Activating Preparation

If you want to excel in anything, you'd better be committed to excellence and willing to do the extra work. And be a little obsessive compulsive.

Two days before the Super Bowl, Peyton Manning worked on all 54 footballs that would be rotated into the game to make sure they were conditioned to his liking. SI's Peter King explains how this enabled him to grip the balls and basically play like it wasn't raining when it was. Money quote from Manning:

"Pressure is something you feel only when you don't know what you are doing. That's how I feel. I get prepared. I prepare as hard as I possibly can. Sure you feel nervous, you feel anxious, but I don't feel pressure because I feel that I have done everything I could to be prepared for that game."