On the chase for a championship, details matter, the margin for error slimmer than a Flacco fingernail. But there's another quality, one more difficult to quantify than 40 times, catch radius, even chemistry. On the Sunday the Denver Broncos return to the scene of the Super Bowl crime, MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., this merit once again increases in value: a selective memory.
"The best athletes are motivated to not repeat what happened," said Dr. Rob Bell, a sports psychologist and author of the book, "The Hinge." "They will, eventually, forget about the actual images. But the feeling should be fresh."
The images - confetti flickering onto the Seahawks, highlights replayed ad nauseam on "SportsCenter" - still seem fresh, too. The feeling of their last visit to MetLife Stadium remains akin to a kick in the manparts, or a nasty breakup.
"You never forget that," defensive tackle Terrance Knighton said, and while the opponent Sunday is different, the location surely will summon flashbacks.
"It's not our first trip to the East Coast," coach John Fox said
Aside from a splash of green on the uniform, there's nothing about the New York Jets that reminds of the Seahawks. Peyton Manning's Broncos should smash Geno Smith's Jets like a muffin left in an overpacked carry-on.
But Sunday's game is more about the location than the opponent. The Super Bowl still stings, doesn't it? The thought still hurts, perhaps because the result was so unexpected. Nobody saw it coming. Now here are the Broncos again, sentenced to the scene of the football crime, playing their third game at MetLife Stadium in 13 months. Elite athletes, Dr. Bell said, are able to move on.
"In this instance I think you'll see a highly motivated team, because of what happened," Bell said. "The best performers find any small motivating factor for fuel. In this case it's the memory of that game, since they're playing in the same arena."
The good doctor said certain athletes are blessed with an underrated characteristic: a selective, short memory. On the basketball court, Allen Iverson is a classic example of a short memory, confident the next shot will be better than the last, Bell said. In golf, Rickie Fowler stands out. Yankees great Reggie Jackson is one for baseball.
In hockey, it's the goalie.
"Patrick Roy is a classic example," Bell said. "His confidence in (stopping) the next shot might be his greatest quality."
In baseball, it's often the closer.
"Think about a blown save," Bell said. "That's something you have to forget about quickly (before the next outing)."
And on the football field? Surprising no one, it's a Manning. Surprising everyone, it's Eli. Dr. Bell said the Giants quarterback has shown throughout his career that a short memory is one of his great strengths. Eli Manning moves on, moves forward.
"I think it was before his second Super Bowl, he talked about he absolutely just lets go of the last game or the last throw," Bell said.
In a strange way, the Broncos seemed to regain a mental edge in a narrow loss at Seattle in Week 3. Their overtime defeat supported the idea the Super Bowl was an aberration - at least in terms of its 43-8 severity.
There's nothing special about the actual site of the Super Bowl, and Sunday's game. The clearest description of MetLife Stadium was uttered in the press box during Denver's 41-23 win against the Giants in Week 2 last season: it's a parking lot, next to a parking lot, next to a parking lot. The stadium, and its location, is utterly blah.
If MetLife Stadium were a Crayon in a box, it would be gray, or a slight shade of off-white, or the tint of worn-out, stained blue jeans. It is in New Jersey.
"Just another stadium," Broncos cornerback Chris Harris Jr. said.
But the return is another step in what the Broncos hope is a road leading back to the Super Bowl. Aside from Peyton Manning's offseason appearance on the "Late Show with David Letterman", Sunday marks the first return to New York/New Jersey for most of the Broncos.
"In order to have a short memory, you must be confident," Bell said.
"That's the basis of it: Are you confident enough in your abilities to believe that won't happen again?"
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Twitter: @bypaulklee
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