It’s been roughly two and a half months since my first post. That procrastination quip was serious.

—

Jordan Brand/Nike recently released the below ad to coincide with Derek Jeter’s final All-Star game at Target Field in Minneapolis on Tuesday night. He will start at shortstop.

The one minute and forty second clip features a plethora of athletes (from members of the “core four” to MJ himself) and notable New Yorkers (Spike Lee, Rudy Guliani) tipping their caps to Jeter in a sign of respect for a career that’s certainly been all anybody could have imagined for the skinny kid from Kalamazoo.

I’ll admit watching it gave me chills. Call me sentimental. But to trace Jeter’s career is to trace my development as a sports fan. I was 8 years old when he won his first ring in 1996. I watched as he dominated baseball over the next 15+ years, returning the Yankees to the “Iron Throne” of the baseball world, while displaying the class and dignity that has become almost as synonymous with his name as his on-field accomplishments.

The theme of Nike’s new ad doesn’t center on Jeter’s stats or his championship count. It’s about the unparalleled respect that the collective sports world holds for one of the few gentlemen left in today’s celebrity-infused pool of superstar athletes. So how did he do it? How did Number 2 build himself into a man that has Red Sox fans tipping their caps to him with looks mixed with uneasy envy and covert admiration? It started with his parents.

As outlined in his auto-biography “The Life You Imagine”, Jeter’s upbringing was structured and goal-oriented.

Each year the future Yankee Captain would sign a contract drafted by his parents that outlined expectations for his personal conduct. The topics ranged from grades, to alcohol use, to curfews. Now, a young person typically either rebels against or accepts and embraces such a thing. Jeter did the latter. He was a man on a mission – carving a path toward a life, a career, and ultimately a legacy that he imagined from a young age and made into a reality by putting into practice the values and work ethic instilled in him by his mother and father.

You know the story. Over the years as he racked up rings and all-star game appearances, and hit and hit after hit, Jeter navigated the New York professional sports landscape like nobody ever has. He never appeared on the cover of the NY Post for any reason that wasn’t strictly baseball related. (Unlike a certain former-friend of his.)

He always said the right things at the right times. He was Mr. Clutch on the field and Mr. Business off of it. Kids wanted to be like him and, more importantly, their parents wanted that too. With a seemingly effortless stride he walked-the-walk of a NY superstar like an impossible hybrid of Mickey Mantle and John Paul II (minus the celibacy). He was perfect.

Throughout this his final season, the accolades for Mr. November will be endless. But I think Nike’s ad does an excellent job of encompassing the sentiment that will forever permeate the American sports consciousness when the name Derek Jeter is discussed – RESPECT. It’s not easy to earn others respect. But the Captain has the Triple Crown. Respect for what he accomplished. Respect for how he went about accomplishing it. And maybe most of all, respect for a man who set an example how to be both an athlete and a citizen. A champion and a role model.