Monthly Archives: January 2017
January almost done
I made that long trip tonight, the one where I get to WaKeeney and realize it’s only half over.
It’s back to Norton tonight. The Bluejays play Smith Center. These games were originally scheduled to be played Dec. 16, but the roads got nasty that day. Norton wanted to play the Tuesday before Christmas (the 20th), but Smith Center said no, so this was the only mutual date available, unless the teams wanted to play on a Saturday.
So here I am. I followed the Ness City buses from the Trego/Graham County line to US 24 in Hill City. The Eagles are playing the Ringnecks tonight.
The trip to Colby was smooth driving, but I lost track of Peggy and Clark. They left during the fourth quarter of the boys game, understandable since (a) Norton had a big lead, and (b) they wanted to eat, and the restaurants would be closed by time the boys game ended. As it turned out, most restaurants in Colby close at 9 p.m., even on Fridays, which isn’t good for a town which not only is home to a college, but also has heavy traffic coming through on I-70. You would think they could stay open until at least 10.
Then again, I’ll never forget restaurants in Omaha closing at 9 when my dad and I were there for the College World Series. It was culture shock for us. We were so used to restaurants staying open very late in New Orleans. Most would be open until 11, some past midnight. I didn’t expect midnight in Omaha, but to close at 9 during the busiest time of the year in Omaha?
I met Peggy and Clark at Taco John’s, where we beat the 10 pm closing by a few minutes. I didn’t get home until 12:05.
Nothing really doing the last three days. I stayed up very late last night and this morning to get work done. I didn’t go to bed until 2:30, but I did get to sleep until almost 8. My work was done by 11.
I want to go to Kansas City for the Super Bowl at Buffalo Wild Wings. I hear it’s a little hectic around there. The general manager, John Riley, left the restaurant after Friday. I will soon see the fourth different GM at that location. At least I have Minsky’s across Barry Road when I’m in KC. Then again, I might want to avoid KC in the summer. The heat there is worse than Russell. Much worse. It’s not quite New Orleans bad, but it’s bad enough.
The Super Bowl is Sunday. I wish it weren’t on Fox. I do not like Joe Buck, period. And Erin Andrews is a very, very overrated sideline reporter. Pam Oliver is much more competent. Lesley Visser was great. So was Bonnie Bernstein.
If Joe’s last name were Brown and not Buck, no way he’s an announcer, much less Fox’s #1 announcer.
Speaking of the Patriots, I left my Tervis cup with the old logo in the Colby Community Building. No big deal. I’ve got plenty. And I need to get a Saints glass anyway. I’m not a huge Saints fan, but it’s time I give my native city some love against the hordes of Chiefs and Broncos fans.
It’s been a tough start to 2017. Hopefully February will be better.
Please rip out my eardrums!
I swear I am going to go off the deep end if I hear that stupid song one more time.
The stupid song I’m referring to is the infamous “Work” by Rihanna and Drake. God I hate that song more than I hate any song which has ever come out. That’s saying a mouthful, because there are plenty of songs I truly despise.
How bad is “Work”? It’s so bad I would rather listen to “Nothing Compares 2 U” by Sinead O’Connor on continuous loop rather than “Work”. Whenever I hear “Nothing Compares 2 U”, I immediately change the radio station. I have hated that song intensely since it was released in early 1990.
But it is not, and never will be, as bad as “Work”. Every time I hear “Work”, I want to vomit. And I have heard it enough on the speakers at Buffalo Wild Wings in various locations to lose the entire content of my stomach for the last three years.
Last night’s visit to Buffalo Wild Wings in Salina was very good.
Until 8:20 p.m.
A mother let her brattty 4-year old girl play “Work” on the jukebox. I wanted to tell her off. I really wanted to tell her off. I don’t care if I would have been banned for life from that location, or from all Buffalo Wild Wings. It would have been so worth it.
That mother needs a lesson about how to be a good parent. Nobody should ever let their child listen to Rihanna or Drake. The values both espouse are bad. Very bad. Rihanna let Chris Brown beat the shit out of her without doing anything. Drake has ties to many shady people. I fucking hate the Toronto Raptors because Drake is their biggest fan.
