What makes a great quarterback? If we assume that each quarterback drafted by an NFL team is a highly talented athlete—and that seems like a fair assumption—then it’s natural to wonder why some talented athletes find success and others don’t. Sports journalist and podcaster Colin Cowherd believes that he has the answer. Several weeks ago, as Cowherd was summing up the 2021-22 NFL season, he argued that the best NFL quarterbacks are the ones who’ve had to struggle to attain greatness, while quarterbacks who are effortlessly gifted or spoiled by fortuitous circumstances tend to do worse at the highest level. Overcoming adversity, in short, is crucial to the full flowering of one’s talent.
Cowherd defended this thesis with a number of examples. Tom Brady, the winningest quarterback in NFL history, was drafted in the sixth round of the 2000 NFL draft. A good if not spectacular college player, Brady was nevertheless maligned for his poor running and jumping ability at the 2000 scouting combine. The experience, however, toughened Brady and served as a catalyst for his meteoric rise with the New England Patriots. Perhaps even more remarkable is the story of Aaron Rodgers—a player whom many consider the most talented quarterback in football history. Rodgers was a very good high-school player, but, at just 5’10”, college programs deemed him too small to compete at the highest level. He opted to enroll at Butte Community College, where he quickly excelled. In 2003, Rodgers transferred to Cal-Berkeley and, now 6’2”, became one of the best quarterbacks in college football. Still, even then, people doubted Rodgers’ size and potential. He was drafted late in the first round of the 2005 NFL draft and was consigned to backup duty for multiple seasons. However, in 2008, he emerged as Green Bay’s starter and has remained so for almost 15 years, earning four league MVPs in the process. Similar stories could be told about Drew Brees (too short), Russell Wilson (ditto), and Josh Allen (grew up in a small town and was overlooked in high school), not to mention several others.
On the other hand, according to Cowherd, there are quarterbacks who enjoyed immense privileges yet failed to pan out. Former San Diego Chargers quarterback Ryan Leaf had superior size and arm talent, but battled a series of off-field problems, including drug addiction. Baker Mayfield was unstoppable as a quarterback at the University of Oklahoma but has scuffled in the NFL for a variety of reasons, including the distractions that come with being a former number-one pick. Tua Tagovailoa was arguably the greatest quarterback in the history of the University of Alabama but was aided by the coaching and recruiting prowess of Nick Saban, who surrounded him with perhaps the most talented collection of skill players in the history of college football. Since joining the Miami Dolphins, Tagovailoa has shown grit and determination but is no longer considered a great talent at the position.
As I listened to Cowherd’s thesis—to which, alas, I cannot find a link—it curiously reminded me of Kierkegaard’s simmering disagreement with Hans Christian Andersen in the late 1830s. This controversy centered on Andersen’s third novel Only a Fiddler (Kun en Spillemand). Published in November 1837, Only a Fiddler tells the story of a musical prodigy named Christian, whose artistic genius is discovered at a young age. However, through a series of miscarried relationships and personal misfortunes, Christian’s promise does not materialize. Thus he grows despondent, even wretched. Born with the potential to become one of Europe’s great violinists, he is “only a fiddler.” For Andersen, who would return to the question of social acceptance in stories such as “The Ugly Duckling” (Den grimme ælling, 1843), Christian’s fate shows that human beings cannot determine their own lives. On the contrary, if they are to flourish, they need the care and support of a nurturing social environment.
Kierkegaard was just a student when Only a Fiddler came out, but he was already well known among Copenhagen’s intelligentsia. For instance, he had emerged as a razor-sharp yet droll commentator on liberal reforms in Denmark—a nation had been an absolute monarchy since the mid-seventeenth century. Andersen and Kierkegaard were acquaintances, and, at some point after the release of Only a Fiddler, Kierkegaard began writing a review of the work. In fact, as Andersen later recalled, the young critic assured him that his review would be favorable.
However, when Kierkegaard’s From the Papers of One Still Living (Af en endnu Levendes Papirer) arrived in September 1838, it tendered condemnation instead. On Kierkegaard’s reading, Only a Fiddler lacks an appropriate life-view, insofar as it suggests that self-actualization is determined by biological and social factors. This assumption is evident in Andersen’s treatment of genius. Whereas Christian’s fate implies that genius is fragile and in need of social patronage, Kierkegaard argues that the power of genius persists and, indeed, intensifies in the face of unfavorable circumstances. Andersen’s Christian, then, is acquiescent rather than resilient, lugubrious rather than passionate. Moreover, Christian’s lack of artistic commitment betrays a fatal flaw in Andersen’s own life-view. Whereas great authors write from a well-defined perspective, thereby imbuing their work with balance and depth, Andersen exposes himself as a poet of luck and mood.
Kierkegaard’s argument contains numerous implications, whether in the context of his own authorship or in relation to wider socio-political questions. But I’ll leave those aside for now. The main point here is that Cowherd may be a covert student of Kierkegaard’s thought—or, if Cowherd’s assessments of quarterbacks is right, that Kierkegaard just may shed important light on athletic success and failure.
Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Romans 5