During Rice’s rookie season, he struggled with a steady succession of dropped passes, and fans were questioning whether Walsh had made a sound decision.
Rice took his game to a level that may never be matched. In 20 seasons with the 49ers, Raiders and Seahawks (for whom he played his final 11 games as a 42-year-old), Rice caught 1,549 passes for 22,895 yards and 197 touchdowns – all records by a wide margin. No player has crossed the goal line more – Rice, with 10 rushing TDs, is the league’s all-time leader with 207 scores.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Sunday, January 31, 2010
True Competition
"I'm competitive against myself, not against anyone else. I don't go into a room and size people up and determine how I can beat someone." Beyonce
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Cowards in action....
Continuing the previous blog on Bernanke:
Today the second-guessers are running wild. Why didn't the Fed stop bailed-out companies from handing out lucrative dividends and bonuses? Why pay off AIG's creditors in full? Why save Bear Stearns but not Lehman Brothers? "It's the price of success: people start to think you're omnipotent," Bernanke says. "We say we didn't have the authority, and it's Oh, you're the Fed. You could've come up with something.' "
Amazingly, the one reform that has attracted bipartisan support on Capitol Hill has been a crusade to rein in the Fed. The House passed a measure allowing congressional audits of monetary policy, which Bernanke believes would shatter the Fed's independence and immerse its rate-setting in politics. He's also fighting proposals to identify Fed borrowers, pointing out that during the Depression, borrowers turned down Reconstruction Finance Corporation dollars to avoid the stigma of disclosure. There is broad support for stripping the Fed of its consumer-protection functions, and the leading Senate bill would eliminate its regulatory functions as well. At his recent confirmation hearing, Bernanke endured hours of nitpicking and abuse. "Obviously, I haven't succeeded in defusing the political concerns about the Fed," Bernanke says with a wan smile.
He's earned the benefit of the doubt. It's now up to our dysfunctional political system to let him do his job — and to fix the financial system so that he never has to save the world again.
Today the second-guessers are running wild. Why didn't the Fed stop bailed-out companies from handing out lucrative dividends and bonuses? Why pay off AIG's creditors in full? Why save Bear Stearns but not Lehman Brothers? "It's the price of success: people start to think you're omnipotent," Bernanke says. "We say we didn't have the authority, and it's Oh, you're the Fed. You could've come up with something.' "
Amazingly, the one reform that has attracted bipartisan support on Capitol Hill has been a crusade to rein in the Fed. The House passed a measure allowing congressional audits of monetary policy, which Bernanke believes would shatter the Fed's independence and immerse its rate-setting in politics. He's also fighting proposals to identify Fed borrowers, pointing out that during the Depression, borrowers turned down Reconstruction Finance Corporation dollars to avoid the stigma of disclosure. There is broad support for stripping the Fed of its consumer-protection functions, and the leading Senate bill would eliminate its regulatory functions as well. At his recent confirmation hearing, Bernanke endured hours of nitpicking and abuse. "Obviously, I haven't succeeded in defusing the political concerns about the Fed," Bernanke says with a wan smile.
He's earned the benefit of the doubt. It's now up to our dysfunctional political system to let him do his job — and to fix the financial system so that he never has to save the world again.
Instead of hunkering down like a coward, he was A Man of Action During a Time of Crisis
Excerpts From Time Magazine Person of the Year 2009 Article: Click here for entire article
Professor Bernanke of Princeton was a leading scholar of the Great Depression. He knew how the passive Fed of the 1930s helped create the calamity — through its stubborn refusal to expand the money supply and its tragic lack of imagination and experimentation. Chairman Bernanke of Washington was determined not to be the Fed chairman who presided over Depression 2.0. So when turbulence in U.S. housing markets metastasized into the worst global financial crisis in more than 75 years, he conjured up trillions of new dollars and blasted them into the economy; engineered massive public rescues of failing private companies; ratcheted down interest rates to zero; lent to mutual funds, hedge funds, foreign banks, investment banks, manufacturers, insurers and other borrowers who had never dreamed of receiving Fed cash; jump-started stalled credit markets in everything from car loans to corporate paper; revolutionized housing finance with a breathtaking shopping spree for mortgage bonds; blew up the Fed's balance sheet to three times its previous size; and generally transformed the staid arena of central banking into a stage for desperate improvisation. He didn't just reshape U.S. monetary policy; he led an effort to save the world economy.