If that happens again, I am not going to keep my mouth shut. I don’t care anymore.
My parents are a lot of things I don’t like, but I know they would never have let me listen to shit like that when I was that age. Then again, there really wasn’t much bad music when I was 4 years old, which for reference was late 1980 and much of 1981.
I was in a very rotten mood going back to Russell last night. Very rotten. I’ve had it with putting up with this piece of shit life I have. I want it to end so badly. I have nothing left to live for.
I dragged myself out of bed at 8:30 this morning. Why? So I could get ready and drive to Colby to watch Cailtyn play? Look i love Caitlyn and want to support her, but I don’t know how supportive I can be. My life is so far in the toilet it stopped being funny a long, long time ago.
I didn’t want to engage Caitlyn in a long conversation a few minutes ago. She’s got a game to concentrate on. Even if I were in a very good mood, I know it’s something which should wait until after the game. But right now, definitely it should wait. I feel so terrible. The drive back to Russell is going to be hell–not because it’s at night, not because it’s 132 miles, but because of the way I feel, knowing tomorrow and Sunday will be pure hell on earth in that basement.
I’m so disappointed in Crista right now. She has let me down big time. I can’t believe she would suggest going on Ashley Madison is not a bad idea? COME ON. I know it’s awful. Peggy told me as much last night. But why is Crista trying to dismiss it? It’s very unhealthy and I know it. Yet why do I keep doing it? WHY?
Right now, I don’t think I can trust anyone. I know certainly I can’t trust anyone in Louisiana, and the people here aren’t worthy either.
My life <<<< your life
I am well aware I have not posted since last Friday, when the Trump adminsitration was in its second hour. I’m sorry.
On the other hand, things have not been going so well. Maybe it’s best I didn’t post. However, I need to get this out there.
The rest of the Kansas City trip was fine, until late Sunday.
The Buzztime system at Buffalo Wild Wings went down in a heap Saturday just after 8 p.m., while I was in the middle of Playback, the Saturday night game featuring music trivia. The tablet I was using just locked up on me. It did the same to LOWPOP, who was at the opposite end of the bar from me. I knew to start using the mobile playmaker app on my iPad, but LOWPOP didn’t.
After the third round of the game was finished, I reported the problem to Chad McCart, and he rebooted the system. Problem was, my score was lost.
I had been toying with the idea of going to Minksy’s Pizza, which is across Barry Road from Zona Rosa, to play following the conclusion of Playback. The system going down was my excuse to make the trip.
Robb told me parking might be scarce at Minksy’s, but I found a spot quickly enough. I even got seated in time to finish Playback. The final question was about The Bee Gees. Of course I knew the correct answer.
The real reason I wanted to play at Minsky’s came between 8:30 and 9.
Minksy’s still uses the “blue boxes” for Buzztime trivia. Those are technically known as the Classic Playmaker in Buzztime lingo, and they have an monochrome LCD screen, rather than the tablet, where the screen is more modern. The biggest catch with the Classic Playmaker is you must look at the screen for the question. It does not appear on the blue boxes, as it does on the tablets.
You also have to look at the question on the screen when you’re using the Playmaker app on the smartphone or tablet, so I could re-adjust easily to looking at the screen for the questions.
One thing the Classic Playmakers features which cannot be found on the tablets is two games which are played on Saturday night.
At 8:30, there is a 10-question, 15-minute game called Ask It Already. The catch is the answers are shown first, then the question, kind of like Jeopardy! It’s the same format as The Late Shift…wrong answers wipe out one by one, no clues, so you can get stuck with zero for a particular question.
Except I didn’t get stuck with zero. Actually, it was the opposite.
In my first game of Ask It Already since November 30, 2013, I scored 10,000. Perfection. Numero uno in the nation. And I did not share #1 with anyone else.
The game after Ask It Already was one I love, but again, had not played since late 2013: Speed Freaks.
