Is playoff defeat a necessary evil?

ByPAT MCMANAMON
January 2, 2014, 1:52 PM

— -- There is one NFL player who speaks for many when he talks about the notion that a player or a team can learn something by losing in the playoffs. The mere thought prompted running back Willis McGahee to do a double take.

"Did I learn anything from losing a playoff game?" the veteran  Cleveland Browns running back asked rhetorically. "I learned not to lose in the playoffs."

Flippant? Maybe, but accurate for many. McGahee said he still thinks how close the Baltimore Ravens team he played for came to beating the  Pittsburgh Steelers in the 2008 AFC Championship Game. And he said he still has not gotten over it five years later.

That is life in the NFL playoffs, where only one team and one quarterback and one coach will come out unscathed. But the perception of many will be molded and re-molded based on the way the postseason plays out.

"You make your money in the regular season," said John Elway, the Denver Broncos' vice president of football operations. "You make your legacy in the playoffs."

So it will be this postseason for Andrew Luck, Cam Newton and Andy Dalton, who all seek their first postseason victory. And for Colin Kaepernick and Russell Wilson as they try to build on their wins last season. And for Tom Brady and Peyton Manning, who haven't won the Super Bowl since the 2004 and 2006 seasons, respectively.

But to most players and coaches, playoff failure is not a precursor to success. It's merely a loss in the biggest game of the season.

Elway understands that reality as well as anyone. For years, he was labeled as the guy who couldn't win the big game. But when the Broncos gave him a running game with  Terrell Davis, his fortunes changed and he won two championships. Losing didn't prompt the improvement; fortifying the team did.

"It should be great incentive," Elway said of playoff defeat. "But you have to learn from it and really look at yourself. You can't be afraid or unwilling to really look at yourself."

A loss in the playoffs can indeed provide incentive. Jimmy Johnson's Dallas Cowboys were blown out by the  Detroit Lions in the 1991 postseason, the first playoff appearance of the Troy Aikman- Emmitt Smith- Michael Irvin era. Fueled by their simmering anger at the loss, the Cowboys won the next two and three of the next four Super Bowls.

To say that success was spurred by one defeat, however, diminishes the talent, will and heart on those Cowboys teams. Still, if there is one thing that comes from a playoff loss, it's the experience a player gains -- provided he uses it the right way.

That singular point of emphasis is stressed by longtime Penn State sports psychologist David Yukelson.

"Learning is what competition is about," said Yukelson, a past president and fellow in the Association of Applied Sports Psychology. "Fans are about wins and losses, and I get it. But really being in that situation gives you the experience of knowing what you need to do the next time. The speed of the game, how to play against an opponent, the weather, how to handle pressure. By being in that experience you can use what you learned -- if you're motivated the right way."

That means a player is motivated neither to forget nor to wallow, but to garner whatever wisdom he can from defeat. Yukelson tries to get inside players' and coaches' heads to make sure they are programmed and pointed the right way, win or lose.

"You can't control the wins and losses; there are too many variables," Yukelson said. "But you can control the effort you give, and you can also control the composure and the focus you put toward a goal."

The NBA is rife with stories of players and teams that seemingly had to lose before they won. The Bad Boy Detroit Pistons of the late 1980s lost five times in the playoffs before finally breaking down the wall to win the championship. The Chicago Bulls, with Michael Jordan, had to break down the same wall to get past the Pistons. The Utah Jazz could not break through the wall, nor could Charles Barkley. Shaquille O'Neal didn't win a championship until his eighth pro season, and LeBron James didn't win a title until his ninth.

Although pro football is a much different sport, a player's reputation is often similarly based on perception. Dallas' Tony Romo fights a losing image because he's 1-6 in elimination games and hasn't been to the playoffs since 2009. Romo's career record as a starter in the regular season is 63-45 (.583). But since that last playoff appearance, the Cowboys are 25-28 with him taking the snaps.

"It's hard to separate him from what's going on with the entire team, but I'm getting concerned about Romo," said Brian Billick, who coached Baltimore to a Super Bowl title and now works as an analyst for Fox and the NFL Network.

Perception can be fickle -- and cruel. Brady is considered the ultimate winner, but he has lost the last game he has played the past seven times he went to the postseason. Nobody would ever question Peyton Manning's ability to win, but he has been one-and-done in the playoffs in eight of his 12 appearances.

The entire notion of using the word "loser" regarding a player, team or coach who reaches the playoffs angers many of those in the game.

"Nonsense, completely absurd," bellowed longtime Bills, Panthers and Colts executive Bill Polian, now an ESPN analyst. "You've got to win 10 games just to get into the playoffs. That's a great season. That idea is cooked up by people who have never been competitors."

But the stronger the competitor, the tougher the loss is to take. In the playoffs, the suddenness of the ending hits like a Mack truck. One day a team is getting ready for the biggest game of the season, the next it's packing boxes and cleaning out lockers.

But it's also an inherent part of the profession. From the time players are kids, they have to learn how to deal with the worst side of competition other than injury. 

The ones who do the best job of growing from defeat are the ones who bounce back.

Defeat isn't a prerequisite for winning, but it can fuel the desire to improve that leads to winning.