Monday, November 28, 2005

From the Ivy to the Desert: It's the same old story

It’s something like 5000 miles from Harvard University’s football stadium to Reliant Stadium, where the Texans of Houston play, but it didn’t seem like much of a difference to Ryan Fitzpatrick on Sunday when he, for the second time in his life, made an almost impossible comeback to win.

Some will call it the comeback of the week, of the season even… Others will say that it’s dumb luck over a bad team (The Rams were almost 4 point favorites over a team that’s only 1-10) but others will say that this is the start of something great.

Mr. Ryan Fitzpatrick is well known to those who watch Harvard’s college games for his massive comeback over Dartmouth something like five years ago, when he lead the Crimson Tide from a 21 point deficit. Today, he wasn’t just the first Harvard grad to play QB in the NFL ever, he lead the Rams to a 21-point comeback (10 points in the final few minutes of the game to force OT, plus an OT drive to the end zone that would make John Elway nervous) in his first NFL game ever. Ever.

This isn’t dumb luck. If this was the first time that it had ever happened, then maybe it could have been. But, as you learn in Law Class, once is an accident, twice is a fluke and three times is a pattern. This was the second time that he led a team from certain defeat to an implausible victory. And I don’t think we’ll be waiting too long for the third time that Mr. Fitzpatrick pulls the Rams out of the fire.

Besides, did you see that pass on a 4th down late in the game? Texans or not, this was a dominating lead. Maybe the Texans got lazy, maybe the Rams got lucky or maybe, just maybe both. I don’t think it matters – when a QB can pull off a comeback like that, he’s something worth noting.

This, reader, was the comeback of the year… mark my words: This kid has got many miles left in him.

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