The first person in Speed Freaks to answer correctly receives 1,000 points. All other players receive zero. An incorrect answer incurs a 250-point penalty, and that player is locked out for the remainder of the question. There is a maximum of 10 seconds per question.
The catch with Speed Freaks is the quicker players answer, the more questions appear.
Even though I was playing by myself, I wanted to answer as quickly as possible so I could see more questions.
By time the game was over, I got to answer 26 questions. I scored 11,500, which meant I got more wrong than I did right, but it was a heck of a lot of fun.
That’s one reason I will be going to Minksy’s on Saturday nights when I’m in Kansas City.
The other was the lady who took care of me last Saturday.
I was immediately impressed by Tara. She had a lovely smile, and always made sure everything was just perfect. She even asked me if I would come back the next night when she was working, which I did.
The food at Minksy’s is very good, too. I had a calzone Saturday, and a deep dish pizza Sunday. Sure, the pasta may not be as good as what my mother prepares, but the pizza and calzone is a major step up from what I’m used to at Pizza Hut and Domino’s.
I saw Robb and Dawn and Buffalo Wild Wings Sunday, then went over to Minksy’s to play more trivia and watch the AFC Championship game. I ate at both locations, and that led to my problems later.
Late Sunday evening, I started to feel terrible. I had tremendous indigestion. I had trouble sleeping, and that led me to sleep very late Monday morning. I barely got done what I needed to get done.
I didn’t go to anywhere Monday in Kansas City, except to Hy-Vee to return a milk bottle to get back a deposit, and to Outback for dinner. Other than that, I was in the room, hoping to get done what I needed to so I could go to Norton Tuesday for Caitlyn’s game.
Stupid me didn’t plan it right, and I ended up being stuck in Kansas City until 12:15. Of course that wasn’t enough time to get to Norton, no matter if I went to St. Joseph and took US 36 across the top of Kansas, or if I went back through Russell, Hays and WaKeeney to US 283. I stopped at Abilene and apologized profusely to Peggy that I wouldn’t make it. She told me to shake it off, but I couldn’t. I felt terrible.
Selfish. Very selfish.
How many games this season of Caitlyn’s have I missed because of my selfishness? That’s SEVEN I can count.
Four at Goodland in December for spending all that time in Kansas City. One at Stockton earlier this month because I couldn’t fight off a cold. One at Hill City a few days ago because I didn’t get proper rest. And the one Tuesday.
Why do Peggy and Caitlyn still want to stick by me? Some friend I am. Putting myself first. That’s no way to go through life. It’s downright mean.
Caitlyn plays tomorrow in Colby. I know I should go. But does the Cox family really want me there? If they don’t, I understand. It will be my own damn fault.
The trip to Kansas City didn’t go all that well.
Remember, stupid me dropped my phone at Dunkin’ Donuts in Overland Park a week ago today and had to get a new one. I didn’t want to get the iPhone 7; I wanted to wait for the 8. Even worse, this phone is randomly playing music when I don’t want it to. I am so angry. I want to throw this phone against the wall, but that will do me no good. I’ve got another week to figure it out. I am seriously going to have to think about driving to OP this weekend to get it checked out, or else return it.
And then there is the problem of my huge addiction to websites I should not be visiting.
I have wasted over $700 on Ashley Madison, the illicit website which advocates married people hooking up.
WHY THE FUCK WOULD I BE THAT STUPID? No woman is going to go for someone who lives in Nowhere, Kansas. No woman is going to go for someone who lives in Nowhere, Kansas who looks like me, has no money, and worse, does not have the proper equipment to satisfy a woman. These women have far better options far closer to them. The few women who live near Hays want nothing to do with me. Salina is even too far.
I have fucked my life up so much it isn’t funny. There is no way I can get it back now. I am a twisted, disgusting, deranged living organism. I am not a human being by any sense of the word. I am simply an animal in a human body.
I told Crista today I feel my life is worthless. Why should I bother? WHY? My life is not worth it. I’m wasting other people’s oxygen, food and water.
