The Jimmie Johnson/Jeff Gordon “Feud” Analyzed
FONTANA, CA - FEBRUARY 21: Jeff Gordon, driver of the #24 DuPont Chevrolet, leads Jimmie Johnson, driver of the #48 Lowe’s/Kobalt Tools Chevrolet, during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Auto Club 500 at Auto Club Speedway on February 21, 2010 in Fontana, California. (Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images for NASCAR)
If you give me a little latitude I’d like to explain with a little parallel drawn from my own life this Jimmie vs Jeff feud that the media seems to be playing up.
When I was kid my best friend in the whole entire world was this guy named Jeff. I met him when I moved in on his street in 6th Grade.
Man we were inseparable. We did everything together. We were tight. He had my back and I had his.
We were like the two main characters in the movie Stand By Me, you know?
But then you grow up and make different life choices and poof you’re no longer as tight as you used to be. You find yourselves living 10 minutes away from one other and yet you never see him, eventually you even stop exchanging Christmas cards.
It happens all the time I know but still ... you can’t help but to look back and wonder what exactly happened? Why aren’t we friends anymore? And there is no real answer ... it just is.
When looking back at my friendship with my childhood friend (when I’m not using rose coloured glasses that is) I realize that we were just as competitive with each other as we were tight. I mean neither one of us would relent to the other, not even if it meant bodily injury. I’m not kidding.
We played a ton of sports in the ‘hood and we always tried to be on the same team, whether it was football, road hockey, baseball, or what ever simply because we knew we’d take it too far and try and kill ourselves to outdo one another.
It got so bad that when we were on opposite teams we would avoid each other - I’d cover another kid instead of Jeff when we played football, we’d play on opposite sides of the road in street hockey, we’d even play the outfield instead of the infield so we wouldn’t have to tag one another - we would do whatever it took to avoid competition between one another.
This worked well until one day in High School when we were having an inter-squad football game. He was on defence and I was on offence and it wasn’t pretty. They were mostly playing man-to-man defence and he was assigned to me - the coach made him take me, and you didn’t say no to the coach not if you wanted to stay on the team anyway.
He was all over me like a blanket. I got a few passes for short yardage but I couldn’t shake his tackles. One time I broke up what looked like a sure fire interception for him on a vastly under thrown ball - he was incensed that he didn’t get it and I was incensed that I was interfered with on the play (was I? I honestly don’t know, but at the time I was sure I was).
Then it got rough. We were going out of our way to get under each others skin and since we both knew each other so well it was easy. We were even taking runs at each other. We were still playing after the whistle if you know what I mean.
Then it happened. It came down to the last play of the scrimmage about 7 yards away from the end-zone. If they stop us we have to do laps, if we scored they’d have to do the laps instead and no one, I repeat no one, wanted to do laps after that practice, we were dead.
I lined up on the right side with Jeff playing me to the outside. Once the ball was snapped I went on a quick inside post with a fake to the outside timed with a pump from the quarterback. Jeff bought it, but he recovered quick and he got to me just as the pass got there, which was thrown a bit behind me so I had to slow down. He hammered me. Sent me flying. It was a highlight quality hit. One of the hardest hits I had ever had to that point in my short football career.
But I held on to the football.
I got up, walked towards him, threw the ball at his feet and walked away.
I was expecting to get hit from behind but it didn’t happen.
I honestly don’t know what he did after I threw the ball at his feet, I never looked back and never asked him about it.
I waited for him after practice. I was his ride home.
When he came out we exchanged obligatory ‘heys’ and walked to my car. After we threw our gear in the trunk we piled into the Monte and left.
It was a quiet drive at first and then I said to him, “I’m sorry for throwing the ball at you after that touchdown. I was caught up in it you know?”
He evenly replied, “Its cool, I’d probably would have done the same thing. That was intense.”
“Yeah,” I agreed, adding, “That was probably the most satisfying touchdown I’ve ever scored though.”
After a brief pause Jeff asked, “Why you say that?”
“Because I had to beat the best to do it,” I said.
Jeff nodded, turned and looked out the window without saying a word.
He understood what I was saying.
It was the intense competition between ourselves that made us better and in some regards it made us worse too, but we were always able to overcome it - we were always able to leave it on the playing field once everything was said and done.
As with Jeff and I sometimes friends bring out the best and worst of you when you’re in competition together. And that is what is happening between Johnson and Gordon right now. Nothing more, nothing less.
They are both 4-time Champs right now and neither one wants the other to be a 5-time Champ.
Who better to drive you to become better other than your friend and teammate? And by the same token who better to push you harder, and push your buttons easier other than your friend and teammate?
