Jimmy B: The crux of the matter
“Jim Brennan is a wonderful guy.”
This is where I should have stop reading. I understand that in this modern age we live in, anybody with $2 to pay at an internet café and some free web space is suddenly a journalist or an expert, since I have my own internet connection I guess that makes me a scholar.
Many articles have been written this offseason about our captain or even on who should be our captain, and most of them have been so far off the scale it has me question the soccer intelligence of some of the people behind them. I am not questioning their intelligence (which I could) but rather their soccer IQ. After all, it takes more than 3 years at BMO and a subscription to Setanta to make someone understand the history, roots and workings of the beautiful game.
In my captain I want someone who has experience, long tenure with the team, understand the city and what it means to play for this team, respects the badge, appreciates the supporters and what they do and that leads by example. I think Jimmy B still has all of these qualities.
Jimmy is not a spring chicken, but neither was Baresi when he retired (37 years old) or Maldini (40 years old). I am not comparing the talent of Jimmy with those of Baresi or Maldini, I am only comparing the ages…after all “age is one factor”. For anybody that understands football, what it means to be a captain and the role that Jimmy plays in this team, will also understand that his age or ability have very little to do with him wearing the C. Never in this sport has the C been synonymous with talent, age or ability, but rather with seniority, leadership and respect. To believe he should lose the C because of his age or decline in performance is ridiculous to the point of comical.Once again I will resort to use Baresi and Maldini as examples, I could use others but I don’t want to force anyone at having to Google their names, two monster players that in the lower decline of their careers when minutes were limited were still able to wear the C when on the field and be the leaders that they had always been without letting age be a factor.
We are asked to be loyal to a product and a team that has done very little for us, and amazes me how it’s impossible for some to be loyal to someone who has done nothing more than to honor the jersey he wears.
The only point I will concede and will argue is the leadership, after all in 2009 at times it seemed that this team had no real leader and there wasn’t a clear voice coming out of the locker room. Some people pointed to Jimmy and said that he had failed as a captain. Like I said I will argue that.
Being vocal is not synonymous with leadership; many players have been vocal and are far from being great leaders. Rohan Ricketts was one of the most vocal and outspoken players in TFC short history, but I wouldn’t want him to lead me to my seat during intermission never mind leading the team. I believe that Jimmy has been a silent leader as far as the public awareness is concern, because what happens behind closed doors and in the locker room is not something we know or can comment, but we can comment on his leadership on the field. I have never seen him not running for a ball, not tackling, not playing hard, and complaining about playing out of position or playing injured. In other words, Jimmy has led by example, which to me is the most important aspect of being a leader.
I understand some of the frustration or disappointment in Jimmy when he didn’t give his face for the team following the 5-0 loss to NYRB, but who are YOU to judge his actions, when you were comfortably at home watching it from your TV? It would be like judging the actions of someone in WWII during D-Day just because you own the Band of Brothers Box Set that you downloaded illegally from Pirate Bay. I was there, not that it means much, but it means that I wasn’t able to just turn off the switch, sit in front of my computer and theorize about emotions or what others should have done, and then a week later pretend like nothing happen and party up with those same players like it was 1999.
Blaming Jimmy for that loss is unfair and irrational, questioning him for not speaking up after it is expected and understandable, but undermining his captaincy is belligerent and ignorant.
Jimmy is our captain for as long as he wears the TFC red on the field, and that folks is the crux of the matter.