I’m sitting at Buffalo Wild Wings in Salina. At least I am not looking at Ashley Madison or any similar site.
The only good thing to come out of today: I got a new CPAP mask from a medical supply store in Salina to try out for free for a few days. Other than that, my life is holy hell right now. And it is all of my own doing.
The new guy at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave
Donald John Trump is President of the United States. Until the wee hours of last November 9, very few people not named Donald John Trump believed it would happen. Yet here it is.
Unlikeliest president in American history? Maybe. I certainly did not see this day coming.
If you would have asked me if Trump would have been president in 1984, I would have laughed. I was not quite 8 years old, but I knew Trump was a real estate tycoon and the owner of the New Jersey Generals of the United States Football League, which played in the spring in 1983, ’84 and ’85, and then foolishly attempted to change to a fall schedule for ’86.
Trump tried to buy a super team with the Generals. Herschel Walker, the 1982 Heisman Trophy winner for the Georgia Bulldogs, was signed to the richest contract in professional football history by the Generals’ first owner, oil magnate J. Walter Duncan, but Duncan became disillusioned with football, and thus sold the team to Trump following the 1983 season. Trump signed Brian Sipe, the 1980 NFL Most Valuable Player, to be his quarterback for 1984, and the Generals went 14-4 in the regular season, only to lose to Jim Mora’s Philadelphia Stars in the playoffs. The Stars, who lost the 1983 USFL title game to the Michigan Panthers, won back-to-back USFL titles in 1984 and 1985.
The Stars played their last season in Baltimore after the Phillies refused to allow the Stars to negotiate a new lease at Veterans Stadium for 1985, and also because the Stars would never make it in Philly going head-to-head vs. the Eagles, not to mention the 76ers and Flyers once their seasons started. The Stars tried to use Franklin Field, where they played a few games late in the 1984 season, but the University of Pennsylvania also said no.
Back to Trump. He didn’t see Sipe as enough of a star to bring people to the Meadowlands to watch the Generals, so he signed Doug Flutie right out of Boston College after he won the 1984 Heisman Trophy. Again, the Generals had a tremendous regular season in 1985. Again, the Generals failed to reach the championship game.
Trump was the lead plaintiff in the USFL’s $1.3 billion lawsuit against the NFL, claiming Pete Rozelle’s league was a monopoly. Trump felt it was unfair the three major networks at the time–CBS, NBC, ABC–refused to negotiate with the USFL to televise games in the fall of 1986. ESPN, which broadcast many USFL games in the spring, agreed to televise the USFL.
Problem was, where was Trump going to play in the fall of 1986? No way he was going to be able to play on weekends in the Meadowlands, especially after the Jets moved to New Jersey in 1984. Rutgers? At that time, Rutgers’ stadium in New Brunswick was a joke. Not happening there. Princeton? Too small. Ditto with Columbia on the other side of the Hudson. So that meant Trump would have to play home games on Wednesday or Thursday nights. Thursday night going up against The Cosby Show? Ha.
In the end, the USFL won its antitrust case, but the USFL was awarded only $1 by the jury, who found the USFL slit its own throat by overpaying players and not sticking to a budget. ESPN was fortunate; with the USFL buried, it could televise the NFL, which it has now done for 30 seasons.
Even though Trump’s football team was no more, he still had his hand in sports. His casino in Atlantic City was beginning to attract top fights which almost exclusively were held in Las Vegas throughout the 1980s, and he attracted the World Wrestling Federation’s biggest event, Wrestlemania, to Trump Plaza in 1988 and ’89.
Trump isn’t the first sports owner to become president.
George W. Bush owned the Texas Rangers from 1989 until his election as governor of Texas in 1994. He helped the Rangers build a new ballpark in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, a park which was 15 years overdue. The Rangers’ first home, Arlington Stadium, was horrid, especially if you sat in the bleachers, which stared directly into the setting sun. More often than not, games in June, July and August began with the thermometer above 100 Fahrenheit (38 Celsius).
