Gardner Minshew is a Free Agent in Gardner Minshew's Own Fantasy League
In Joseph Campbell’s landmark and influential book about mythology “The Hero With a Thousand Faces,” he talks extensively about the universal power of the monomyth. Specifically, the hero’s journey. The unlikely protagonist who comes from a simple background in the “ordinary world” but gets a “call to adventure” and ventures out to do great things:
A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.
And one defining trait in this archetypal hero, along with his courage and strength of character, is his humility. Which brings me to America’s newest legend in the making, whose tale we will be passing down to our great grandchildren as part of our oral history someday, Gardner Minshew.
This piece on ESPN is a good read, even if you’re familiar with his story. It details how he left East Carolina, accepted an assistant’s position with Nick Saban at Alabama before Mike Leach recruited him to Washington State by asking “How would you like to lead the nation in passing?”
Minshew doesn’t have a good explanation for his mental acuity; football plays, and football players, just unspool in his mind. It happens in fantasy sports too: Tre Polk, who is one of Minshew’s closest friends from Brandon, says Minshew stunned their dynasty league this past summer when he opted to redraft nearly his entire team (which is named Trust the Process) and start from scratch.
“It was ridiculous,” Polk says. … “Bottom line: He redrafted, like, his whole team, and he’s tied for first place. He just sees the game in a different way.”
I ask the obvious follow-up: Who is Minshew’s quarterback?
“That’s the thing,” Polk says. “I keep waiting for him to pick himself up, but no one took him. Gardner Minshew is available in Gardner Minshew’s fantasy league.”
Polk laughs. “Gardner actually took Kyler Murray.”
That is exactly the kind of hero Campbell was talking about. The sort of figure who appeals to all people, across all cultures. This is why his book has inspired generations of story tellers from George Lucas to JK Rowling to the designers of every video game you’ve ever played. You just know that if the Rebel Alliance had a Pilot’s Fantasy League or Hogwart’s had Quidditch Fantasy, that Luke and Harry would be too humble to draft themselves. That they’d take Wedge Antilles or Cedrick Diggory instead. Which is a key part of what makes them heroes.
In these troubled and polarizing time, we need a man so self-effacing he’d take Kyler Murray and leave himself unclaimed. And that we can all come together as a people and unite behind this icon. This leader. This monomyth. Gardner Minshew: The Quarterback With a Thousand Facemasks. May “Trust the Process” dominate the Brandon League forever.