A rare commodity: keeping one's coolBY ANDREW RATHER

Kytc Boiler played so poorly last Sundayhe likely cost himself his job as startingquarterback of the Ravens But th« com-posure be summoned after the £ime —acknowledging his errors, praising histeammates and opponents — was u In-spiring as his previous three noun on thegridiron w-nent.

The French call it 'sangfroid*—compo-sure In the face of adversity — ana Itseems a rare quality these dayi In therealm of Wg time sports, or btg businessor politics for that nutlet

Character hu been a rare commodityIn pro sports In Baltimore the past year.to put K mildly. And Boiler's lockerwouldn't necessarily be the first place togo looking Tor some. But there It was aweek ago.

Boiler faced a gantlet of microphonesand notebooks with reporters wanting toknow how he felt about blowing anothername for the Ravens. He threw two cosilyIntf rtvpUons and fumbled the ball whilescrambling, without even being hit. Helooked as anxious as If it were his first- . iv as the Ravens starlet not hu thirdseason. It has been like this many Sun-days, although this may have been themost ugly, bordering on tragicomical.

And vet. after the game, Boiler found acomposure that eluded him on the fieldat Mile High stadium. Questions from themedia didn't agitate him. He didn't pointfingers, except to lavish praise on histeammates and on the Denver Broncos.He seemed disappointed in his perform-ance but not despondent. He may havestunk it up on the field, but afterward ex-hibited grace under pressure — what Er-nest Hemingway defined as courage.

They did a great Job I had two inter-ceptions and fumbled the ball I cantturn the ball oven* Boiler told a duster ofreporters. 'I'm going to make mistakes. Iam human. If 1 can limit that [turnovers!,HI do my best... My offensive line cbd afabulous Job.... Denver, that's a good de-fense there.*

On the surface, at least. Boiler's per-sonal gifts might lead one to presumehe's led a charmed 24 years and wouldn'tbe equipped to deal wtih advemty•Jesus in deals,* the college newspaper

called him at the University of California.

Ravens quj r lerb.ick Kyle Boiler cjS biled compoiure alter a disastrous performance in lait week's game against Denver.

His contract has at least seven figure* hisgirlfriends have hourglass figures. Andyet, publicly at least, he has taken a Cate-gory 5 storm of criticism In stride. For allthe kids watching ESPN, It's too bad his

" ind stumbling got the

ance.•Sometimes, the only thing you can sal-

vage from colossal failure Is your dignityIfou can at least walk away with that.*said Kevin OTCeefe, president of the Balti-more office of Weber Shandwick, whkhcounsels companies on crisis manage-ment. fBoUer) showed a lot of maturity

for a rtljiiwly young man. You contrastthat with corporate America, wheresometimes the CEO doesn't see some-thing as a personal failure on his part,but that everyone around him has letthem down. That leads to bad scenes.'

Leaders who maintain dignity underImmense attack and pressure are amonghistory's greatest heroes: Lincoln, Gan-dhi, King. Mandela, others find a voice incrisis, such as Rudolph Giuliani whosetone of resolve and fortitude after SepL11 was more inspiring than his mayoral-ty before that

Lou Cehrlg's speech in Yankee Stadium

on July -t. 1939, two years before he suc-cumbed to amyotrophlc lateral sclerosis,is one of the most celebrated moments ofclass under duress. *For the past twoweeks you have been reading about abad break I got,* he told the crowd, "yettoday, I consider myself the luckiest manon the face of the Earth.*

Grace in the face of personal failure is adifferent challenge, but also rare on thepublic stage. It's easier to find the oppo-site-, political leaders, executives, evenclergy, refusing to acknowledge a failure.

Concerns about legal exposure, real orimagined, increasingly forbid 'owning

up.* Egos are often the major obstacle, iKing Kong-sized example is expected tbe on full display next month at the trUof Kenneth Lay, the unabashed formechairman of Enron Corp.

Some sports Journalists last summecontrasted the general fan forgrvenesi Uward Jason Giambi, the Yankees slu^cwho publicly apologized without admitting to steroid use, to the bitter reacikntoward the Orioles' Rafael Palmeiro, winfamously wagged a finger at Congresand emphatically said he'd never useisteroids before testing positive for them

Sandy Hiilman, chief executive oCfkeof Baltimore advertising and public reUlions agency Trahan. Burden amCharles and a former aide to WllllartDonald Schaefer, said Sunday's otHruarof Sen. Eu^ne McCarthy recalled for he

conscience than for his defeatBui Buckner. the former baseball playet

seemed to maintain a stofc dignity cwithough most of New England wanted hiscalp after a ball trkkled between his legand helped cost the [one-suffering HaSox the Wurld Series In 198& Neither dliDan Rather melt down when his flawreport on President Bush's military senict- tarnished hu legacy at CBS. Trie prcducer blamed for the mistake, Mar'-'- • I . ' said Rather supported her as othor executives abandoned her.

M. Hirsh Goldberg, a Baltimore pubiirelations consultant who served as .press seoetary to former Baltimore Ma)or Theodore R. McXeldin and formeMaryland Gov. Harry II . Hughes, wrote.1984 book about the history of mistake;The Blunder Book: Colossal Errors. MinoMistakes, and Surp.isme. Slipup* ThaHoi* Changed ihe Course of History.

Goldberg said It's rare for people tieven notice when someone reacts admintily to failure because *people really fccus on the blunder.' That's especially *In sports and In this era, with cabie Tand Internet sites replaying miscueagain and again.

The legendary college basketball coadJohn Wooden, who, truth be told, hatmore experience with winning than lasIng. said that 'sports do r.ot build character, they reveal IL"

A Japanese proverb put It another way"Fall seven times. Stand up eight.*

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