Bush attracted Nolan Ryan to north Texas after nine years with the Astros. Ryan recorded his 5,000th strikeout, 300th win, and two no-hitters with the Rangers.
Ronald Reagan wasn’t an owne, but he was a Chicago Cubs broadcaster in the 1930s, paving the way for successors Jack Brickhouse and Harry Caray.
Mark Cuban has toyed with running for president. He just may do it in 2020. He was a huge Hillary Clinton supporter. And I believe Shark Tank will still be on the air in 2020. Cuban and Kevin “Mr. Wonderful” O’Leary were on opposite sides of last year’s election, and maybe the Canadian Conservative Party can draft O’Leary to run against Justin Trudeau for Prime Minister.
Other than the inauguration, it’s a dead Friday. Just not a lot happening.
iPhone 6 plus, 10/17/2014-1/19/2017
My second iPhone is about to be put to rest.
I dropped it this morning in Overland Park. I was on Metcalf Avenue, and I stopped at Dunkin’ Donuts to get breakfast before going to get my car worked on at Morse-McCarthy, just over a mile to the south.
I dropped the phone while I was walking into Dunkin. The screen cracked, even though the glass protector was on it.
Surprisingly, I didn’t scream out a profanity, I didn’t cry, and didn’t do anything else. I simply accepted it, picked up my iced coffee and steak sandwich (yummy), then drove south. I’m waiting on my car now. This time, I didn’t have to lug my laptop here, since I have the iPad, which will do just fine. Besides, Thursdays are either dead, or I have an appointment with Crista, and then they’re dead.
I figure I’ll go to Verizon in Overland Park to go get a new one once my car is done. I have places I want to go while I’m in Johnson County, so might as well do it here. I could also do it at the Verizon in the Northland if I wanted. I’ve got time to figure this out. At least it happened here, where the stores figure to have a larger selection than they would in Hays, where I’d have to get it shipped in. Then again, I probably wouldn’t have dropped it at the house in Russell.
The drive yesterday was scary. I felt myself dozing off between Russell and Salina. After stopping in Salina, I nearly fell down as I tried to get in my car. That would have been ugly. I was queasy all the way to Kansas City, and even for a time after I got to Buffalo Wild Wings. Dana convinced me to order some boneless wings. I only eat them on Wednesday because they’re half price. The other six days, it’s traditional wings or no wings.
I stayed until almost 9. The tablet on which I was playing Buzztime died at 8:50, and I took it as a cue to go back to the hotel and get some sleep. Which I did.
I don’t know how, but 1224 North Brooks did not lose power during the ice storm. The trees were coated by Monday morning, and the streets were slick from Saturday at noon through Tuesday morning, but the lights stayed on. A lot of people in southern Russell County were not as fortuante, and Dodge City really took it hard. Some places there still don’t have power.
I’ve always said living without power during a heat wave is far, far worse than living without it when it’s cold. You can put layers upon layers on when it’s cold. Nothing you can do when it’s hot.
UPDATE, 9:50 a.m.–waiting for Verizon to open. Got out of Morse-McCarthy just after 9, picked up something at Staples, and now I’m waiting until 10. The one in Hays opens at 9, but closes earlier. Interesting. Still have not decided.
ICE SUCKS
I wish I could hit the reset button and start 2017 over. For the most part, it has been very, very bad.
Yes, Alabama lost to Clemson Monday in the college football national championship game. Other than that, and two trips to Norton, this year is off to a putrid start.
And it will get even worse this weekend, if that’s possible.
An epic ice storm, known as Winter Storm Jupiter if you’re a Weather Channel fanatic, is heading to Kansas. The worst ice, one inch or more, is expected between Hays and Junction City on I-70.
That includes Russell.
LOVELY.
I hate sitting in my house in the middle of nowhere on a good day. On a day without power? I will be beyond miserable. BEYOND. FREAKING. MISERABLE.
Not to mention my CPAP machine won’t operate. I’m okay as far as writing since the battery for my iPad will be charged, but the sleep will be hard to come by. Yikes.
