Stevie Wonder
As the seconds tick off, air McNair takes off.
Tight End Throwback, that's what we called it. It was the state finals of my junior year in high school, in Mount Olive. We had 70 yards to go, a minute or so left to play. That's when I called it. It was something we made up, really. The coach didn't even know what it was. The guys in the huddle looked at me and each other like I was crazy. Are we really gonna run this now? We had a long way to go. We were down. Not a lot of time left. Everything else had failed. But I knew it would work. I looked to my brother Tim, our tight end, and told him, "I'm gonna pass it to you, okay? Fake like you're gonna run and lateral back to me." Then I turned to the receiver on the right and said, "Go deep." That's all. I got the ball back, sidestepped one guy, looked left, looked right, looked downfield and -- I can still remember this clear as day -- I saw that receiver streaking down the sideline. I threw the ball as far as I could, just let it go. He caught it and dragged a guy into the end zone with him. We won.
For me, that was the start. The point where, as a quarterback, I began to think that, no matter what the situation, if I had time on the clock and the ball and we needed a touchdown to win, I could do it.
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