The IU football team misses its throwing arm.
These past two games, the offense has racked up a total of 35 passing yards. And no, there isn’t a zero missing from that stat.
Thankfully, the national stage provides plenty of spectacular arms to curb IU fans’ aerial appetite.
Two of the best arms were on hand this past Sunday in the form of quarterbacks Peyton Manning and Tom Brady.
Though they never take the field at the same time, there isn’t a better rivalry in this decade than Manning versus Brady: No. 2 versus No. 5 in all-time passing yards.
Manning has the record for most touchdowns scored with 515, Brady for most Super Bowl rings by an active NFL quarterback with three.
But it’s Brady who wins the most pivotal stat when it comes to these two perennial passing powerhouses.
He now leads the head-to-head series 11 wins to five, besting the best regular season quarterback in their last four regular season match-ups.
But I’m not here to argue which is better. Manning versus Brady is the best debate precisely because it can never be ?decided.
It is the eternal quarterback controversy.
It is unicorns, it is show ponies, it is ... Ben Roethlisberger.
Ben Roethlisberger?
If historic rivalries aren’t your thing, then the Pittsburgh quarterback arm wrestled his way into quarterback conversation to entertain you Sunday night.
Big Ben threw for six touchdowns against his teams’ rival Baltimore Ravens to set the NFL record of 12 touchdowns in two games.
Forget the year of the quarterback. The NFL is well on its way to the half-century marker.
I’m not twisting your arm. The throwing motion is as important as any in all of sports.
Just ask the San Francisco Giants: winners of three of the last five World Series, unquestionably a dynasty.
And their most recent championship doesn’t happen without ace Madison Bumgarner.
His tireless arm pitched five scoreless innings on two game’s rest to win the Fall Classic, giving him an MLB World Series ERA of .25, a record low.
In 145 years of Major League Baseball, it is the most dominant performance by a postseason pitcher.
There’s no denying it — Hoosier fans haven’t seen their fair share of good throws lately. And there’s no telling when those struggles will end.
But if there’s one person we can take a lesson from when it comes to perseverance, it’s Mt. Saint Joseph freshman Lauren Hill.
Strong arm, stronger heart, Hill, a terminally ill cancer patient, made her teams’ first shot against the University of Cincinnati on Sunday.
Colleges, coaches, teammates and family stood arm in arm to help Hill achieve her dream of playing college basketball, moving up the seasons’ start date in the hopes that she would feel well enough to play.
She did, scoring four points in the contest.
Though it might have been a rough few days in Bloomington, it was a record-setting week to recognize some of the greatest arms, and moments, in sports.
I’d give an arm and a leg to see it again.
vziege@indiana.edu