Kansas City looks good right now, but it might have the same problem. But I would be betting a hotel would not have the same problems as a rural residence.
I wish it were zero degrees Faherenheit right now. That way the precipitation would fall only as snow. Right now, I would take two feet of snow. At least the power would not go out.
This might be the most costly natural disaster in Kansas history. Forget the Topeka tornado of 1966. Forget Greensburg 2007. Forget Andover 1991. Forget Udall, Heston and Chapman, which all got smashed by tornadoes. This will be worse. Much worse.
St. Louis is hell to live in on a good day, but right now, I can only imagine. The ice has arrived in the Gateway City, and with all those elevated bridges across the Mississippi, I’m sure it’s fun out there. NOT.
The Chiefs and Steelers won’t play Sunday until 7:20 p.m. The game was originally scheduled for 12:05, but this afternoon at 2, the NFL announced the game was moving to the evening. The ice storm is supposed to exit Kansas City late Sunday morning, and the later start gives MoDOT time to clear the roads leading into the stadium and the Chiefs time to clear the parking lots and seating areas.
It won’t be a problem getting back from Norton tonight. Tomorrow night might be the start of 72 hours of pure hell. The only thing which would be worse would be having a long power outage in the summer, but at least you could drive away immediately.
F**K ALABAMA
So far, 2017 has been horrendous for me. Not very good.
The only higlight was the trip to Norton last Tuesday. Then I came down with a cold and it forced me to wuss out of going to Stockton Friday. Sure, it snowed Thursday and was very cold, plus the side streets were all completely snowpacked, but why the hell did I stay home? That was pretty lame of me.
I took NyQuil for my cold Thursday night and Friday night. HUGE MISTAKE. Made me sleep way too much. Then I used it as an excuse not to go to Stockton Friday. I don’t blame anyone at Norton for wanting to kick me in the nuts right now. They ought to. Staying home was pretty pitiful on my part.
I’m feeling horrible in other ways. I’ve spent too much freaking time at home, watching too much bad TV. I’ve had enough football to last five years. Tonight is the national championship game for college football–Alabama vs. Clemson AGAIN–but I don’t think I’m going to watch. I’ve had enough of that fuckwad Nick Saban. What a real fucking asshole. I cannot stand that piece of shit. He enjoys treating people like garabage. FUCK HIM. Fuck Nick Saban and everything about Alabama football. In fact, fuck the entire state of Alabama. Everything about Alabama is shit. I fucking hate that place. I especially hate Tuscaloosa. Go too far from Tuscaloosa and it’s nothing but shit and piss.
Tuscaloosa would be shit and piss too if it didn’t have the university there. Why in the fuck do people from other states want to go to college in Tuscaloosa? What, they like eating horrible barbecue? The SEC has some horrible locales. Tuscaloosa is at the very bottom, with Gainesville and Oxford right there.
Yeah Bear Bryant was known to punch people in the nose, but at least he didn’t treat the media like shit the way Saban does. Saban is a complete shithead. But nobody should be surprised he’s a shithead, because his best friend Bill Belichick is a gigantic shithead.
I wish Saban, Belichick and Gregg Popovich would be locked together in a tiny cell and forced to answer question after question for their freedom. Three assholes. Three shitheads. Three cunts I would not want to be caught dead with.
I need to buy an Alabama state flag. I will start using it as a handkerchief to blow my nose.
Forgive me, car
My car is going to hate me after today. It probably has hated me for the last five and a half years, but today I’ve been especially rough on it.
I made the return from Kansas City to Russell in the morning and early afternoon. I had to make a detour at KCK to get something done for work, then at Topeka for gas. I got all the shopping I needed done in KCMO before departing. I considered staying later to see Robb and Dawn at Buffalo Wild Wings, but I said nah, let me get home.
I pulled into 1224 North Brooks at 2:15. I unloaded the car and FINALLY got my hair cut. I had gone over a month without it being cut. It’s the longest I can remember going without a haircut, at least since I first started wearing it short on Memorial Day weekend 1989. The only other time since then I’ve gone a month without a haircut was when I was in the hospital near the end of 2004. Hair obviously was not a concern. Not when you’re fighting for your life.
