Life is like a football game. Football, the best team sport, is a dramatic shorthand for the hardships encountered in real life and the strategic victory that occurs when team members work together, prepare, and execute a plan as a unit.
Even if it was unjustified, Aaron Murray’s career ending abruptly was all too fitting in the spirit of that symbolism. Murray’s record-breaking career ended with a short, heartbreaking play that captured his four years as the Georgia Bulldogs’ leading player.
Murray, who has spent a large portion of his career being maligned by pressure, had defensive contact less than three seconds after his final collegiate snap. He completed 62.3 percent of his career passes with accuracy on his final pass attempt, but the way it passed through the hands of a receiver was all too familiar.
Unusually a lucky charm, Murray’s last pass as a Bulldog bounced off its intended receiver and fell into the clutches of a Kentucky defender, who intercepted it. Murray was undoubtedly hit late and was never in the position to witness his opponent cradle the throw. Throughout his career, Murray encountered this kind of needless brutality (see the blows on Nick Fairly in 2010 and the helmet-to-helmet block against Alabama in 2012). Naturally, the hit went unnoticed.
Murray won 35 games as a starter, and the Bulldogs were comfortably ahead at the time of all of this. More importantly, this crucial play took place 13 plays after Murray suffered an ACL tear, in typical gritty Murray fashion.
Murray delivered an accurate pass that bounced off a receiver’s hands into the grasp of a defender, ending his career with a comfortable lead and an unflagged late hit that sent him to the ground.
To put it simply, it was the greatest Aaron Murray play of all time. It encompassed his Bulldog career in its entirety. Though he made every effort, in the end, larger, more maniacal forces prevailed. Given that the game is metaphorical in nature, the symbolic associations made sense.
However, it would be disrespectful to players like as Aaron Murray, who transcend metaphor, if they were to be reduced to a football metaphor for life. It goes well beyond simple symbolism during his time as the Georgia Bulldogs’ quarterback. To put it plainly, in the legendary history of the University of Georgia, Aaron Murray was the greatest player to have ever played the position. This much cannot be disputed.
He did not embody, signify, or come close to the greatest. He was the finest. Exactly.