Got to give the Golf Channel some credit here. It’s not easy to continue to re-invent yourself with new concepts.
The Golf Channel, though, appears to have done with its latest version of the Big Break.
The new series, which begins Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET, features the Breakers being paired with former NFL players (video preview below). The list includes Jerry Rice, Tim Brown, Marc Bulger, Al Del Greco, Chris Doleman and Mark Rypien.
As we’ve seen previously, when big-name athletes put their golf swings on public display, they feel the same nerves we do.
Here are some excerpt about the players talking about the pressure of playing in the Big Break.
Jerry Rice: “I had been part of Super Bowls, a lot of playoff games, but if I had known what we were going to endure over in Puerto Rico, I don’t think I would have agreed to this to be honest with you. You know, the breaking of the glass, the ‘Flop Wall,’ all those difficult shots. It was just unbelievable…When you get so many ballplayers together, all of a sudden, that competitive nature comes out for some reason; and yeah, I wanted to beat Tim Brown. I wanted to beat all of those guys, I’m going to be honest with you.”
Tim Brown: “What got me was the fact that when I stood over the ball, I realized I wasn’t playing for myself. I was playing for Mallory (Blackwelder) and Will (Lowery), and it’s really hard to get yourself under control at times because you felt so much pressure to hit a good shot to make a putt for those guys.”
Marc Bulger: “With football, there’s the nerves, or at least I would feel them up until the first play. Once the first snap or first hit happened, they were gone. But this felt like every shot was the first play of the game, because you hit one, you might have to wait for production for two hours and you hit another one, and you know how much it means. Like Tim said, with your teammates, I never felt as much stress.”
Al Del Greco: “The pressure, yeah, to me, was a lot like kicking, because physically, you get one chance. They call on your, you just kind of wait around and then it’s your turn to go out there and get it done.”
Mark Rypien: “To be on a stage and put in an environment where we are playing golf for somebody else, holy smokes, you know, I thought playing in Tahoe was difficult. This thing it tenfold.”
Chris Doleman: “It was hard on you in a sense that you did not have the masterful control that you have when you’re out there on the field. We knew how to get to the pass rush and we knew how to catch a pass, how to get open, how to throw a lob and how to fake a kick. We all have expertise in that area. None of us had expertise in this area.”