I drove to Norton anyway. I wasn’t planning on going to this game. At first, the plan was to drive today from Kansas City to Columbia for the LSU-Missouri men’s game tomorrow night. However, I couldn’t get tickets or a press credential, and I figured it was too much to stay in a hotel. Also, it’s one game, and it’s not my favorite sport. I don’t know if I’ll even watch, although I might check it out.
Baseball series are better, simply because you’re in a town three days, maybe four. Basketball and football are too hurried. Sometimes a football team isn’t in the locale for 24 hours. It’s fly in, check in to the hotel, check out, play the game, fly out. Same with basketball, although teams hold a shoot-around the morning of the game to get used to the arena and the baskets.
I almost stayed home, but I figured I’d better go. I haven’t seen anyone from Norton in a month, and it’s the Bluejays’ first home game. Had they played Smith Center as scheduled Dec. 16, I probably would have skipped tonight.
Norton is playing a team from Nebraska, Cambridge, which is 51 miles northwest of the Bluejays’ nest. It’s more convenient sometimes for teams along the state lines to play out of state than go south, west or east. The Bluejays play their first Mid-Continent League game Friday at Stockton.
The renovated and expanded gym lobby at Norton is very nice. It was sorely needed. Now if a few other schools could do the same. Ellis, Plainville and Trego don’t need it. Stockton does.
Now the only problem is the 120-mile drive back to Russell in the dark. The worst is always the leg on US 283 to WaKeeney. No stopping in Hays. Probably going to fall asleep quickly when I get home.
It’s probably good I got out tonight. I can see myself going nuts staying home all day. God I wish Hays had some place to play Buzztime trivia! It sucks having to drive to Salina, and the Buffalo Wild Wings there doesn’t make me feel as welcome if I want to stay for long periods.
This is my first trip to Norton in exactly three months. Has it really been that long?
College football is offensive
No football today. Finally.
It has been overkill since December 17, the first day of bowl games. There was at least one live game EVERY DAY between that day and yesterday. That’s 17 consecutive days if you’re counting.
There can be too much of a good thing, and there was too much in this case. Forty-one bowl games and 47 NFL games is overkill. It is time for four days of finding other things to watch on television than football.
USC defeated Penn State 52-49 in the Rose Bowl. I hated it.
Joe Paterno must have flipped over in his grave, not so much over the Nittany Lions losing, but for the team giving up FIFTY TWO points in a bowl game. Heck, there were some seasons where Paterno’s charges didn’t give up 52 points in half a season. In one game? Holy crap.
USC may have been known as “Tailback U” when John McKay and John Robinson led the Trojans, but USC would not have won any national championships without stellar defense. Don’t forget that one of the NFL’s best defenders this millennium, Troy Polamalu, played at USC.
The college game is so heavily tilted to the offense it isn’t funny. Yes, Alabama wins big with defense, but the Crimson Tide has Nick Saban. All of the others playing at the highest level of college football–126, at least 50 too many–don’t.
Yes, Deshaun Watson, in my opinion the best quarterback in college football this season, plays for Clemson. But last I checked, Ohio State did not score vs. the Tigers. The first time Urban Meyer has ever been shut out. FIRST. TIME. EVER. So what about that Clemson defense, huh?
If LSU had a halfway decent offense, it would have been in the playoff. The Bayou Bengals’ defense suffocated Lamar Jackson, the unworthy Heisman Trophy winner, and Louisville, which averaged 533 yards per game in the regular season. LSU’s defense was on par with any in the nation, a step below Alabama, but certainly above at least 110 of the 126 others.
I’m sorry for all those fans who like shootouts, but that’s not a winning formula. Not if you don’t have a good defense.
I do not like high scoring football. If you want to score at will, go play a video game.
People complain about the rules in the NFL being heavily tilted to the offense. If that’s the case, then the rules are tilted to the offense in college at a 90-degree angle. The defense has no chance. And with the clock stopping after every first down to move the chains, the game drags on and on and on and on.
