Archie Manning, ASRW Keynote speaker

NFL legend Archie Manning delivered the keynote address for the 2008 ASRW Opening General Session on Thursday morning with candor, inspiration and surprisingly, quite a bit of self-effacing humor.

But first, I must provide full disclosure: Statement #1: It’s no surprise that I thought Manning was great because I suffer from a very serious case of Good Old Days Syndrome when it comes to sports. I long for the days before multimillion dollar signing bonuses, overrated end zone celebrations and athletes throwing temper tantrums like spoiled five-year-olds for all the world to see. Full disclosure statement #2: I’m also 5’7” tall and have the athletic ability of a slug, so any criticisms I might have of athletes are pretty much null and void.

Seriously, though, it seems as though the athletes of Manning’s generation simply dealt with more adversity in a season on the field than a lot of today’s players might see in their whole career. Maybe that’s one of the reasons Archie Manning came across as such a classy individual this morning.

After meeting and working with Clint Eastwood, actor Sean Penn commented, “He’s one of the few legends who isn’t a disappointment.” Thankfully, Manning seems to be continuing that tradition.

The doors open ... to a LOT of people!

Turning to the “And Now For Something Completely Different” department: There’s a lot of people here. No, really, there is. (In other shocking news, the sky is blue and the Earth is round).

I’ve heard numbers of how many people were coming here, but as a visual person, I like to see the numbers. So when the doors opened and people started filing in, I saw them. A LOT of them.

Seeing the large number of people on the floor reminds me of the bustling crowd on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, except this floor is filled with mechanical and collision displays and they’re not sucking my IRA dry. At least I don’t think they are.

I might have to look into that.