Morning Brew: Magical Reesing a ‘futbol artista’
In terms of size, Todd Reesing probably shouldn’t be playing college ball. But his strong presence on the field week after week is proof that he deserves to be here
By Rustin Dodd (Contact)
Monday, September 22nd, 2008
So here’s the story. It’s a story about the little guy.
Mark Mangino had seen enough. He’d seen his team cough up a 20-3 lead against South Florida.
Mangino didn’t like that very much. Figures. Mangino likes his teams tough. Of course he does. The guy was raised in the Rust Belt, a place where people are taught to grab the lunch pale and go to work. And Mangino’s a football coach. And his team couldn’t run the ball. Couldn’t hold onto a 20-3 lead.
So on Saturday night against Sam Houston State, Mangino decided his team was going to run the damn ball.
So that’s what they did. They ran the ball. And their first three offensive drives went fumble, punt, punt.
Kansas seemed completely unenthusiastic about blowing out Sam Houston State. And Sam Houston State’s offense seemed completely overwhelmed by Kansas’ talent.
And that’s when the little guy comes in.
Kansas’ 5-foot-11 funslinger saved the night.
The clock said 00:47. Kansas was at their own 43 yard line. Reesing dropped back, saw an opening to the left and scooted forward. Oops. Nothing there. So he stepped back and started to duck left. Nope, nothing there either.
“I just kept running around,” Reesing would say.
He reversed back to the right, and a few seconds later, chucked a 60-yard parabola high into the night.
And Dezmon Briscoe answered the prayer on the goal line and fell into the end zone. It was pure flag football.
Americans sure do love the little guy. We love the against-all-odds story. David vs. Goliath and Cinderella and Charlie Conway’s triple deak. We love Jim Valvano running around looking for someone to hug and the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team knocking off the mighty Soviet Union.
Why do we love fairy tales so much? Why do we pull so much joy from little guys make big plays?
There’s something singular about tiny Spud Webb winning the NBA dunk contest or a runt like David Eckstein being named MVP of the World Series.
Somebody who could shop in the boys section at J.C. Penney’s shouldn’t be able run around the field and make plays like Reesing does. He shouldn’t be able to throw a leather projectile 60 yards in the air. But Reesing does.
Type ‘Todd Reesing’ and ‘scramble’ into Google and you’ll get 2,960 results. He’s made a lot of magic the last two seasons.
Of course, Todd Reesing took over the starting job at Kansas in 2007, and you probably know that since then the Jayhawks have gone 15-2. And since then, Reesing has thrown 44 touchdown passes and nine interceptions. But the stats, as always, don’t tell the entire story. Reesing isn’t some mechanical appliance. He’s a futbol artista. An improvisational wizard. He makes music with those feet.
There’s a wonderful quote from an old French artist named Henri Matisse about the genius of improvisation.
“There are wonderful things in real jazz,” Matisse said, “the talent for improvisation, the liveliness, the being at one with the audience.”
Matisse, obviously, was talking about music. But I think Matisse would have enjoyed Reesing. Reesing doesn’t play quarterback, he’s at one with it. He makes it performance art. He’s Louis Armstrong in cleats.
And then when the game was over, and Kansas had another victory, Reesing’s line looked — well, like a Reesing line. 356 yards and two touchdowns. But what about the play? What about eight seconds where Reesing saved us from an otherwise ordinary night?
“I guess,” Reesing would say, “I just pulled a rabbit out of the hat there.”
— Edited by Rachel Burchfield
Discussion
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"funslinger"? I've worked in a newsroom before but how did this get past the editors?
c'mon, he slings the fun...
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