A Team Of Destiny???
I have a bone to pick with the world of sports cliches.
And it revolves around the Jets.
The 2011 Jets are in a position that all teams want to be in as the playoffs approach - they control their own destiny.
Well, I have news for you - you can't have your karmic cake and eat it too.
There's no such thing as controlling your own destiny...
And there's certainly no such thing in the NFL.
Now, I suppose according to the dictionary.com definition of "destiny", there's wiggle room as far as whether or not you can control your own destiny:
des-ti-ny: 1) something that is to happen or has happened to a particular person or thing; lot or fortune
2) the predetermined, usually inevitable or irresistible, course of events
I think when I think of destiny I think of the second definition there, or at least a combination of the second plus the first. I think of destiny as something that you can't control. (The first definition doesn't say anything about predetermination.)
For example, last year when Mark Sanchez orchestrated all those 4th quarter comebacks and you started to think the Jets were a "team of destiny". It seemed as though there was some sort of intervening power aiding them....they weren't totally in control.
And (it sounds like I'm making pre-emptive excuses, but I promise you I'm not) now, to say that the Jets are "right where they want to be" because they "control their own destiny", well, I'm not so sure about that.
Sure, if they win their remaining games, they're in the playoffs. But is winning the rest of their games their destiny? Further, isn't every team in control of their own destiny with three games left? Can't all teams win their remaining games? (If you want me to get super-deep, is the Jets destiny to make the playoffs in 2011? What if the destiny of the 2011 Jets is to set up something great to happen for the 2012 or 2013 team? Are they controlling that destiny when we say they 'control their own destiny'?)
And in the NFL, there's so much that falls out of your control. Do you think, if the Jets truly controlled their own destiny, that they would have chosen to pursue their playoff spot without Jim Leonhard? And if they had full control they might rather face the Chiefs a few more times instead of the potentially scary Eagles, Dolphins, and also playoff-pushing Giants.
Interestingly, the Giants control their own destiny too (when it comes to making the playoffs in 2011). What happens when the Giants' destiny collides with the Jets' destiny in Week 16? Who's really in control?
In today's NFL, you control your own destiny only as much as you control your opponent.
And that's not very much control at all.
