to play in the game, he snuck out of the team hotel and spent the night before the Super Bowl on the town, drinking and carousing, barely making it back to the hotel before the team bus left for the big game. Of course, on the opening drive, the starting receiver for the Packers got injured and McGee, who hadn’t even brought his helmet with him to the stadium, was thrust into the game and ended up scoring two touchdowns and was named the first-ever Super Bowl MVP. McGee proved that, despite what conventional wisdom might tell you, it IS possible to party all night and still have great athletic success.

Which, of course, brings me to 16. As I recounted in a post from last fall, 16 pulled his own Max McGee during football season, failing to return home at all the night before the big Homecoming game, yet (despite being turned in to the coach by your faithful blog-correspondent) still playing in the game and catching a touchdown pass. Sleep? Overrated. The "McGee method" demanded that sleep be eliminated in the pursuit of athletic greatness.

It took a few months, but 16 finally found an opportunity to test out whether the "McGee method" worked for basketball, as well. On the Wednesday through Friday after Christmas, 16's high-school basketball team was playing in a holiday tournament. Presumably, 16 decided that, if he was going to employ McGee's decidedly controversial pregame training-technique, he would need to do it at a time when it would have maximum impact. So 16 held back, waiting until the night before the last tournament game. Undoubtedly, he planned things out very carefully. 16 would have it no other way. He was employing this method solely for the good of the team, after all. As soon as Jill and I went to sleep Thursday night, 16 packed his bag and slipped out of the house. I'm sure he didn't want to do it, but he obviously felt it was the only way to achieve athletic success. So 16 went to a party Thursday night and he never came back. Until Friday morning, that is, two hours before he needed to board the bus for the final tournament game. Talk about dedication to the "McGee method"!

While 16 did not, technically, offer up the excuse, when he returned, that he was employing the controversial "McGee method," he had to assume that we would know that's what was going on. Because 16 had shown such dedication to it, should it really be any surprise that 16's technique was such a smashing success? Obviously, 16 had a monster game in the tournament finale on Friday. He scored 26 points and was named to the all-tournament team. Here he is going up for a dunk that comprised his final two points of the game. The moral: hard work pays off.