It had been more than 2.5 years since Case Keenum had started in an NFL game. Many assumed his career, which was already nine years old and spread across six teams, was over. There easily could have been a part of him that thought that too. 

So people were surprised when he performed so well under pressure in a Thursday night prime time game against the Denver Broncos, throwing for 200 yards and a touchdown without a turnover, on the way to a Browns victory in the absence of Baker Mayfield, the team’s starting quarterback and former #1 overall draft pick. 

How did he do it? How did he manage to get prepared on such short notice? 

“You don’t have to get ready if you stay ready,” he told a reporter after the game. He hadn’t needed a flurry of last-minute, late-night film sessions, because he had always been prepared. He didn’t need to get in shape because he never got out of shape. He wasn’t surprised…he had been expecting this exact contingency. In fact, it was his job to be prepared for this contingency. 

Marcus Aurelius talks about how the fighter is better than the fencer because the fencer has to pick up a weapon. A fighter is the weapon. Seneca reminds us that a blow we are ready for is not much of a blow at all. Epictetus says that the whole point of philosophy is to be able to reply to adversity with one thing: This is what I’ve trained for.

Life has twists and turns in store for all of us. Our job is to be ready. Or rather, our job is not to fall out of readiness. Our job is to keep training, it’s to anticipate, it’s to have a plan. So that when the unexpected comes, it’s not unexpected at all. We’re ready. We can step up and do our job, like a trusty journeyman, like a veteran.