In 2006, the NCAA changed two timing rules to try and speed the game up. One, the clock started on a kickoff when the ball was kicked, not when it was touched in the field of play; and second, the clock would restart following every change of possession when the ball was spotted ready for play, not on the snap.
I didn’t agree with those rules. That’s a little too much in trying to speed the game up. But the clock does not need to stop to move the chains, except maybe in the last two minutes of each half if the NCAA wants to keep that option in the rules.
Another idea: two timeouts per half. It works in Canada.
Okay enough ranting. I’ve got things to get done.
Five days at Buffalo Wild Wings playing tons of trivia. My ears need the rest after all the screaming, mostly by Chiefs and Iowa Hawkeyes fans.
The calendar flipped. YAHOO!
2017 is here whether we like it or not.
I went to bed later than I should have last night, but when the clock struck midnight, I was finally asleep. The TV was on, but no way I was tuning it to ABC. I never watched Dick Clark on New Year’s Eve when he hosted, and I will never, ever watch Ryan Seacrest. Lucy Hale is gorgeous, but I’d prefer to watch her act, not host a New Year’s Eve party from New Orleans’ Jackson Square, which she did last night.
The most morose celebrations probably occurred in Columbus.
That’s because Ohio State was crushed 31-0 by Clemson in the Fiesta Bowl. It marked the first time an Urban Meyer-coached team was shut out. That includes his stops at Bowling Green, Utah and Florida, in addition to his five seasons with the Buckeyes. Ohio State had not been shut out since its 1993 regular season finale at Michigan.
The #3 seeds in the College Football Playoff–Florida State (2014), Michigan State (2015) and Ohio State–have been outscored 128-20. All of the 20 came by the Seminoles in the Rose Bowl vs. Oregon.
The semifinals of the CFP have been tremendously non-competitive. Only one of six has been decided by fewer than 17 points. Three have had margins of 31 points or more. Yikes.
Alabama’s 24-7 victory over Washington in the Peach Bowl was not as close as the final score. The Huskies scored on their first possession, but did absolutely nothing after. I don’t care if Washington could have brought back Warren Moon and Napoleon Kauffman in their primes. The Huskies weren’t scoring more than seven points against the Crimson Tide defense.
In 1961, Alabama’s first national championship season of six under Paul “Bear” Bryant, the Crimson Tide allowed just 25 points in 11 games. Imagine if this year’s Crimson Tide defense played in that era. Alabama may have gone unscored upon. Then again, players had to play both ways n the early 1960s, so you can’t compare peaches to pears.
So it’s Alabama and Clemson for all the marbles. Again. The Tide is a 7-point favorite right now, but that line should change. The Tigers are looking to avenge a 45-40 loss in last year’s championship game. They may have the team to do it, even though Pitt won at Clemson in November, nearly derailing the Tigers’ title hopes.
It would be fascinating to see Nick Saban coaching in the era of limited substitution. How would he handle his best athletes? Would Jonathan Allen be able to survive the strain of playing both ways? Or would others in the past, like Marcell Dareus, Dont’a Hightower, and A’Shaun Robinson? Bear Bryant mastered the transition from limited substitution to unlimited subs. Then again, if you had limited substitution and limited scholarships, some of the best players would have to play at Auburn, Ole Miss, LSU or Tennessee instead of Alabama, unless they wanted to walk on and ride the bench for the Tide.
Today is the final day of the NFL regular season. Jeff Fisher was fired in Los Angeles earlier this month. Rex Ryan was fired in Buffalo last Tuesday. Chip Kelly will be canned in San Francisco. Gary Kubiak is resigning in Denver due to health concerns. Who else will lose their job? Will Sean Payton leave New Orleans? Questions will be answered within the next 36 hours.
I spent a very long day at Buffalo Wild Wings to end 2016. Started at 10 a.m. due to the Citrus Bowl. Stayed until 8:30. I’m back at 11 today. No wings. I’ve got to eat healthier.
Foots Prints 