Several years ago there was a skinny quarterback with a wispy beard who was criticized mercilessly in his rookie year for his weak arm and poor decision-making on the field. Nobody gave his team even a sliver of a chance to make the playoffs. In fact, most doubted the team would win a single game with the rookie at the helm.
So what happened? After the expected rough start, the team eventually won a game. And then another, and another, and another. Nobody was laughing about the skinny quarterback anymore, as he broke several league records leading his team to the national championship game, and winning it.
Who, then, was this kid quarterback who went from laughingstock to record-setting pro? The skinny kid who guided his team from incompetence to greatness over the course of a single season? Why, it was none other the young man from Springfield, Illinois who would eventually become our nation's 16th president, Abraham Lincoln.