Ken Greene is a former NFL football player.  For a former football player, Mr. Greene is in great mental and physical shape.  Many ex-NFL stars sentence themselves to a life of pain and suffering stemming from the amount of physical torment inflicted upon them on the gridiron.  Brains get scrambled, migraines aren't uncommon, joints ache, walking can become difficult.  History is littered with the discarded bodies of our former Sunday warriors.  Ken Greene is one of the lucky ones.  I bring all this up because, no matter what, Ken has led a nice life, it seems like he has money to put away, and he doesn't need the million dollars, not nearly as much as the other two final teams on The Amazing Race 13.  But, as it turns out, this isn't terribly important.

I'll get to Tina in a second, but Ken interests me the more I consider his situation.  If we buy into the conceit that NFL players are this country's gladiators (which, admittedly, is hard not to), then Ken is a successful warrior.  To fight in the trenches (I know he was a Safety, but that's no small beans) and to emerge with all faculties functional is a triumph in and of itself.  He won.  He accomplished something.  To be one of the best possible humans at an activity that millions upon millions of other humans care immensely about is more than most of us will ever approach in our lives.  Whether or not you think football is a trivial manner, in general, is not important.  That it is so important to so many is enough. 

For Ken, then, the competition of The Amazing Race, which is the greatest competition most every Amazing Race contestant will ever, ever face, is a trifle.  On The Amazing Race, Ken is competing against Andrew and Dan, who can barely walk without looking like a buffoon.  While in the NFL, Ken had to try and tackle Jerry Rice.  There is no comparison.  For Ken, as he has stated many times over, the race was about one thing and one thing only – saving his marriage.  And in that regard, watching how he's run the race has been interesting.  If Ken were only concerned with winning the million dollars, I have no doubt that things would have turned out differently for Ken.  Maybe not in a results sense, but in the way he interacted with Tina.  He's been as docile as a former professional tackler can be, and has done his best to appease Tina at every turn.  If wholly focused on winning the million, I guarantee Ken would have taken charge in more ways than he has.  This might have helped them, it might have hurt them.  But, it's worth noting, because this has been one of the biggest discrepancies in how one contestant views the race compared to everyone else as I can remember.

Which, in a roundabout way, gets me to why Ken and Tina will win - because this is bigger than the game.  Ken and Tina are fighting first for their relationship, and second for the million dollars.  Both are trying to impress the other.  Their quest is bigger than The Amazing Race itself.  If they can play the game for each other, and still end up winning a million dollars, the evidence for the two as a viable couple once more is overwhelming.  Fate is on their side, because a win for them is more important than a win for the other two teams.  Money comes and goes, and whatever Andrew and Dan or Nick and Starr do with their million dollars won't matter nearly as much as how the formerly tenuous relationship between Ken and Tina ends up.


-Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Image Courtesy of CBS)