Discussing the best (and worst) of Arizona sports.
It's painfully obvious what's going on with Matt Leinart right now.
Lack of confidence.
This is the same thing Mark Grace went through when he was in a hitting slump and it's the same thing Goran Dragic went through his rookie season.
And the solution for Matt is similar, but of course customized for his unique personal needs.
For Gracie, it was all about finding the slumpbuster. In case you've forgotten, here's how he defined the term in a famous 2003 interview:
"A slumpbuster is when you have to take one for the team. It's finding the biggest, nastiest, fattest broad, and you put the wood to her to come out of your slump. Also known as 'jumping on a grenade for the team'."
Goran Dragic is NOT the slump-busting type. If you'd seen his girlfriend around the arena last year you would know why.
What Goran did in the middle of his horrible rookie season was take his new-to-America, barely-speaks-English, everyone-hates-my-Slovenian-ass and got up on the stage during a charity event and totally rocked this rendition of "Greatest American Hero".
You Tube: Goran's singing starts at the 2:25 mark (although Lou Amundson doing Vanilla Ice with Shaq and Alando Tucker backing him up is worth watching as well)
Most people think that it was Terry Porter leaving and Alvin Gentry taking over as coach that gave Goran the confidence to succeed in the NBA. No. It was making a fool of himself in public that let him overcome his fears on the basketball court.
Matt Leinart is a guy who thrived on confidence during his time as USC. "Hollywood Matt" was in the clubs pulling in big time tail. Paris Hilton. Brittany Spears. Some chick from The Hills.
When he was slamming beer bongs and hanging with Nick Lachey and a bunch of under-age girls, Matt was at his best.
At the time, though, everyone was on his case telling him to "Grow up and be a man". They wanted him to focus on his career and stop being such a party-boy.
That was a mistake.
Not blessed with a tremendous amount of talent or a top flight football mind, Matt needs these girls fawning on him to boost his confidence.
He needs to know that when he steps on the football field he might not be the best player, but he's by far the best playa.
The Scottsdale bimbos are still there, Matt, so put down the playbook, ignore your kid, and get your ass back into 'da club! You need to take one (or several) for the team!!!
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Matt Leinart = Ryan Leaf
The only way Leinart can be moderately successful is if he can convince the NCAA to give him a 6th year of eligibility.
Besides, he’ll have a lot of free time after he’s cut from the Arizona Cardinals.
Matt Leinart = Ryan Leaf.
by HardHat on Aug 26, 2010 11:25 AM MST reply actions
And here I was expecting a serious article.
At least, I hope this wasn’t intended to be serious.
It does look like Matt’s not feelin’ it, whatever ‘it’ is. Confidence, passion, leadership, ugency… All those things have not been on display so far. But to say that hitting the clubs and getting the Hot Chick will give him back his mojo is inane.
I think starting DA is a wake-up call. Whiz is (probably) saying, ‘you want this job? you better f’ing take it!’ Leinert can still be successful. He has shown he has the skills, but he does need his swagger to be successful. But he has to find it, and it’s not going to be in the dark corners of some club or even a hot tub full of co-eds. If he does find it, he’ll be fine and so will we. If he doesn’t, I think we’ll still be fine because Whiz is going to do whatever it takes to win.
by psknapp on Aug 26, 2010 12:46 PM MST reply actions
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