Man, I found myself watching some old Barry Sanders highlights the other day. Just stumbled onto them, you know, going down that internet rabbit hole.
And it really got me thinking. That guy played differently. It wasn’t just speed or power, though he had speed. It was that crazy stop-and-start, the jukes that seemed impossible. He’d be running one way, then suddenly shift, leaving defenders grabbing air. Just slippery. You couldn’t predict him.
Trying to Explain It
I was actually trying to show my nephew what I meant. We were tossing a ball around in the backyard. I was telling him, “See, sometimes you don’t just run straight. You gotta look for the opening, make ’em miss.” So, I tried to do a little side-step, mimicking Barry. Almost twisted my ankle, felt like an old man. We had a good laugh though. It’s harder than it looks on screen, that’s for sure.
But watching him again, it wasn’t just about the physical moves. It struck me as a different way of solving problems. Everyone else is trying to run through the tackles, hit the designed hole. Barry? He seemed to react to the chaos, find solutions on the fly that weren’t in the playbook. He’d turn a busted play into a touchdown.
Got Me Thinking About Work
This actually reminded me of this situation I ran into a few weeks back. We had this issue, a real roadblock on a project. Everybody was pushing the same solution, the ‘standard procedure’. We held meetings, assigned more people, basically tried to brute force our way through it. And it just wasn’t budging. Felt like running into a brick wall over and over.
- More meetings: Didn’t help.
- More people: Just added confusion.
- Same approach: Got the same results – nowhere.
I was getting pretty frustrated. Then, over the weekend, I decided to just step away from the ‘official’ plan. I started poking around the edges of the problem, looking at it from different angles, trying things that seemed counter-intuitive. Stuff people had dismissed earlier.
And you know what? I found this little side door. A completely different way to handle one small part of the process that basically bypassed the whole logjam. It wasn’t the main highway everyone was stuck on; it was like a little-known side street. Presented it on Monday, and suddenly, things started moving again. Felt kind of like watching one of those Barry runs where he disappears into a pile and somehow squirts out the other side for a big gain.
Why I Was Watching Barry Anyway
It’s funny, the only reason I even had time to sit around watching old football clips was because that big industry expo got postponed. You know the one, the big shindig everyone spends months prepping for? Yeah, pulled the plug like three days before. Sent everyone into a tizzy.
Most folks were scrambling, trying to reschedule meetings, figure out what to do next. Me? My whole schedule just opened up. Suddenly had a free weekend I wasn’t expecting. So, instead of stressing, I just decompressed. Watched some football. Let my mind wander. And weirdly, that’s when the idea for the work problem popped up. Sometimes you gotta stop running full speed ahead to actually see the path.
Makes you wonder about Barry retiring when he did, too. Right near the top of his game, close to the all-time rushing record. Everyone was shocked, maybe a little angry. But maybe he just saw a different kind of opening, one leading away from the field. Maybe he realized running hard wasn’t the only way. Knowing when to change direction, even if nobody else understands it? That takes a different kind of strength. Something to chew on, I guess.