Once Bernanke realized a disaster was unfolding, he made a conscious effort to project calm, even when he was working seven days a week and all hours of the night, even when the Wall Street types around him were screaming and cursing like stressed-out sailors. "He decided he wouldn't be a deer in the headlights and wouldn't let the world blow up," recalls Columbia University economist Frederic Mishkin, who was on the Fed board at the time. He also made a conscious decision to avoid the mistakes made by the bankers of the 1930s — not only their stingy refusals to supply cash but also their inflexible inside-the-box thinking. He hung their picture on his office wall. He held "blue sky" brainstorming sessions to solicit unorthodox ideas. An obscure legal provision gave the Fed broad latitude in "unusual and exigent circumstances," and he did whatever it took. "
"I shudder to think what the world would be like if Ben hadn't been running the Fed," former Secretary Paulson says. "
Professor Bernanke of Princeton was a leading scholar of the Great Depression. He knew how the passive Fed of the 1930s helped create the calamity — through its stubborn refusal to expand the money supply and its tragic lack of imagination and experimentation. Chairman Bernanke of Washington was determined not to be the Fed chairman who presided over Depression 2.0. So when turbulence in U.S. housing markets metastasized into the worst global financial crisis in more than 75 years, he conjured up trillions of new dollars and blasted them into the economy; engineered massive public rescues of failing private companies; ratcheted down interest rates to zero; lent to mutual funds, hedge funds, foreign banks, investment banks, manufacturers, insurers and other borrowers who had never dreamed of receiving Fed cash; jump-started stalled credit markets in everything from car loans to corporate paper; revolutionized housing finance with a breathtaking shopping spree for mortgage bonds; blew up the Fed's balance sheet to three times its previous size; and generally transformed the staid arena of central banking into a stage for desperate improvisation. He didn't just reshape U.S. monetary policy; he led an effort to save the world economy.
Once Bernanke realized a disaster was unfolding, he made a conscious effort to project calm, even when he was working seven days a week and all hours of the night, even when the Wall Street types around him were screaming and cursing like stressed-out sailors. "He decided he wouldn't be a deer in the headlights and wouldn't let the world blow up," recalls Columbia University economist Frederic Mishkin, who was on the Fed board at the time. He also made a conscious decision to avoid the mistakes made by the bankers of the 1930s — not only their stingy refusals to supply cash but also their inflexible inside-the-box thinking. He hung their picture on his office wall. He held "blue sky" brainstorming sessions to solicit unorthodox ideas. An obscure legal provision gave the Fed broad latitude in "unusual and exigent circumstances," and he did whatever it took. "
"I shudder to think what the world would be like if Ben hadn't been running the Fed," former Secretary Paulson says. "
Monday, January 18, 2010
One Truly Impressive Leader
General Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan:
One of his first moves in Afghanistan was to order US military and diplomatic convoys to keep a lower profile. His reasoning: "It was important not to seem arrogant and act as occupiers might," McChrystal said. "I know they were driving in a way they thought was best for their security, but I needed them to understand how totally offensive it was to Afghans."
His process in determining if additional troops were needed: "We analyzed, we calculated, we war-gamed and came to the conclusion we needed more troops."
While waiting for Obama to make a decision on Afghanistan: "Waiting does not prolong a favorable outcome. This effort will not remain winnable indefinitely." Obama's respect for McChrystal multiplied. The President not only wants to hear McChrystal's assessment, but he demands that McChrystal tells him what he thinks.
McChrystal's unique motivational process: He sent his special operators copies of the Yeats poem "The Second Coming." He directed their attention to the lines "The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity" and told them that their mission was to turn those lines around!
One of his first moves in Afghanistan was to order US military and diplomatic convoys to keep a lower profile. His reasoning: "It was important not to seem arrogant and act as occupiers might," McChrystal said. "I know they were driving in a way they thought was best for their security, but I needed them to understand how totally offensive it was to Afghans."
His process in determining if additional troops were needed: "We analyzed, we calculated, we war-gamed and came to the conclusion we needed more troops."
While waiting for Obama to make a decision on Afghanistan: "Waiting does not prolong a favorable outcome. This effort will not remain winnable indefinitely." Obama's respect for McChrystal multiplied. The President not only wants to hear McChrystal's assessment, but he demands that McChrystal tells him what he thinks.
McChrystal's unique motivational process: He sent his special operators copies of the Yeats poem "The Second Coming." He directed their attention to the lines "The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity" and told them that their mission was to turn those lines around!
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Champions Adjust
Billie Jean King describing how she changed her plan even before the match started against Bobby Riggs in the famous "Battle of the Sexes" match:
"Initially, I had planned to play an aggressive, serve and volley game against Bobby (who was 26 years her senior). I knew I was in great shape, but I did not know what kind of shape he was in. I changed my strategy on the spot. Instead of ending points quickly, I would get him into long rallies, back and forth, early in the match, still going to the net when it made sense, but wearing him out. I visualized that for a second or two, then said to myself: That's it. Do it."
"If after 5 or 6 long points, Bobby wasn't tired, I would have to re-assess the situation. I trusted my instincts and it worked beautifully. He did get tired."
6-4, 6-3, 6-3, King won in straight sets.
"Initially, I had planned to play an aggressive, serve and volley game against Bobby (who was 26 years her senior). I knew I was in great shape, but I did not know what kind of shape he was in. I changed my strategy on the spot. Instead of ending points quickly, I would get him into long rallies, back and forth, early in the match, still going to the net when it made sense, but wearing him out. I visualized that for a second or two, then said to myself: That's it. Do it."
"If after 5 or 6 long points, Bobby wasn't tired, I would have to re-assess the situation. I trusted my instincts and it worked beautifully. He did get tired."
6-4, 6-3, 6-3, King won in straight sets.
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