How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love James Holzhauer
A few weeks ago, before “Jeopardy!” ran the annual two-week NIT that is its Teachers Tournament, I wrote a blog about America’s James Holzhauer problem. It was mostly me venting about how I can’t stand his style of play. His psychic ability to find the Daily Doubles. His lifeless eyes. His robotic style. And how I like my champions more relatable and entertaining, like NYC bartender Austin Rogers or my all time Jeopardycrush Kristin Cutts:
So now that he’s back, reinventing the game, making the gameboard his bitch and reducing our nation’s otherwise brilliant trivia geniuses into puddles of blood on the studio floor, I’ve had an epiphany of sorts. A Come to Jesus moment, if you will.Thanks to some Twitter followers who called me out for hating Holzhauer for all the wrong reasons, I’ve experienced what Jules Winnfield said alcoholics call, “a moment of clarity.”
Why was I hating on Holzhauer and dreading weeknights from 7:30-7:59? Let’s count the ways:
–He’s made the game completely non-competitive
–He comes up with answers faster than you can process the question
–His decision making is bizarre, his gambles unnecessary
–He utterly lacks a personality
–His interviews are awkward and oftentimes painfully uncomfortable to watch
–At times if feels like he’s a cyborg, programmed to imitate human behavior
–He understands America’s favorite game in a way that only makes sense to him and makes it impossible for the rest of us to comprehend the way we did with past champions.
But to the undying credit of some wise “Jeopardy!” fans on Twitter, I realize all of the above describes the very man I admire most in this world.
That’s it. The perfect analogy. What was I hating Jeopardy James for? Style, not substance. Methods, not results. Personality, not competence. I was hating him for the same reasons the rest of America hates my own Spirit Animal. I was guilty of longing for some fantasy world where everyone is on an equal level, instead of what I appreciate most about Belichick: That he is an outlier. A man who was given the same set of tools in the same game with the same set of rules as everyone else and has dominated.
And for sustained excellence, he’s resented. The same way James Holzhauer is:
Appearing on CNN’s New Day Monday, Robin Falco — who took on Holzauer in his 16th game — slammed the game show phenom for taking the joy out of the experience.
“He turned it into his job,” Falco said. “He took a year off from his job — that’s what he told me — to just focus on and perfect this. This is a game! This is a fun experience! And when it comes to dealing with him, it was not.”
CNN’s John Berman asked Falco to elaborate on Holzhauer’s not making the game fun.
“I made no secret of the fact that James and I did not get on backstage,” she said. “I did not feel he was respectful to me. He wasn’t respectful to a lot of the other people, to the staff, I felt. And he doesn’t have the respect for the game. It wasn’t what we were expecting. It’s not what we prepared for.”
Ugh. Just listen to that loser talk. Like somehow he owes it to his non-competition to be friendly and charming. Or to step aside and let the show go back to being won by stamp collectors from Dayton, Ohio or someone. I’ve been hearing that same shameless whining directed at the smartest football mind the world has known since 2000. And the fact I dared join that chorus or even root against Jeopardy James for even a single episode is a shame I’ll carry with me throughout his reign.
Life is made up of hierarchies. And atop those hierarchies are the strong, the smart, the ones who can adapt and the ones who can shape their environments in order to thrive. And to hate them for their excellence is folly. From now on I’m appreciating “Jeopardy!” genius when I see it. It’d be nice if the rest of the world could do the same for football genius.