What Could Be Better Than A Touchdown Summary

It takes so much to be an incredible athlete, but which is more important: mental strength or physical ability? Many people can argue this question and go on forever. After reading, “What Could Be Better Than a Touchdown?” and “Confessions of a Doper” in my opinion, I believe that the mental aspect of sports is more important than your physical ability. I believe this because your brain controls what every other part of your body does. If your brain doesn’t know, neither does your body.

In “Confessions of a Doper” the author, Jonathan Vaughters, explains how he used to dope when he played sports. He says that the drugs helped him perform better physically, “that last 2 percent”. (90). He explains that first he needs to achieve the other 98% before being able to apply the last 2 percent. Vaughters makes it very clear that it takes just as much, if not more, mental strength as it does physical ability. You can be the most talented athlete in the world, but if you don’t know what you’re doing in your

mind how can you be? He says in the story, “People who end up living their dreams are not necessarily those who are lucky and gifted”.This shows that most people aren’t going to get by with just physical ability. Someone with all the skills in the world with no mental game compared to someone with a little physical ability, but a whole lot of mental focus is an incredible difference.
In the story “What Could Be Better Than a Touchdown” the author describes an achievement of physical dexterity.

He says that the New York Jet’s safety, Dwight Lowery “breaks toward the ball, intercepts it, and dashes twenty-six yards into the end zone…” (57). In the story the author talks about how maybe scoring that touchdown “With less than two minutes left in the game” it wasn’t the best idea to run into the end zone(57). Yes, Lowery had the ability and the time to score the touchdown, but there was a mental mistake in that play. “...if Lowery had fumbled during his interception return...the Vikings offense would have got the ball back immediately, still down by only two”.The mental mistake here, was not obviously a horrible problem, but Lowery had in mind that scoring the touchdown right then and there would have given them a great advantage. If this would have been, perhaps, “the wrong thing to do” that game would have been taken right out of their hands

(57).
It takes a lot of things to work together to create an athlete. Yes, physical ability is very important, but both authors of these stories prove that mental strength is equally important. Mental strength is still just as important as physical ability.