The Practice of Indirection

Payton Manning practiced indirection. He was the winning quarterback of Super Bowl XLI. It was a rainy night, and the ball was slippery. Rex Grossman, the quarterback for the losing team, fumbled the ball several times. But Peyton Manning never fumbled. A few weeks after the Super Bowl a reporter discovered that every few weeks during the year Manning had his center (the one who snaps him the ball), Jeff Saturday, snap him water-soaked footballs.

He practices handling wet footballs so he will be ready in case it rains-even though his team plays half of their games in a dome. Manning…