Last night’s football game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Buffalo Bills may well go down in history as one of the greatest playoff games in NFL history. The whole game was amazing. But the final two minutes of regulation? Wow — 25 points, three lead changes and a tie, three touchdowns, and 221 yards of combined passing offense.
It is a shame that the game was decided, in part, by a coin flip that gave the ball in overtime to the Chiefs, quarterbacked by Patrick Mahomes who led yet another full-field drive to win the game. It seems easy to imagine that if Buffalo had won the coin flip, Josh Allen would have led the Bills to a score. But that is me quibbling with the NFL overtime rules.
What is clear is the quarterbacks of these teams have unbelievable talent — physically, tactically, and mentally.
They have a combined age of 51 years, so it’s not tons of experience that explains their abilities.
I would argue that both Allen and Mahomes benefitted greatly from being allowed and encouraged to play multiple sports growing up. Both guys excel off the football field.
Mahomes played baseball and football up until his junior year at Texas Tech. He was an excellent shortstop. Watching him last night — his quickness on his feet, his ability to throw across his body, his improvising — you could see the benefits of multi-sport training.
“I played shortstop my whole life. I never had my feet under me. I was always making throws across my body. I have always played a lot of basketball and thrown a lot of ’no-look’ passes, and this is me using all the stuff I’ve grown up doing.”
Allen played at Firebaugh HS (CA); his coach said Allen could have played both basketball and baseball at the next level. (Allen displayed a 33.5 inch vertical leap at the NFL combine a few years ago.)
Unlike many of today’s young signal-callers, [Allen] didn’t attend every quarterback camp or seven-on-seven session. Instead, he pitched on his baseball team and guided the high school basketball squad as the starting point guard.
“In California, there’s a quarterback circuit,” Wyoming offensive coordinator Brent Vigen explained, per Foster. “And he was not a part of that.” — Bleacher Report, 2016, on Allen’s potential as an NFL quarterback
So, why do many parents these days encourage their kids to play one sport, specializing early? They have a false notion that this is the way to develop a child into becoming an elite athlete.
The facts don’t often bear this out. There is both anecdotal and empirical evidence showing that single-sport specialization is usually not the optimal path (though there are exceptions).
Early Sport Specialization (ESS) can lead to physical and psychosocial problems. ESS can lead to overuse injuries and burnout from excessive training at a young age. I can’t count the number of kids I’ve worked with over the years who have specialized too early and who come to me complaining of high levels of stress and lack of motivation.
The benefits of playing many sports include that the child develops a variety of motor skills and maintains interest in sport by keeping it fun. Their social skills are improved. Their decision-making skills are expanded. And it doesn’t feel like the weight of the world rests on a singular identity.
Yes, at some point, one does need to specialize in a sport if one wants to make it at the elite level. And this surely is sport-specific. For example, one may need to specialize earlier in a technical sport like gymnastics. (Though we have seen the costs of that hyper-specialization in many young gymnasts.)
If Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen are any example, there is clearly a case to be made for encouraging multi-sport participation well into high school.
Thanks, guys, for an amazing display of football yesterday.